SCOTLAND MOVING

Evening Star, Issue 22631, 24 April 1937, Page 19

SCOTLAND MOVING

DWfT TOWARDS IRE lAMB Scotland was reported recently by Mf official of the Glasgow Observatory to bo drifting toward Ireland—and Amema—at the rate of more than Bft a, year. Mr Thomas R. Tannahill, a member of the staff, said calculations showed that the mainland had shifted westward 60tt in the last 70 years. England, he explained, has not joined in the movement, and f consw quently Great Britain is apparently bends ing in two.” ■ ' , , Dr Kirtley Mather, professor of geology, at Harvard, described as “ extremely im< portant to geology ” observations at Glaw gow of a “drift” of Scotland toward Iraj land. Somewhat similar phenomena, he said, were under observation in Greenland, Iceland, and Scandinavia. . . _ “Wo have been suspicious, he said* “ that there were changes in longitude at several places on the surface of the eartlj which would indicate a slow movement of the earth’s outer shell. The difficulty n to get sufficiently precise measurements. Our modem methods, are very much superior since the coming of radio to measurement* of 50 years ago. ... • " Unfortunately there is some indication ,f a curious stretching of the earth s outer shell, followed hy a contraction, as thouga -mints of observation - moved in one direp* tion, then back again in the opposite direction, sometimes within a day. “ That complicates the problem, and I would like to know just how the Glasgow observations were determined, whether by observation of the stars, on just one .occasion or frequently, over a long period. “ The Glasgow, observations may mean something of great significance. -They do not surprise me, for it is right in line with things we are discovering.”