The Cordova daily times., 1923-02-06

or nature to the extent or prevent ing, or even foretelling, earthquakes, it is not impossible, says the Car negie Institute of Washington. that scientists may be able to devise methods of foretelling their disas- trous effects by the selection of safer locations for cities and by appropri- ate methods of construction.
 Earthquakes have occurred ever since the crust of the globe began to to form Indeed, the condition of un- stability is the earth's normal one and man long suffered in conse- quence To say then that what man. kind has characterized as a phenom- enon which is as sure and as inevit- able as an eclipse of the sun, might be eluded finally, seems almost an impossibility. Yet such thorough studies of the nature of quakes and their occurrence have been made in recent years that in future years, con- struction of great buildings, dams, and even cities, may be affected by recent discoveries in geology.
 Earthquakes are a natural occur renee in certain regions where the mountains are alive, Caranegie off cials declare There are districts, like the Atlantic Coast, where the mountains are dead, but around the Pacific and in a great belt which reaches across Asia and the Mediter- ranean, the mountains still are grow ing. In their growth large masses comprising many thousand cubic miles of rock are pressed against each other, but are held by friction until the strain becomes too great. Then they slip and what is called an earthquake occurs. This is the mod ern theory of earthquakes. It has been developed through prolonged studies and demonstrated by obser- vations of many minor quakes and of the lines along which they occur.
 The earthquake plane is often spok- en of as a fracture but it is really not a break, recent statement Of the institution declares. It is the surface between great masses which never have been united, but which for ages have been slipping past each other; and where this plane comes to the surface of the earth there IS a line called an earthquake rift. The greatest of these rifts in the United States, so far as know, extends along the coast ranges of California for a distance of six hundred miles. It passes just west of San Francisco, to the east of Los Angeles, and disap- pears in the Gulf of California. Along the San Andreas rift, as it is called, earth shocks have occurred at diff ferent sections.
 South of that stretch for some 300 miles there has been no movement since 1857 when a severe shock oc- cured, the mark of which may still be traced across the desert plains like an irrigation ditch. Still furth- CT south there have been several recent shocks, but none of great violence, although there is evidence of considerable activity in the section east and west of Los Angeles.
 For some years now, the Carnegie Institute has been deep in the study of earthquakes, and only recently organized the advisory committee in seismology, calling on the co-opera' tion of many other scientists to aid in the research. It's activities have resulted in the discoverey of many facts of practical importance to man kind in this connection. The cooper ation of the United States Navy was obtained in making a depth-measur ing survey over large area adjac' ent to the California coast, and while the survey was made to find the trend of earthquake rifts, 1t resulted in important data for marines and map makers. Through the financial assistance of the Carnegie Founda' tion of New York, Dr. Bailey Willis, seismologist of Stanford University was sent by the institution to Chile to study the effects of the recent earthquake there and survey, the aim being to arrive a- the probable causes.
 It might be asked what value to mankind will result from the eXpen' diture of great sums for the study of a natural occurrence which, it is admitted, can never be prevented and which may continue to exact it's toll of human lives and property. In view of the fact that scientists can now locate the certain lines along which quakes have occurred and