Omaha daily bee., 1921-08-21
Safety Valves
OF Earth Sound
Volcanic Alarm
Scientists Look for Blow Off
in l929-Warning Comes
From Hot Subsoil at
La BOurboule.
By STERLING HELLO.


canoes of Auvergne. in France, are
awaking
The ground, here at La Bour.
boule, as at Royat and Mont-Dore
at the depth of an ordinary well, is
three times as hot as any cores.
ponding subsoil in France.
French scientists are scared O,
earthquakes and volcanoes breaking
out OF peaceful hot springs, between
now and 1929-when the suns ac-
tivity will have its greatest power to
make the earth's crust ''pulsate."
These extinct regions of Au.
vergne have been tranquil during
long geological ages. When the
Alps and Pyrenees rose from the
plain the volcanic mountains OF Au-
vergne were old and dead" already.
1t was easier for the Alps and
Pyrenees to rise than for these an
cient safety-valves OF Auvergne to
loosen up again.
So, now. if Auvergne is awaking,
the earth is threatening to blow off
steam-worse. than when the Alps
and Pyrenees arose!
The Grand Climax.
There is a sublime story here.
1t is vouched for by the Able
Moreux, director of the Bourges OBJ
servatory; Camille Flammarion,
brother-astronomer; the geologist,
Suess, in his studies of the Carlsbad
hot springs, and many others. The
grand climax mentioned in the
Book OF Revelations and the second
Epistle of St. Peter will arrive when
the earth's crust grows too thick to
pulsate at all.
But long before the earth blows
up for good it will blow off some
steam. 1t threatens soon.
Look for something like this in
central France in 1929!
Unless the subsoil around La
Bourboule cools off meanwhile.
Sphere Theory Blasted.
The earth is not sphere.
Neither has it the shape OF IAN
orange slightly fattened at the
poles" as we were taught in old
biographies.
The earth is four-sided pyramid.
OF course, the tlattening of the
surfaces is slight, compared with the
total size; but the fact itself is as
certain as that the earth is a soft
boiled egg or a cream-puff, whose
liquid molten magma, hotter than
1000 degrees centigrade, is solid by
torce of pressure.
The earth's crust is comparative
ly cold-and unimaginably thin.
Biologists agree on 40 miles to 100
miles thickness. Compared to the
$500 miles OF the interior molten
mass, the crust of 100 miles is like
an egg-shell or orange-peel!
English Discovery.
Ihe discovery of our pyramidal
form was made, not by a French
man, but by an Englishman,
Lowthian Green.
Long ago, all the surface of our
earth was molten paste, like Jupiter
today. Under rotation, it began to
fatten itself at the equator; but the
intense cold of space soon formed
crust which thickened, little by
little.
At first, the crust was a smooth
and compact whole. But as the in
terror paste contracted as it cooled,
the outer crust was left too large.
Hence cracks and folds-the first
inequalities of our surface. Also, the
first shiftings-which we call earth
quakes. Once, it was imagined that
the mountains were thrown up by
hazard; but Lowthian Green has
shown that the great lines Of frac-
ture were produced by the most
beautiful rule.
Lateral Compression.
Every sphere submitted to lateral
compression tends to form a four
sided pyramid. Our earth Gid not
escape it.
Examine terrestrial globe.
Are not the oceans laid out regu-
larly on three sides? These great
plane surfaces are () the depres-
sion of the Pacific; (2) that of the
Atlantic and 60 that of the Indian
ocean. They are three plane sur-
faces of the pyramid, their depres-
sions attaining frequently five miles;
and they are bounded by the great
lines of fracture which are the
edges of the pyramid. What are
these lines of fracture? Why, the
mountain chains!
Many parts of them have been
worn down by erosion and others
covered by water. The fourth great
plane is found at the North Pole.
Its corresponding summit is at the
South Pole, where excessively high
mountains are discovered,
Lowthian Green, pursued and am
plifed by the Able Moreux, has
shown that by astronomical causes
the earth has undergone twisting,
resulting in what geologists call the
Mediterranean depression.
In America this twisting is very
marked in the subsidences around
Panama and the Ditch of the An
TILES" Further on it is continued
by the Sahara, the Mediterranean,
the gulf of Bengal and the Malay
Archipelago. All these regions are
doubly volcanic and quaking.
Enter the Sun.
Now, the sun mixes in.
The earth's crust dilates under re-
curing solar influences, in periods
Of II, 80, 100 and 1000 years.
As the crust dilates the gases i'm
prisoned in the interior of the earth
Immediately profit to quit the solid
although molten magma in which
they exist confined.
No harm yet. But a period OF
solar calm arrives. The earth's
crust tends now to contract again;
hut the gases not heinp able to re-