Evening star., 1952-08-31

rific damage at their eplcenLerS,
but do little outside that small area.
That was the case at San Francisco.
and more recently at Bakersfield.
But occasionally one comes along to
spread destruction over huge areas.
Such a quake hit the Indian Province
of Assam two years ago, destroying
buildings in an area as big as South
Carolina. Another quake hit Assam
in 1897 and leveled an area four
times as large as Virginia, with
almost total destruction of everything
in the central region-a territory as
big as Maryland. Generally speak,
ing. the deeper the focal point Of the
shock, the more damage an earth
quake does.
Worst Temblors
Probably the worst earthquakes the
world has ever known occurred long
before there were men to record them.
In the chaotic period Of the earth's
youth, temblors far beyond anything
we can imagine must have been the
order of the day. But there have been
some terrible calamities in historic
times. some of which were mentioned
above.
One earthquake, that at Lisbon in
1755, is spoken Of by Oliver Wendell
Holmes in his poem about the One
Hoss Shay. This quake killed some
where between 10000 and 10000 per-
sons in the Portuguese capital. Mes
sina, Sicily, was wiped out with a
loss of $4,000 lives on December %.
1908. At Quetta, India. about $4,000
persons died in quake in 1885. One
in Chile early in 1889 killed 10000
and later the same year about 10O,-
900 were killed or injured at Erzin-
gan. Turkey.
Quakes usually are most devastat-
ing to buildings erected on marshy
or made" land, and least damaging
to those with their foundations in
bedrock. But at or near the fault
that causes the quake, everything
falls over and the casualty list Is
heavy.
There seem to be two big earth
quake belts in the world, with more
than 80 per cent Of the damage being
recorded in these areas. One runs
through Malaga, China and Japan to
the Aleutians and down the Pacific
Coast of America and along the
Andes Mountains. The other starts
in the italian Alps, runs through the
Mediterranean to Northern Turkey,
across the Caucasus Mountains OF
Russia and on through the Hima-
layas. ending not far from where
the first belt begins in Malaga. This
probably is not permanent situa-
tion from q geologic point Of view.
Things Moy Chonee
These belts coincide with the
steep, new" mountainous areas of
the world. Regions where there are
tired, "old" mountains like the APP
palachians and the Urals seem to
be a lot more stable. It is reason
able to assume that when the Sierra
Nevadas get "old" and some new
mountains are being built upper
haps in the Mississippi Valley mil
lions Of years from now California
will get no earthquakes and Mis-
souri, will get q lot. This is not
particularly encouraging to present.
day residents of Bakersfield, but it
means something to geologists who
think in terms Of millions and bill
lions Of years.
Still, life seems always to have its
little compensationS. One Of these
appears to be relationship between
earthquakes and electrical storms.
Why this relationship should exist
indeed, whether there is any scienti-
fic basis for it at all, no one knows.
But 1t appears that in areas where
there are many earthquakes there
are few electrical storms and vice
versa. Consequently. the man who
lives in constant fear Of being hit
on the head by falling cornice can
live without dread of being knocked
of by a bolt from the blue.