The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1886-09-22
Pro-. Cleveland Able Predicts n Long Rest from
Earthquakes.
From the New York uc'al!)


WASHINGTON, September 12-Prof.
Cleveland Abbc who was absent from
Washington during the recent earthquake.
has returned and has given to your corrc-
spondcnt some interesting views as TO the
event. He has made very extensive study
Of earthquakes and the theories regarding
them. His views are outlined rs follows;
Prof. Abbc considers the Charleston
earthquakes to belong to the same category
as that which was 50 violent at Long
Branch on August 10, 1884 and which WAS
felt from Maine to Virginia and westward
to Ohio. About one hundred and fifty such
earthquakes occurred between 1872 ard
1882. ard were studied in tic article by
Prof. Able, published i'll the Udra!d OF
August II, 1884 In this article Prof. Able
| concludes that these shocks originated
above the Archaicn strata and in the lower
portion OF the scdimcntary dcpoSits-namc-
| ly, from one to five miles below the earth S
surface. He holds that there is 10 reason
to believe in hot fluid interior, but that
probably the rocks beneath this portion of
| the surface Of the globe are il q condition
| of considerable constrail.t due to several
| causcs-1amcly, first, the weight of super
| incumbent masses; second. the contraction
due to slow cooling or the expansion due
to warming in case chemical changes arc
still going Oh; third, the strain due to bend
ing: and fourth, the strain duc to the Slow
process Of crystallization, such as occurs III
the formation of dikcs or masses OF granite,
marble &c. Under these accumulated
strains the rocky strata are perpctual!y
| cracking, sliding on each other, resting and
again giving way. Every fault met
with in q mine or quarry means slight
earthquake.
If it were not for the nyriads CT little
quahcs we should have 10 do only with
greater earthquakes, which would, in fact,
be of the nature Of terrible paroXysms.
When a severe earthquake happens II Is
usually preceded and followed by numcr.
our slighter quakcS, indicating that TIC
strata are gradually being relieved OF tlieil
strained condition, but that the main rciici
is found in the main shock.
The distribution of the one hundred and
fifty Appalachian earthquakes show that
numerically they are least frequent from
| May to September, but that these are pre-
ciselv the months when the scvcrer earth
auakcs are likely 10 occur: and, again, Thai
a period of few earthquakes is especially
likely to be followed BY one or two severe
ones that become stronger the longer tL(
period of dcarth has existed.
Charleston lies precisely in the rcSiol
where the earthquakes have been least ire
quent for the lastfftccn years. According
to the study made of the number Of earth
| uuakes already mentioned, the whole coun
1 20 lad 10
least as long as those between the earth
quakes Of Boston, in 1i55: OF New Madrid
in 1911, and the present one OF 1SS0-n2mc
ly, from fifty-cight to sercnty-tive years.
With regard TO earthquake tida! waves
| there was from the beginning no occasion
for fear in the present instance. Tht
waves OF 1866 in Europe and America: tina
of India, in 1919; that Of ST. Martins, no
vcmbcr is, 1856; That Of Callao, 1856; AFRICA
| August, 1868, and Conception, February
1886 that of Japan. December23, 1871, anG
that Of hrakatoa, July 1885. all lliustra.'
the general principle that ocean waves at
tend only such earthquakes as originate
under the ocaan, or on tie Immediate
coast The ocean water must receive ;
nearly vertical shock il crdcr to start th'
wave. Shocks that originate under tx
continent, some distance from the ocean
strike the latter with a nearly Horizontal
movement, and so far rs our records SHOW
these appear never to produce severe cart:
quake ocean waves, at least rot IL thi
neighborhood Of tiieir origin. L any srcl
wave attended the Charleston earthquake
it would be felt in tic Bermudas and Eu
rope rather than on our coast.