Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1933-08-05
continental DRIFT
SUBJECT OF STUDY
Worldwide Check to Be
Made by Scientists Begin.
ming on October !.
BY THOMAS r. HENRY.


The United States is to furnish four
stations in q worldwide network which
will start a two-month program CT in
tensive observations October / in an
effort to find out what is happening
to the crust of the earth. Two will be
set up by the Naval Observatory, one
in Washington and the ether in San
Diego. Calf. The Coast and Geodetic
Survey Is sending an observer to estab-
lish q station at Honolulu. Another
will be maintained by the Carnegie In
stitution at Mount Wilson. Calf.
In addition, approximately 100 sta
tions will be operated by different gov
ernments all over the earth. The head
quarters will be in Paris, where the
results Of all the observations are to
be sent for tabulation. 1t Is under
direction of Gen. Georges Perrier,
chairman Of committees set up by the
International Astronomical Union and
the International Union of Geodesy and
Geophysics.
The chief object will be to test the
so-called Wegener hypothesis Of the
westward drift Of continents. Accord
ing to this, the Americas actually have
"floated" two miles to the westward in
the past go years. If this is true, the
present parallels Of longitude are badly
out Of place, with the result that time
measurements and surveyors lines are
wrong.
Will Use Radio Signals.
Observations were made at approx
mately rs stations in 1926-including
20 hi at NJ ryyl,4
to be repeated this Fall and compared
with the previous calculations. Be-
sides there will be about IS other sta
tons.
At each station observations of the
transit Of some star will be taken every
clear night and the instant of crossing
the meridian recorded in local time
At the same time radio signals are to
be sent out five or six times a night
from stations at Annapolis, Honolulu,
Rugby, England; Pontaise and Bor-
deaux. France; Nauen, Germany; To-
kio. Saigon, French Indo- China, and
Malabar. Dutch East Indies.
Each station will pick up these radio
signals and record the exact time when
they were received. They will be
checked against the time of star tran
sits. In this way it will be possible to
determine if the parallels Of longitude
are moving and the direction Of their
movement.
The primary stations in the world
Edinburgh. Oslo, Brussels, Strassburg,
Potsdam. Milan. Florence. Madrid,
Athens, Cape Town, Algiers, Hsara,
Egypt; Helwan, Arabia; Mogadocio,
East Africa; Nossi Be- Madagascar;
Colombo. Sumatra; Dehra Dun, India;
Toxic. Shanghai, Hong Kong, Manila,
Lambang, Dutch East Indies: Adelaide
Melbourne. Sidney and Wellington;
Honolulu. San Diego and Washington
These were in operation in 1926.
Greenland Station Important,
The numerous other stations will
serve as checks. One Of the most i'm
portant is being set up by Denmark
at Kornock, Southeast Greenland
Canada is setting up two at Vancouver
and Ottawa. There will be others at
Buenos Aires and Montevideo. Obser-
vations at the Greenland station viii be
received with special interest, because
1t is on the supposed movements of
that Arctic land mass that the Wege-
ner hypothesis was established. There
has been some question of the accuracy
Of the observations.
The Wegener hypothesis maintains
that up to comparatively recent geo.
logical time the dry land parts of the
earth were combined in one great land
mass, Of which the present Eurasia was
the nucleus. Then, 1t Is maintained,
in some great catastrophe movement
the other continents were split of and
commenced to drift like beats in a sea
Of underlying rock. They may be still
drifting q few inches a year. The
drift supposedly is so small, however,
that it could not possibly be detected
without instantaneous transmission of
radio signals. Some curious differences
In time records have been found in
various parts of the world which might
be explained by the drift hypothesis.
An effort also will be made to de-
termine whether there is an appreciate
difference in the time Of transmission
Of short wave radio signals, depending
on the height Of the heavily ionized
strata of the atmosphere known as the
Heavyside layer
Each observer will carry on his work
entirely independently. not knowing
how many of his collaborators have
been able to take observations on the
same night. The observations will con-
tinue for 81 nights. After the reports
are made 1t is expected that approx
mately three months will be required to
tabulate the results and fit the differ
ent parts of the puzzle together.