SEISMIC ACTIVITY.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 52, Issue 7, 19 October 1931, Page 8

SEISMIC ACTIVITY.

REVIEW OF THE YEAR 1930.

(Special to "The Guardian"). WELLINGTON, October 17.. Seismic activity was less severe m the year 1930 than it was in 1929, although the numbr of shocks experienced was grater in 1930, remarks the annual report of the Dobmion Observatory. The total number of separate earthquakes reported for the whole of New Zealand during 1930 was 748, about 90 per cent of which originated in the Takaka or Murchison districts of the South' Island, where earth quakes have continued with varying intensity evei\ since the severe shock of June 17, 1929. Of the 748 shocks during the year, 125 were felt "in the North Island, 648 in the South Island and twenty-five in both islands. Intensities were abnormally high, fifty-five shocks reaching an 'intensity of 6 on the Rossi-Forel scale. The numbr of shocks per month ranged from forty-nine in March to eighty-one in September, the average intensity being about 4 on the Rossi-Forel scale. The maximum scale number reached was 8, in two 'cases. One of these, in February, was the Porangahau earthquake.