McCook weekly tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 188?-1886, 1884-09-04
THE LATE EARTHQUAKE.

What the Biologists Haze to Say about IT
Washington Telegram.
There is a great deal of scientific
guessing going on here among the
knowing chaps about the earthquake.
Professor Taylor, of the Smithsonian
institute, said to-day: ''The line OF
greatest disturbance seems to have ex-
tended from Connecticut to New Jer-
sey. The range or area of the earth
quake indicates that the center of dis
turbance was very deep. If it had
been near the surface the surface
shock would have been perceptible
only in limited area. When the CEN
ter is at a great depth, the angle being
the same, the range is greater. We
do not by any means understand all
about earthquakes. 1t might be that
if the crust of the earth was subjected
to q severe strain the tidal influence of
the moon or sun might supply the adj
| ditional force necessary to produce a
disturbance, but in my opinion that in
fiuence is very slight. 1t is held by
maryland / fancy the theory is cor
rect-that the earthquake is simply the
relief from tension in the earth crust
in the process of shrinkage. At some
point the tension will be so great that
the crust will give way. Earthquakes
are much more common than is sup
posed. 1t is not right to say that they
are increasing in frequency. The fact
is that since the telegraph and newspa-
per have been in existence the informa-
ton concerning earthquakes is more
promptly collected. If people in this
city felt a slight shock they might set
it down to an explosion or some local
cause, but when they learned that a
similar shock was felt simultaneously
in other cities they attribute the dis
turbance at once to an earthquake. 1t
is probable that many earthquakes in
former times were unrecorded. Now
earthquakes are observed more care
fully, and the means of speedily col.
lecting information from various parts
are so much greater than formerly that
we hear more of them. If the United
States hotel disaster had been post
poned one week it would have been
charged to the earthquake and the
owners would have been relieved of
the responsibility
Major J. w. Lowell, of the geolog-
ical survey, said: Earthquakes in the
eastern portion of the United States
have been comparatively infrequent
and mild. The most important was
that in the Mississippi valley known as
the New Madrid. A late earthquake
in western Nevada made fracture
about 200 miles long, and the dis
placement varied from five to seventy
feet. The western portion of the
United States, from the farther border
of the plains to the Pacific, Is region
of many and great earthquakes. 1t
has also been in very recent geologic
times region of great volcanic activ-
ity. Thousands of now dead volcanoes
are scattered over the country, and
vast lava fields cover large areas of
the land. Salt Lake City stands on
the margin of an earthquake fracture,
and biologists have more than once
prophesied that it will be destroyed by
an earthquake.
Biologists have concluded, from con-
sideration of a great variety of facts.
that the interior of the earth is in
great fluid condition, due to pressure
and great heat. We penetrate from
the surface toward the interior of the
earth by mines and by boring for ar
tesian wells and other purposes. The
temperature is found to increase at
such rate that degree of heat
would soon be reached at which all
know rocks would melt. Secondly,
vast number of volcanoes exist, dis
tributed widely over the earth, through
the vents of which large quantities of
molten rock are poured out on the sur
face of the earth, showing that a vast
reservoir of molten metal exists be-
meath the crust. Thirdly, it is known
experimentally that all rocks would be
crushed and caused to flow by the
pressure of a few feet of superincum-
bent rock. Now, to understand the
direct cause of an earthquake, we must
appreciate that comparatively thin
crust rests upon vast fluid. The
next thing to be considered is that the
land portion of the earth is rapidly
transported to the sea by rains and
rivers. Thus the land areas are being
unloaded, and the ocean borders are
weighted down. This loading of sea
borders and unloading of land areas
upon a crust which rests upon fluid
sets up enormous strains; but the
crust, by reason of its solidity, does not
yield at once to the strain, but they &C
cumulate until at last sufficient stress
is established to cause fracture and
displacement through the miles of
solid crust. When such a rupture oc-
ours an earthquake is the result.
Nearly all the old presidents retired
to farms and spent the balance of their
DAVIS in the uniat nurSu;t Of orriou1