New Britain herald., 1927-07-09
NEW BRITAIN FAR
 FROM QUAKE ZONE
Terra Pirma in These Parts Has
 No Jazz Complex

what are tne chances Of New
 Britain suffering from violent
 earthquake?
 In these days when minor tre- mors are being reported all over the
 eastern United States and Canada, the Japanese disaster. still fingers in
 memory. and a new cataclysm is
 leaking out from China, this ques-
 tion is often asked with anxiety by residents of the city. They fear that
 the temblors felt somewhat fre-
 quently in one place or another along the Atlantic seaboard may be the premonitcrs of disastrous dis turbance.
 The facts would indicate other wise. although no man has yet been able to gain enough knowledge of the, earth's crust movements to be able to predict them ill advance with much certainty.
 In the first place, New Britain is located practically in the center of vast region in which serious earthquakes are unknown within historic times. There is no "earth- quake belt" between the Carolinas on the south and Iceland on the north. or between our west coast and the western shores of Europe. Seismic distur bances occur in defi- mite belts" and these are always places where there is definite move ment in the earth's crust-where mountains arc being formed or new sea chasms split apart. This is the case all around the rim of the Pa cific ocean. where the Japanese islands are still being built and the coastal range in California Is still gaining altitude. but all such move ment on the Atlantic coast is of un- discernible character and New Eng land is practically quiet-has been so for thousands of years.
 Earthquakes are caused by sev- eral things. Contrary to popular be- lief, there is almost no connection at all between volcanoes and earth quakes, but as there are no vol. canoes within several thousand < miles we need not be worried if there was connection.
 Sometimes quakes are created when underground caverns cave in. This is liable to happen in regions where there are large strata of limestone, as this is dissolved by water and leaves great hollows which are liable to collapse. In New England the rock basis is of solid volcanic rock alternating with sediment and the danger of this is nil. Limestone is deposited under water and the incursions of the sea over New Britain were or relatively short duration. while the small de- posits they left have long ago been swept away.
 The slipping of huge masses of earth along fractures already form- ed has long been believed to be a major cause of earthquakes. This 1 was the case in the great San Fran cisco disaster of 1903, when there l was a sliding movement for 600 l miles along the san Andreas rift" The pipes supplying the city with water crossed this rift and were l in the movement. leaving | the city helpless against the lire | which followed.
 In New Britain there areano less | than seven faults" as these; breaks are known, while there is another i In Plainville, three in Newington, and a great nurnber in Berlin. Most 1 of these are of very small size, while even the two largest are of | minor character comparatively, ex- tending for only score of miles or SO.
 It must not be supposed that | .hese faults are actual rifts in the earth for they are not. They are places where the earth has split and slid along the fracture as is readily evident to the expert eye by the allure of the strata to match on he two sides of the crack. In many places there has been fresh soil laid town across the fault and practic-