The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1923-02-22
TO AVOID PERILS
OF EARTHQUAKES
Science Points Out Places Where
Upheavals Are Likely
to Occur.
RESULTS OF LONG RESEARCH
Now Able to ForestaIl Disaster by
Pointing Out Safer Locations for
Cities and Appropriate Meth
DDS of Construction.

WashingtOn.-While man can never
hope to master nature to the extent of
preventing, or even foretelling, earth
quakes, it is not impossible, says the
Carnegie institute of Washington,
that scientists may be able to forestall
their disastrous effects by pointing out
the safer locations for cities and by
recommending appropriate methods of
construction.
Earthquakes have occurred ever
since the crust of the globe began to
form. Indeed, instability is the
>earth's normal condition, and man
long has suffered in consequence. Yet
thorough studies of the nature of
earthquakes and their occurrence in
recent years have yielded many les
sons applicable to big constructions.
Earthquakes are a natural occur
renee in certain regions where the
mountains are alive. Carnegie officials
declare. There are districts, like the
Atlantic coast, where the mountains
are dead, but around the Pacific and
in great belt which reaches across
Asia and the Mediterranean, the
mountains still are growing. 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 be-
comes too great. Then they slip and
what is called an earthquake occurs.
This is the modern theory of earth
quakes. 1t has been developed
through prolonged studies and demon
strated by observations of many minor
quakes and of the lines along which
they occur.
Really Not Break.
The earthquake plane is often
spoken of as fracture, but it is really
not break, recent statement of
the institution declares. 1t is the
surface between great masses which
never have been united, but which for
ages have been slipping past each 9TH
er, and where this plane comes to the
surface of the earth there is a line
called an earthquake rift. The great
est of these riffs in the United States,
so far as known, extends along the
coast ranges of California for 600
miles. 1t passes just west of San
Francisco, to the east of Los Angeles,
and disappears in the Gulf of Califor-
MIA. Along the San Andreas rift, as
it is called, earth shocks have occurred
at different times in different Sec
tions
South of that stretch for some 800
miles there has been no movement
Cured, the mark of which may still
be traced stretching across the desert
plains like an irrigation ditch. Still
further south there have been several
shocks, but none Of great violence,
although there is evidence of consid-
west of Los Angeles.
The cooperation of the United
States navy was obtained in making
a depth measuring survey over large
area adjacent to the California coast
and, while the survey was made to
find the trend of earthquake riffs, it
resulted in important data for marine
map makers. Through the financial
assistance of the Carnegie Foundation
of New York, DIR. Bailey Willis, seis-
mologist of Stanford university. was
sent by the institution to Chile to
study the effects of the recent earth
quake there with a view of fixing on
the probable causes.
Scientists Dope 1t Out.
Scientists can now locate the GER
tain lines along which quakes have
occurred and seem sure to occur
again. They are able to speak Of live
earthquake riffs as they speak of live
volcanoes. 1t is known by the form
of the volcano or by eruptions within
historical time that it is potentially
or actually active, and much the same
may be said of the earthquake riffs.
These are lines of special danger
on which no schoolhouse, skyscraper
or dam should be built. They should
be avoided as far as possible, by rail-
road lines, bridges, aqueducts and 9TH
er public works, and yet it happens
that they often run through valleys
where such works are suggested by
the conditions of the ground. AS long
as builders remain ignorant of their
position they run the risk of inviting
destruction.
There is now being published an
earthquake rift map of the state of
California, showing the lines of active
riffs and also of faults that are sup
posed to be mac re. ser
Through theseS dies the engineers
who laid out the Iisg water supply
line for San Francisco were able to-
remove 1t from the former line which
followed an active rift for miles, and
locate it along mountain range,
where, if it moves at all, 1t will move
as block and viii not be dislocated
or destroyed.