VIOLENT QUAKE

Gisborne Times, Volume LXIV, Issue 10194, 5 January 1926, Page 5

VIOLENT QUAKE

WELLINGTON HAS A CLOSE

SHAVE,

HIGH BUILDINGS OSCILLATE

PLASTER FALLS IN POST OFFICE PILLARS OF FIRE OFFICE VIBRATE. CITY RESIDENTS ALARMED. INDICATOR OFF “DESTRUCTION” MARK. ONLY SLIGHT DAMAGE REPORTED. WELLINGTON, Jan. 4. A very sharp earthquake was experienced in Wellington; to-day at 3.33 p.m. it is estimated it was one of the worst shakes experienced for 20 years. It lasted 10 to 15 seconds. There were two distinct movements. A mild shake served as an introduction to a violent tremor. There was considerable oscillation oi high buildings on Lambton Quay, in Featherston Street, on Jervois Quay and on other areas, on the reclaimed land. Buildings were visibly rocked’ by the ’quake. Workers on the. top. floor of the General Rost and Telegraph Office had an unpleasant experience, as the huge building showed considerable movement. The ground floor and the ceiling cracked in the sorting office and other places, and plaster fell to the floor in the post office. In the State fire office buildings the shake caused some alarm. The pillars on the ground floor vibrated with the shock and hanging lamps swayed for some time. The records of the Government Seismologist (Dr. Adams) will not be available until to-morrow. Although one storey of his concrete building is built on rock foundation, on which the plant is situated, the shake, Dr. Adams said, extended to No. 5 or No. 6 on the Rossi forel scale. In certain portions, of the city the shake would possibly go as high as No. 8 on the scale, according to which No. 10 was the destruction mark number.

Only slight damage is reported, one or two chimneys falling. No one was injured. The shake appeared’ north-easter!} 7 by south-westerly.—P.A.

LONG SHAKE. AT WANGANUI

WANGANUI, Jan. 4

A long but mild shock of earthquake was experienced at Wanganui about 3.30’ p.m. The tremors lasted fully a minute.—P.A.

ROOKING FELT AT MASTER TON

MASTERTON, Jan. 4. - A prolonged earth tremor was experienced here to-day at 3.35. The shake was not so severe as that oil Xmas Eve, but was of an even character and of longer duration.—P.A.

ONLY SLIGHTLY FELT AT

CHRISTCHURCH

CHRISTCHURCH, Jan. 4. A very slight shock of earthquake was felt by a few people in Christchurch this afternoon. Most of the city people were unaware of it, but at Summer the residents felt it more distinctly.—P.A.

The shock was felt in Gisborne but it was only a- minor tremor.

EARTHQUAKE SECRETS

The French scientist, M. Belot, declares that the movement of the unstable sea bottom at great depths—such as those of the Pacific Ocean’, where the coast line, like that of Japan or the west coast of America, falls abruptly like a huge precipice—may cause fissures which allow the sea to penetrate into huge pockets beneath the earth’s crust, filled with steam, where the temperature varies from 500 degrees to 700 degrees I’. When the fracture in the sea bed takes place, the first shock occurs. The sea then rushes into the gigantic steam pocket, and tho sudden condensation produces a tremendous shock. At the same time, the rush of sea water into the pocket causes. a sudden fall in the sea-level, which immediately produces a huge tidal wave.