Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1886-09-16
Earthquake Theories.

According to letter from II. W. GTa-
dy, the we'll known Atlanta journalist,
who has been doing the Charleston ru-
ins, the theory of Prof. McGee, an expert
on earthquakes and scientist generally,
is the one generally accepted of the
cause of the recent shaking up. In its
briefest terms this theory is that there
has been at Charleston and vicinity a
seaward slide of an immense coastal
plain of earth and tragmentary rock,
which rests at depth of 5000 feet on a
shelving bed of granite, extending from
about Columbia, S. c., to the sea. This
diSlocation disturbed an area 100000
| miles broad, and as stated 5000 feet
thick. The granite bed that holds this
mass of earth inclines toward the sea,
and about one hundred miles from shore
it dips suddenly. The destruction by
the first and second shocks" was occa-
stoned in the Professors view, by this
tremendous landslide, and the subse
quent treEors have been due to the ac-
tion of the elastic fragmental bed in ad-
justing itself to the new location-the
filling of the cracks as it were. Mr..
Grady says in his letter:
Prof. McGee's reasons for believing
This are that such seaward movement
has been taking place steadily in the
Middle Atlantic States ana its progress
has been accurately noted; that no volt
canic action ever disturbed anything
like so great an area, nor could possibly
do so; that the so-called volcanic mud
and sulphurous water are simply marls
and salts or sulphurets released from
the layers of the earth by the tearing
motion and forced upward through sud-
denly made riffs; that all the phenOme-
ma of this earthquake are explieabie by
the theory of the landslide, but not by
the volcanic force having operated on
this continent in thousands of years,and
none being apparent now, volcanic force
cannot be taken as the cause.
The Professor gives comfort to the
Charlestonians that it took hundreds
and likely thousands of years for this
5000 feet deep of earth on which their
city rests to acquire pressure enough to
start down the granite slope. ''it will
likely take as long to start it again.
Prof Mendenhall, of Ohio, associated
with Prof McGee, is scientist of high
standing, and made study of earth
quakes during several years stay in Ja-
pan. where they are quite frequent. He
says in letter published to reassure the
citizens of Charleston:
The general causes of earthquake are
very we'll understood. Nothing is better
settled than that they are due to purely
physical causes. There is not anything
that is a matter of chance connected
with them, and it is rather distressing
to me to see that the people have been
told that this has been sent upon
them as a punishment for their
sins. In my judgment such instruction
as that is calculated to unnerve people.
AS rule nature works in perfectly or
derly way, and when that which has not
been foreseen happens, the fault is that
we have not had in view all the forces
that have been at work. The people are
terrorized. beard negro preacher in
the country the other day, telling his
congregation over and over again that
this earthquake is the voice of God. The
confidence l feel in the fact that the
great danger of this disturbance is over
and l feel strong confidence in that
fact-is based on a study of the effects
of the disturbance thus far and on
study of earthquakes in other places.
Prof. Mendenhall declined TO suggest
a possible explanation of the earthquake,
but says in general way:
The earth is an intensely hot body in
its interior with cool or comparatively
cold crust exterior, and like any other
body that is all the time cooling it is all
the time undergoing contractions. The
interior of the earth, in my opinion, is
not an entirely homogeneous mass. If it
is not there must be adjustment from
time to time of the surface to any cham
ges that have taken place below it 1t
is when such an adjustment takes place
that the most violent shocks occur, and
the subsequent minor shocks are evi.
dences of minor adjustments growing
out of the principal one.