TERRESTRIAL DISTURBANCES.

Auckland Star, Volume LI, Issue 73, 27 March 1920, Page 17

TERRESTRIAL DISTURBANCES.

WHAT HAWAII EXPECTED. VALUE OF SCIENTIFIC OBSERVATION. The secretary of the Hawaiian Volcano Research Association (Mr. 1,. W. de Vis Norton), writing at t lie beginning ot j last month, discusses the absence of the volcanic disturbances predicted for late December by many' eminent scientific men. You are aware, he writes, that at that time a wholly unprecedented condition of things existed in the heavens. The relation of a number of large planets to the sun and their inter-relations with the earth, produced a situation which might very easily have brought widespread disaster upon the earth. Here in these little islands we awaited the day with some trepidation, in view of the strong possilrlity not only of earthquakes but also of immense tidal wave 3 sweeping, arose the Pacific. 1 am informed that there was almost a panic in Suva. Fiji, at the time, but the fact that nothing has happened so far does not, to my "mind at least, tend to prove that scientific theories are totally in error. We have been anticipating in Hawaii a possible volcanic crifis in 1020, and I think it might well affect other systems. It is much the same proposition as the nerve system of the human body. An aching nerve in a smalL tooth will start almost every nerve in the whole body aching, you* know, and many terrible diseases in far-distant parts of the bocly are now being traced back directly to the molars. Is it not feasible then to' suppose that the great vojeanic rift-lines, which bear so close a resemblance to the nerve system of the body, may be so inter-related as to affect enormous areas of the world's surface? We have upon the Hawaiian island of Hawaii three great volcanoes with a number'of smaller ones. One of them is 14,000 feet high, and is the largest active volcano in the world. This is Mauna Loa, upon whose 'flank is Kilauea, the most continuously active and most spectacular crater on earth. They are tooth capable of doing [enormous damage, and it has been very clearly shown during the past few years that they arc closely related to the great volcanic systems of Java and Japan. Every great earthquake on the Mexican rift-line is accompanied by complementary activity on the part of Kilauea, and.' to a lesser degree, of Mauna Loa, the difference being purely a matter of altitude and pressure. If yon check further than this, you would find that the great Mexican disturbances , synchronise very closely with the outbreaks in Java and Japan. I I think that lor a simple illustration of this it will suffice to visualise the gascore in the centre of the earth as the hub of a wheel with the volcanoes as the spokes and the rift-lines on the surface ias tne tires. Granted that the gas pressure attains a sufficient degree of expansion, the volcanic "perspiration" is bound to leak out througli the larger pores oi the earth's skin. It may cause faultslipping, showing as earthquakes, or it may come to the surface in the form of volcanic outbursts with or without lava flows. It is an interesting sequel to the recent Mauna Loa eruption that its close produced the greatest lava flow in the History of Ivilauea, a flow yet unfinished after more than three months. It is easy to see that the gas pressure became insufficient to lift the lava column to the 8,500 foot rift-level on Mauna Loa, but remained strong enough to force the lava to the nearest weak snot, the great rift-line at 4,000 feet on Kilauea. It may be of interest to state

that its deadweight has actually, produced pronounced earth-tilt on all our pendulums, and this has not yet recovered. While the predictions of Air. Wragge and others were not realised they were none the less of value and decidedly; juctilied. Shortly before the eruption of I Mont Pelce, in Martinique, warnings ' were issued by two French scientists. They were disregarded, and 35,000 people perished in less than 30 seconds. On the other hand, at the urging of Japanese scientists, the Imperial Japanese Govern-1 ment, a few years ago, ordered the ' [evacuation of- the whole island upon which Sakurajima volcano is situated. iTlio eruption took place on schedule time, and the entire district was utterly obliterated. One life only was lost, and [that was a woman, who, like Lot's wife, stopped to look back, fell over a rain- [ barrel, and broke her fool neck. I. . I