NO SIGN OF DRIFT.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 121, 4 March 1936, Page 5

NO SIGN OF DRIFT.

POSITION OF THE CONTINENTS.

A WORLD-WIDE SURVEY. OTTAWA, February 3. There is no proof as yet available of the theory that the continents are shifting their positions, according to reports made in Canada of a world-wide scientific investigation launched two years ago. Final conclusions though, from 75 to 100 observatories which participated around the world will only be .known late next summer. Involving much astronomical computation, the results from all the different observatories are being correlated by the International Timo Bureau, at Paris. If the inquiry fails to indicate a pronounced movement of the continents, another globegirdling survey will be made possibly in 1945. Should a drifting be manifested, periodic observations will be conducted to keep a check on the movement. “While the correlation lias not been completed yet, we know enough, tentatively about the results to satisfy ourselves there arc no definite indications of a drift,” states R. Meldrum Stewart, director of the ‘Dominion Observatory. “Longitudes taken at our Ottawa and Vancouver observatories combined with similar observations made at Green* wich and European stations, indicate a shifting of the North American Continent westward a few feet since 1926. On the other hand, however, longitudes taken at Washington and Ban Diego,' Cal., show a slight movement of the continent eastward during the same period. These differences on the same continent, naturally, are quite within the probable errors of observation.” Investigation was on the theory of the Austrian geologist Wegener that the continents originally formed the one mass; that North America and South America broke away, drifting westward, and that Australia became severed, floating southward on a plastic surface. Actual observations were made in a three months’ period during 1933. Local time at each observatory was taken from certain groups of stars and checked against Greenwich time. The results at each station were compared with results obtained in 1926 when similar observations were made. If changes in time were indicated in these comparisons at any of these places, thus showing a change in longitude which would juean shifting of positions, they were communicated by wireless to the other observatories for a check in their locale on the earth’s movements. Two major groups of observatories were established, as links to work in close co-operation in the inquiry. Greenwich, Ottawa, Vancouver and Tokio, in an average latitude of 50 degrees, were in one group; while Algiers, Washington, San Diego and Shanghai, in an average latitude of 40 degrees, were in the other.