Evening star., 1951-03-14
Mystery Quake
Scares Millions
In North Europe
Germun Scientist
Discounts Reports
Of Atom Bomb BIust
BY the Associated Press

LONDON, Mar. 14.-Millions of
persons in Northern Europe were
terrified today by violent shud-
dering of the earth's crust which
some thought might have been
caused by an atomic-sized eXplo-
sion inside Eastern Germany.
The tremor, one of the severest
ever recorded in Germany, was
followed in some sections there by
a giant blast of wind The shock
and wind ratified windows, shook
down war ruins, and tossed pic
lures off the walls Of many homes.
No extensive damage was re-
ported.
-, Seismologists speculated n that
the epicenter was either in the
Eifel Mountains of West Germany
or in Thuringia, in the Eastern
zone of Soviet-occupied Germany.
Felt in Wide Arc.
The terrestrial convulsion, which
lasted from five to six seconds
with echoes" of Is minutes dura-
tion. was felt in varying degrees
in a wide arc including Belgium.
Holland, Northern and Eastern
France. Denmark and Sweden.
Besides the earthquake, tenn
pestuous gales and heavy rains
combined to give Europe one of
her widest "a hours of the winter.
Officials at Stuttgart Univer-
sity scotched reports an explosion
of atomic intensity might have
been the cause of the shock.
Prof. Wilhelm Hitler said after
a careful check of records an
earthquake whose epicented was
near Euskirchen in the Rhine
land caused the tremors.
mot in East Germany"
'We are absolutely sure the
center was not in East Germany"
he added.
In New York, the Rev. Joseph
Lynch. director of the Fordham
University Observatory, said the
estimated location of the center
definitely indicated an earthquake
of the "resettlement" pattern
common to certain areas.
He said "resettlement" earth
quakes are typical in certain we'll
defined areas, and the fact that
the tremors also were felt in
Brussels indicated it had been an
earthquake of this type.
He said he would check the
Fordham University seismograph
later in the day, but added that
the seismograph is not sensitive
either to "resettlement" earth
quakes occurring across the At
lantic, or to explosions.
Heavy Seas Pound Continent.
The shock was felt as heavy seas
pounded the European continent,
accompanied by fierce gales which
tied up shipping and inflicted
widespread damage. There was
no report from Western EUROPE of
any extensive damage from the
earth shock
Earlier today Prof. Friedrich
Becker, director of the Bonn
Germany Observatory, said the
atomic explanation had not been
entirely eliminated, but the West
ern scientists trying to run down
the origin and cause of the shock
were handicapped for lack of
definite information from behind
the Iron Curtain.
Given sufficient information in
such occurrences, scientists would
be able to pinpoint the source.
The West German officials have
ordered an exhaustive lnvestiga-
ton, observatory officials said. T.
Earth tremors, however, are
fairly frequent in the area of the
West German volcanic range, the
Eifel mountains.
BY telephone, Prof. Friedrich
Gerecke of the Soviet-controlled
Earthquake Research Institute at
Jena in East Germany said the
quake was one of the strongest
(See QUAKE, Page A-3.)