The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1923-09-27
JAPANESE EARTHQUAKE
ITS CAUSE EXPLAINED
A SLIP IN THE WALLS OF THE
GREAT DEEP SAYS NEW
YORK AUTHORITY.


of Japan. starting at 80 degrees north
on the 145th meridian east, running
thence north to point off Cape Lo-
patka. the southerly point of Kam-
schatka, thence easterly along the
fftieth parallel south of the Aleutian
Islands to the 16Oth meridian west. is
a great ocean deep.
This deep is a sharp shouldered val
! ley in the ocean bed. and it reaches a
depth of more than 1000 fathOms. or
nearly five miles, at its greatest pro-
foundity At its sharpest declivity off
miles across the shoulders of the sea
valley sloping up thence. on the Pa
cific Ocean side, rather slowly to the
true bed of the Pacific On the Japa-
nese islands side this deep rises sharply
in a series of steps to the coast line of
the japanese islands.
These steps are very unstable in
equilibrium and probably mark the
line of the geological fault that has
caused the deep itself to come into be-
ing. The movement or displacement of
a great mass of water nearly five miles
deep and over 5000 miles long. or even
the pressure of the earth crust exerted
on a weak spot on these steps or any
part of the deep could cause a slip of
these walls into the sea valley below
them.
Where a Slip Would Have Affected
Whole Island.
Three hundred miles. a short dist
ance, really. off the sites of Tokyo and
Yokohama is the deepest part of this
great deep where soundings show over
1900 fathoms. slip at this point
would affect the whole island of Non
shu, or Hondo, for the result of such
a slip would be to produce a cores
pOnding reciprocal movement of the
mountainous land masses that form
the island and really form the ridge of
the deep.
The origin of the Japan disturbance
I feel sure, is in this great deep. The
initial cause might not be slip of the
walls of the deep, but u squeezing to-
gether of the sea valley sides. due to
the great pressure eNcrted on the Pa
cihc Ocean side by the great bed or
floor, of the Pacific Ocean The re-
ported upward movem, mt of the land
mass the reported extrusiOn of a new
island and the lifting mp of the bed of
Yokohama bay would indicate such
squeezing movement This closing up
of
part would probably induce compen-
sating slips further north in the abyss. |
which would account for the second |
reported earthquake. 1t is now realized |
that there is a continuous creeping" |
movement of the entire earths surface !
in a westerly direction, not only in the /
land masses. but in the sea floors, |
which are really land masses covered |
with water. and the tendency of such |
Creeping" movement would be to close |
up and at the same time deepen this /
long sea valley. Creeping accounts
best as a primal cause. for the con-
tinued instability of the Japanese is
lands, as they are exposed TO the fun
force of the effects accommodating in
the entire Pacific in their ATTITUDES.
Were the catastrophe a true coastal
l would look for a great
tidal wave to back up easterly on the
Pacific Such a tidal wave would be
apt to result from coastal earth
quake. but if, as assume, the dis
turbance is a slip of the Japan side of
The deep, no tidal wave of proportion
would result, as any flows between 40
md so north. easterly would be alb
iorbed in the long cleft of the deep
md prevented from flowing over the
surface of the Pacific by the easterly
shoulder of the sea valley.
It is still possible from the sea slip,
II a later compensatory slip. that a
idal wave may follow along the cleft
md. flowing into Boring Sea, be felt
irst along the Siberian or Alaskan ;
casts. Or it may flow below the sur
ace, strange as this may appear,
outh of the Aleutian Islands and !
ither be checked or absorbed in the
Alaskan Deep south of Kodiak Island
II break in apparently high tides in
Met Lynn Canal. Alaska. or on the
cast of the Queen Charlotte Islands
orth of Vancouver
'ordered With Volcanoes All ALONG "
the Land Side. \
Again. such a wave, instead of flow q
lg in the valley of the Great Deep, {
light follow the Japan current that n
ows between 40 and so north, east o
rly, and in the parallel of Puget s
ound. out at sea. divide and flow
artly to the north along the Canadian a
past and partly to the south along Il
lie Washington Oregon California
'ast This would minimize its force ia
Id it would be felt only as unusually M
gh tides. II
In 1892. off Yokohama. a submarine Is
'lcano burst forth. Its reported loca- j;
)n shows it to be within the south K
ly end. or elbow. of the Great Deep K
"a v,raoarra 4hora fr1fo,4o- .