Evening star., 1950-01-23
z New Major Faults
Found in Earth s Crust
Seismologists Report Evidence of
Big 'Warps' Under Pacific
Rv Thomas p. Henry


Finding of two major faults" in the eartl
crust under the Pacific has been repcved by
seismologists of the California Institute Of
Technology.
These are titanic compared to any known
before, according to the Institutes report.
One extends for more than 1900 miles in
the South Pacific between the Tonga and
Kermedic Islands, north of New Zealand.
The second reaches for almost 5000 miles off
the coast Of South America, which 1t roughly
parallels.
A fault is line on either side Of which
the crust Of the earth Is moving at different
rate. 1t is along these fault lines that the
great earthquakes occur. Best known Is the
so-called st. Andreas fault in California on
one side of which the earth's crust Is moving
northwestward at a rate Of about two inches
year. Enormous stresses are being built UP
by this movement which eventually may
bring another major earthquake to that
region.
Existence Of the great Pacific faults is
revealed in report by Dr. Hugo Benioff of
the Institutes faculty from analysis Of earth
quake records. A fault" might be described
as a great warp. rather than crack. in the
crust. The Tonga-Kermedic line Is under
great ocean depths and is characterized,
according to the report, by great down.
warping of the seas floor.
The fault paralleling South America also
Is due to down. -warping of the floor of the
Pacific, but with the Andes Mountain range
representing one side of the warp. The depth
and dip OF both these warps are approxi-
mately the same
While great earthquakes may be expected
sometime along these faults, the areas now
seem to be relatively quiet From the findings
it is concluded that enormous stresses and
strains can be withstood for many years
without any notable disturbance. Another
conclusion is that the sub-oceanic earth
crust consists of solid rock at least 400 miles
deep. Below this the earth may lose some
OF its solidity due to the enormous heat and
pressure.
Cosmic ray particles with energies Of 40,-
000,000000 electron volts-tWice as great as
the greatest energy hitherto known on earth
ARE reported by California Institute Of
Technology workers.
These particles are mesons. elementary
particles which come into existence when
atoms in the atmosphere are shattered by
the impact OF extremely powerful cosmic rays
bombarding the earth from outer space.
They exist less than two-millionth of
second and are considered an infinitesimally
brief naturalization of the energy which
holds together the nucleus of the atom.
shattering with enormous energies, but the
highest measured in the past has been
approximately 10000 100000 electron volts.
This has been considered the upper limit.
very few with twice this energy, it Is
reported, have been found by DR.. C. D. Ander-
son of the California Institute of Technology
faculty, who was among the first to demon
strate the actual existence of these elusive
particles following theoretical arguments for
their existence.
DR.. Anderson and his assistants have been
studying intensively the mesons which get
down to- sea level They break up almost
Immediately, the experiments show, but not
as hitherto has been supposed with the same
energy. The breakup, it had been thought
was into two partisan electron and
hypothetical particle, never actually observed
and of very brief existence but theoretically
indispensable, called the neutrino.
80 The evidence now indicates that the nneson
undergoes three-way break into an electron
and two neutrinos. This follows from Prof
Anderson's measurements of the energies
with which electrons are emitted These fol-
low wide range, he found, from hardly any
energy at all to an upper limit of 55, 900 0O0.-
600 electron volts