Evening star., 1923-09-06
CAPITAL KEYNOTES
BY PAUL Y. COLLINS

Washington. too, was shaken by an
earthquake, April 10, 1918; much glass
was shattered, but no other damage
was done. The center of the quake
region was near Richmond, Va. This
region Is not in the earthquake zone
ordinarily, and the director of the
seismographs at the Georgetown Uni
versity. Father r. A. Tondorf. assures
the public that there is no probability
of serious repetition. Not SO much as
surance can be given the Carolinas,
and less still the Pacific coast. OF all
parts of the world, japan Is the most
seriously exposed to earthquakes.
though the most fatal cataclysm
known to history was that of China
in 1886, when 100000 fatalities oc-
CURED.
What causes earthquakes? Why
should the globe, as it rolls along its
orbit through uninterrupted space,
ever bump along like wagon on a
corduroy road? 1t strikes no uneven
ness In it's course-not even such as
the airpockets which make trouble
so. unexpectedly for aviators-for 1t
even the ether. which is supposed to
fill all space (denied by some astron-
omers). could suddenly shake old earth
and break its rock ribbed foundations.
\
Ancient Japanese were confident
that the shakings they felt were
caused by a.,huge spider. moving and
gnawing in the earth. Mongolians
contended that it was not a spider,
but a hog grunting and wallowing
The people of India had seen moles
burrowing, ana conceived giant
mole tunneling beneath them. The
Mussuman doubted that mole
could be SO big-it must be an eIe-
phant. The North American Indian
not being familiar with elephants
explained the distur bance by the prob
able presence of a great subterranean
tortoise.
Thus prevalent was the notion that
the earthquakes We're attributed to
mythical animal life deep in the
ground Z,
But more wonderful than all the
myths of the untutored savages were
the scientific theories of the thinkers
among most ancient peoples. Pythag-
orus, Seneca. and Aristotle attributed
the shakings to subterranean fires
or the explosions Of pent-up gases.
Lucretius thought they might be due
TO the chemical action of the subterra- :.
mean water on rock strata, and Cardano
Gin the sixteenth century, explained
them by the chemical action on salt
petrous. btuminous and sulphurous
masses in the earth. DemOcritus rec
ogniZed the causes most nearly as ac-
cepted by scientists today-the rhyth-
mic upheaval and subsistence of the
elastic crust of the earth.
But why that upheaval-whethe er
attributable to the pull of the moon
as 1t acts upon the tides or other
influences of nature-has not yet been
fully explained. It seems incon-
ceirable that any explosion of gases
could have the dynamic power 10 lift
n rock ribbed mass of thousands of
square miles. shake it like an in
furiated beast. of prey. twist 1t, break
it, distort it. Yet that power which
holds worlds in the hollow of His
hand. which swings planets through
infinite space. millions of years. and
never lets one, from the smallest to
the greatest. SwerVe so much as q
mile from it's. set. orbit. controls the
drnamicS of the ocean tides by THE
quiet force OF gravity. As the moon
pulls. first from one side of the
earth's axis and then from the other.
lifting the immeasurahle weights of
entire oceans, and tossing them down
twice daily. so that Power lifts in
some insCrutabta. way, the mountains
and the valley. whether under the sea
or upon continents and islands. and
shakes the habitations of man at will.
x
The theory that earthquakes are
connected. somehow, with volcanic
disturbances has been most popularity
advanced. Humboldt. believed 1T. as
have many other distinguished scien-
lists But it is not proved. The great
earthquake of MesSina. Italy, occurred
within eight miles of Mount Aetna,