Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1907-07-08

that lava is being expelled from be-
Meath the sea and pushed under the
adjacent land.
"All the great mountain chains have
been formed by this process, and
hence the exact parallelism to the sea-
shore, known to every schOolboy, but
not heretofore understood by geolo-
gists. So long as we did not know the
cause of mountain formation or erro-
neously attributed it to the secular
cooling of the earth we could not
make any advance in the analysis of
earthquake causes, but now that earth
quakes are proved to be due to the
leakage of the ocean bed, necessarily
resulting from the great depth and
pressure of water upon 1t, we are in q
position to mace progress.
eve know that cities Oh the coasts
of deep seas are always unsafe, and
therefore their houses should be con-
structed to withstand earthquakes,
and means should be provided for the
extinction of CONGREGATIONS. If the
people of San Francisco had possessed
OlE hlloN ItuSC bAi tiiN
loss sustained in the earthquake could
have been prevented. California to-
day would have been better off by
some $30O0O0.000, and Stanford uni
versity would not have suffered the
ruin which has been so deeply re-
GREETED.
Can Guard Against Repetition.
'"Knowle,Tge of the laws of nature
does not enable us TO repair damage
already done, but it enables us to
guard against repetition of the dis
aSter and is therefore most useful to
| the people and to the state. If repe-
| titiOn of such disasters can be pre-
/ vented in future there will be much
| to console those who suffered so
| heavily in the great earthquake of
April IS, 1906"
DR.. See said that the leakage of the
ocean. which gives rise to the develop
| ment of steam within the earth, Is
slow, as the water has to work down
| through over ten miles of solid rock
| like granite.
| "No other great earthquake IS, there
| fore. to be expected at San Francisco
during this generation. In fact, 1t Will
be fifty, perhaps a hundred, years be-
| fore the subterranean stress becomes
| powerful enough to shake the earth
| again in Il violent manner. San Fran
| cisco is therefore safe and rapidly re-
| building Other towns on the Pacific
| coast, however. ought to take warning
| from experience and be prepared for
| any emergency which may arise. The
| whole western part of our country be-
| yond the Rocky mountains has been
| uplifted from the sea by earthquakes
within recent geological time. and of
Il course the ocean continues this work
i of making more land. Except foI
earthquakes all the land would LONG
J since have been washed down. and the
sea would have covered the entire
J globe. EARTHQUAKES, therefore. serve
a most useful purpose in the world, be
J cause it is only by these forces that
any land has been raised above the
, sea to make possible the development
of the higher forms of animals and
plants upon the earth. Earthquakes
therefore. are not to be dreaded. but
we must be prepared for them so the
damage done will be minimum.
mo serious disturbance of the earth
need ever be feared in inland high. dry
regions, such as Kansas and Colorado
but on the coast where the sea is deer
the people must learn to be prepared
for such emergencies. Our eastern
coast is bordered by a shallow sea, an(
earthquakes are not frequent in tina
region. The Pacific is the deepest OF
the oceans and surrounded by the
greatest earthquake belts. but the
worst disturbances occur in Soutl
2 America. Japan and the Aleutian is
Z lands md NOT in 0i1r own cnnnfrvp