The dispatch-news. [volume] (Lexington, S.C.) 1919-2001, 1922-02-08
EaRYE oEF 81 Il ,l<>E


it's dizzy whiri through space got OFF
center for few moments today and
shifted its poles or axes to- tit the
new center oe rotation.
=, Then inorder that it might rot be
travelling on flat Wheel" so to
speak "a few million tons Of solid rock
somewhere Of fthe western coast Of
the United States in, the bed of the
Pacific ocean slipped g hundred feet
or So to. oven things up. t.. 80 .:.,
., Observers here said they could not
be certain whether the displacen1ents
were horizontal or vertical. In the
great San Francisco shock Of 1906 the
horizontal displacement amounted to
about 20 feet.
This is the manner in which pro-
fessors of geology and seismographic
observers account for the violent earth
vibrations which denaoralized instru-
ments in observatories throughout
this country today. Thus far the exact
location Of the huge slip" has not
been determined, although observers
from Washington, D. c., to Berkley,
CAL, agreed that it probably was
few hundred miles oft the mouth OF
the Columbia river.
Moment of Readjustment.
Tn eabsence # recorded disrup-
ton of the visible surface OF the
earth, or of the huge tidal waves
which usually radiate from the scene
of a nearthquake, lead the observers
to believe the slip, occurred miles
belo wthe bed of the ocean. Its vio-
lence was attested by the quivering
seismogra phs, which in some instances
were thrown from the recording rolls,
while a 'strong machine" at Berkeley
was set in motion for the first time in
many years.
"No doubt the earth was readjust-
ing ITSELF" said Prof. J. J. Lynch,
seismographic observer at Fordham
university here.
about every so often the earth be-
comes upset, goes off center, changes
it's axes, and usually, about the same
time, there is a violent earthquake, a
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 determinations which ffioin the
two continents, disappearing into the
sea off oSuthern California, are con-
tinually lifting, falling and slipping,
according to the seismologists and'the
y.
geologists. ...,.. .......-.
Many of these disturbances take
place in midocean, the only visible evil
dence being the zig rag lines traced
by a seismograph hundreds of miles
distant. Onne of the exanples of such
a paroxysm occurred j: il, December,
1920, and scientists san lare cudgel-
ing thei rbrains to. scdount for the
"lost" earthquake. Fg source Of ORR
sfiHaney s,een, Shfihitely estab-
lished although it wasR4such proper
tons as to shatter INSTRUMENTS thous-
ands of miles away, AID to send. a
tidal wave circling the darth. :.
Earthquakes Often Lost
A few days later CAME news of an
earthquake in Kan-Su province in
China, in which 1000 persons perish
ed. Scientists asserted, there proba-
bly, had been two distinct upheavals
probably on opposite. sides of the
globe. - = o..
'tLost" earthquakesstaking place in
midocean often cause@a ast changes in
the apearanpce of the ocean bed
which are not discovered until years
later. Such earthquakes are frequent
near the West Indies, and beneath the
Pacific westward fro -nathe Americas
to the chain of sunken: mountains
which form the Japanese archipelago.
The first major cd tastrophe by
earthquake or volcanic Eruption which
history records was that at Constan-
tinople in the year 577, when 10000
persons >nerished. sinoe then there
have been 20 such disasters: g.,
The greatest toll Of human life was
taken in a volcanic upheaval in Yeddo
in 1893, when so.ooo persons lost
their lives. More than two centuries
later, in 1sos( there was the disas-
trous eruption which buried Messina
and 81; other Italian towns, causing
the death Of 100000 Inhabitants.
San Francisco. jan. S1.-Earth-