New Britain herald., 1927-05-05
QUAkES LIKELY IN
 NEW ENGLAND AREA
Experts Believe More Shocks
 Not Improbable

Cambrldge. Mass. May pN The records of more than 300 earthquakes in New England and eastern Canada were studied and scientists peered deep into the sub soils to determine the risk of the future at the meeting here today of the eastern section of the Amer ican Seismological society.
 New England. said Dr. Kirtley r. Mather, head of the Seismology de- partment at Harvard. has felt the most violent earthquake recorded in North America since the advent of the white man, and there is no req son why 1t should feel another. Dr. Mather presented an exhaustive his tory of earth shocks in New Eng land over 300 years and compiled from town reports. newspapers and local histories. He co-operated fin the preparation for another paper on the geological foundation Of Boston. read by Irving Crosby of the ngineering- economics founda- tion.
 "The earthquake of 1663," said Dr. Mather. with it's place of maximum vibration in Quebec, was sufficiently violent to shake disas- trously the northern part of New England. That earthquake appears to have ben the most violent earth quake ever recorded in North America, surpassing in its energy both the New Madrid. (Mo.) earth quake of 1911 and the Charleston. {s. C.) earthquake of 1886. as well as the San Francisco earthquake Of 1906.
 "A recurrence of the 1727-1755 type of activity would be a vertible disaster to the present or future inhabitants of this area. Unfor- tunately our knowledge of Seismic processes is wholly inadequate to serve as a basis for an appraisal for the real significance of the re- awakening of this zone in 1925 l. can neither be stated nor denied that this indicates an early return to Seismic activity of this region.
 "The records are fully qualified 10 dispel the popular delusion that New England is a region of such crustal stability as to be wholly immune from disastrous earth quakes. There is no basis for be- lief that seismic forces have weak ened during the past 200 years, a mere fraction of a second in geo. logic time. There is every reason for expecting that what happened in the 18th century will happen again in the goth or Fist. Sooner or later the fundian zone of crustal instability will undergo such ad- justment to accum ulated strain as to cause another quake of intensity along the New England coast"
 Dr. Mather declared his count of 33l earthquakes felt in New Eng land between 1927 and 1927 to be conservative since it took no notice of small after shocks and counted continuing tremors as one.
 Average Is Obtained.
 The average. he found. was one and one-third year. but with a definite grouping within certain decades. Thus between 17c7 and 1887, 65 were recorded: between 1S42 and 1855. 56: and in the two and a half years since September, 1924. c1 have been noticed.
 He counted for or five zones of seismic activity in New England. The greatest, called the fundian fault. had its origin just off shore and 97 times dealt tremors 10 the coasts Of Massachusetts, New Hamp shire and Maine. The Connecticut Valley between Turner's Falls and New Haven felt 4o quakes. the low CT Merrimack river valley 26. Que bee IS whose effects reached into New England: and his fifth zone he located in central and northeastern Maine. The fundian zone he term ed the obvious real danger zone for eastern New England.
 A companion study to this paper was presented by Ernest A. Hods- son, director of the Dominion ob- servatory at Ottawa. Canada. He traced the record of earthquakes in eastern Canada from the early ac- counts of the Jesuits of the great quake of 1868 and following, up to the modern Seismograph history.