The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1922-02-02
EARTH SL|PSOEE
ITS CENTER R
OBSERVERS TO BELIEVE "SLIP'
OCCURRED MANY MILES
BELOW OCEAN BED

New York, Feb. 2.-The earth, in
its whirl through space, got off CEN
ter few moments today and shifted
its poles" or axis to fit the new
center of rotation.
Then that it might not be travel
ing on FLAT Wheel" so to speak,
few million tons of solid rock
somewhere off the western coast of
the United States in the bed of the
Pacific ocean slipped" a millimeter
and a half to even things up.
Thi is teh manner in which profes-
sors of geology and seismographic
observers account for the violent
earth vibrations which demoralized
instruments in observatories yester
day. Thus far the exact location of
the huge slip has not been deter
mined, although observers from
Washington, ID. c., to Berkeley, Cal,
agree il probably was a few hundred
miles off the mouth of the Columbia
river.
Absence of record disruption of
the visible surface of the earth or
of the huge tidal waves which us
ually radiate from the scene of an
earthquake lead observers to believe
the "slip" occurred milesr below the
bed of the ocean.
It's violence wa sattested by the
quavering seismographs, which in
some instances were thrown from the
recording rolls, while a "strong ma
chine" at Berkeley was set In motion
for the first time in many years.
mo doubt the earth was read
justing ITSELF" said Prof ]. J. Lynch,
seismographic observer at Fordham
university here. y
About every so often the ear..a
becomes upset, goes off cente
changes its axis and usually about
the same time there is a violent
earthquake, slipping of miles of
strata, and we go merrily along
again."
The Andes, along the Pacific coast
in South America and the chain of
rocky deformities which joins the two
continents, disappearing into the sea
off Southern California, are continu
ally lifting, falling and slipping,
according to the seismologist and the
geologist
Many of these disturbances take
evidences being the zigzag lines
trailed by a seismograph hundreds
of miles distant. One of the most
notable examples of such a parexysm
occurred in December, 1920, and sci
entists still are cudgeiing their
brains to account for the "lost
earthquake. It's source of origin
never has been definitely established,
although it was of such proportions
as to shatter instrument sthousands
of miles away and to send tidal
wave circling the earth.
A few days later came news of
an earthquake in Kansu province,
China, in which 1000 persons per-
ished. Scientists asserted there prob
ably had been two distinct upheavals
probably on opposite sides of the
globe.
Lost" earthquakes taking place
in midocean often cause vast changes
in the appearance of the ocean bed,
which are not discovered for years.
Such earthquakes are frequent
near the West Indies and beneath the
Pacific westward of the Americas to
the chain of sunken mountains which
form the Japanese archipelago.
The first major catastrophe by
earthquake or volcanic eruption
which history records was that at
Constantinople in SIT. when 10000
persons perished. Since then there
have been 20 such disasters.
The greatest toll of human life
was taken in volcanic upheaval in
Yeddo, in 1903, when 10000 per-
sons lost their lives. More than two
centuries later, in 1908, there was
disastrous eruption which buried
Messina and 54 other Italian towns,
causing the death of $4,000 inha-
bitants.