PROBABLE CAUSE OF THE EARTHQUAKE.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 12483, 20 April 1906, Page 8

PROBABLE CAUSE OF THE EARTHQUAKE.

INTERVIEW WITH THE GEOLOGICAL DIRECTOR. . (special to "the press.") WELLINGTON, April 19. l>r Bell, the Government Geologist, interviewed, said "perhaps the three movst important kinds of oarthquakee are these which are supposed to be due to (1) dissolution of the underlying rocks of the area affected; (2) those which arise from volcanic explosions, and (3) thoso which are due to the corrugation of tho , earth's cruet by terrc«-tri-al contraction. "Terrestial contraction," he went on to explain, "is evidenced on tho surface of the land area of tho globe by our lofty mountain ranges, with their accompanying great faults, fissures, slips, etc., etc., and beneath the oceans by the great depths which are so striking in tho Pacific. Earthquakes are much moro common in mountain ranges of comparatively recent geological age, than thoso. of great antiquity, because, in the latter the underlying crust lias had timo to ftdjimt itself to the conditions produced by their elevations. "Earthquakes due to dissolution and to volcanic explosions were, as a rule, local, though thoso of the latter description had been known to exercise greater influences." Of course, iie paid, earthquakes may occur anywhere, but tlio«>. of the greatest magnitude and of mast far-reaching effect are distinctly associated with lines of weakness in the isarth's crust (produced by terrestrial contraction along mountain chains, etc.), and it is this cause which very possibly gave rise to the disastrous earthquake m San Francisco, and to those of Quito, Lisbon, and others. Asked if ho thought the eruption of Vesuvius had anything to do with the earthquake <n San Francisco, Dr Bell said that some authorities held that earthquakes and volcanoes were due to the >amp causes, or that there was a remote connection between them. He did not think, however, that the eruption of Vesuvius had much to do wirh tho disturbance reported by cable, if it had anything at all. In the course of further"conversation Dr Bell stated that n lino of seismic disturbance, ran right through New Zealand, "froni south-west to north-east, and Wellington is situated right on the line of weakness.