RECENT EARTHQUAKES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20289, 23 December 1927, Page 16

RECENT EARTHQUAKES.

IS THE EARTH CRACKING? The possible existence of a gigantic fault line, or cleavage, due to shrinkage following the gradual cooling down of the earth’s crust, has been interesting scientists for some time, says the Westminster Gazette, and at last a definite theory, substantiated by the proof of geological tests and observations, comes from Russia. Professor Muskaytoff, director of the Russian Geological Survey and Museum at Moscow, has collated proof of a definite northward movement of Africa and India towards Europe and Asia, after years of research and personal investigation on exploring expeditions, and has accepted an invitation to visit London this year to deliver an address to British geologists under the auspices of the Geological Society. Referring to his 460 geological research and map-making expeditions, the newspaper adds that he has come to the conclusion that the explanation of the recent “ epidemic ” of serious earthquakes, earth tremors, and tidal waves is the gradual “ sliding ” of Africa and India northThe basis of Professor Muskaytoff’s investigations'is obtained from the record of recent big earthquakes. The San Francisco disaster of 1906. the catastrophe at Messina in Sicily, the destructive shocks at Leninalcan, Armenia, this year, tremors in the Crimea within the last few months, and the most recent earth movements surrounding Samarkand in Turkestan, link up the one with Japan,, where a typhoon, originating, it is thought, from a submarine earthquake, has just occurred. These complete a general earth-circling fault. Professor Muskaytoff formed his opinion of a northward movement of India more than a year ago, and .went out at once on an exploring expedition into Turkestan to prove his theory. “ I found old rock formations over new ones,” he told a representative of the British United Press in Moscow. Two months ago, as a result of his study of the earth formations in Turkestan, he predicted that a serious earth tremor must occur within an area of 125 miles long and three-quarters of a mile broad. Within 50 days of his prediction nearly 100 people were killed and scores of villages were demolished by an earthquake within this area. . New York, London, Paris, Rome, Berlin, Moscow, and other great cities of the world lie far enough off the line to be out of clanger, he says, but they may, in the near future, feel earthquake tremors which will not attain catastrophic violence.