Norwich bulletin. [volume] (Norwich, Conn.) 1895-2011, 1922-02-01
Cause Of Violent
Earth Vibrations
Millions of Tons Of Solid Rock
Shifted to Fit Changing
Rotation of the Earth
Shocks in Pacific States.

New York, Jan 31.-The earth, in its
dizzying whirl through space. got off
center for few moments today and shift
ed its "opies, or axes to fit the new cen
ter of rotation.
Then in order that it might not be
travelling on a fiat wheel" SO to speak,
few million tons of solid rock, some
where of the western coast of the United
States, in the bed Of the Pacific Ocean,
"ssppe0' hundred feet or so to even
things UP. The seismosrapn record
| showed deviation of milFlmeter and
a half.
= Observers here said they could not be
certain whether the displacement were
horizontal or vertical. In the great San
Francisco shock of 1905 the horizontal
displacement amounted to about 20 feet
This is the manner in which profes-
sors of geology and seismographtc OBJ
| servers account for the violent earth vi
orauons which demoralized Instruments
| in observatories throughout this country
yesterday. Thus far the exact location Of
the huge slip" has not been determined,
Lalthough observers from Washington. d.
-. TO BeTkepey, Cal, agree that 1t prob
ably was a few hundred miles off the
mouth of the Columbia river.
/ The absence of a recorded disruption
OF the visible surface of the earth or Of the
huge tidal waves which usually radjate
from the scene of an earthquake led ths
observers to believe the slip occurred
miles below the bed of the ocean Its vi
olence was attested by the quaqeriny Sc
ismographs, which in some instances wer,
thrown from the recording rolls while ;
. | "strog machine at Berkeley was SET /,
motion for the first time in many years.
i No doubt the earth was readjustin,
Itself, said Professor ]. J. Lynch, seis
n1osrapflic observer at Fordham Uni
yersity here.
About every sosoften the earth become
upset goes off cemter, changes its axes
! and usually. about the same time ;her
! is vioient eaTthauake, a slili,ing @
miles of strata, and we go merrily alon
| again"
Il The Andes, along the Pacific coast
. . South America and the chain of rock
= deforma tons wimcn join the two cont
: nents disappearing into the sea 0
Southern California are continually liff
lng falling and Slipping" according
: the sesmofogist and the geologist.
= :. 2 Many OF these disturbances take plae
:, IN lnld-ocean, the only visible evidence b,
= ing the zig gag lines trailed by a seismt
: graph hundreds of miles distant.
a One of the notable examples of such
: iparoxysn occurred in December, 1899. ar
scientists stiN-a unable to account i
the lost earthquake. It's source of o
igin newer has been definitely estabqi s,
ed, although it was pr such proportions
n to siatter Instruments thousands Of mil
away, aHfato send-a tidal wave circli,
;. the earth
ii few days later came news Of an carr
4 1riaiSe In kan-Zu province, CHR
= IN which 1900 persons perish
IN Scientists asserted that there had pro
nj ably been two distinct upheavals. probat
IN on opposite sides of the globe.
If Lost" earthqlsakes, taIkirsg place
j. mid-ocean. often cause vast changes
Il, the appearance of the ocean bed. viii
nj are not discovered until years lat
IN Such earthquakes are frequent, near
IN West Indies, and beneath the PaI,i
- westward from the Americas to the ch,
an OF stnken mountains which form
- japanese archipeIaso.
a., The first major catastrophe by ear,
=. quake or volcanic eruption which r
-, tory records was that at Constantine
In the year SIT, when 10000 persons p
q lshed- Since then there have been 20 $,
"a "a disasters
% The greatest toll of human like =
taken In volcanic upheaval in Yeddo.
~ 1903, when 100 900 persons lost II
ny lives. More than two centuries la4e-.
1908. there was the disastrous eruot
which buried Messina and 81 tai
towns causing the death of $4,000
Ro habitants