EARTHQUAKE FORECASTS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 29, 19 September 1911, Page 8

EARTHQUAKE FORECASTS.

GREAT JAPANESE AUTHORITY’S HuEEEUE VIEW. lii a vague and general way it is already possible to ioretell eai enquakos ami with tns continual progress of seismological science humanity will he forewarned with increasing exactitude ax the times and localities ol such clcstructive convulsions of nature. “I ins is Hie reassuring view of the great Japanese authority. Dr. E. Jmori professor of (Seismology at the University of Tokio, and member of tne Japanese imperial Committee ou earthquake investigation,who arrived m London last month to attend cue international congress ol seismologists. Dr. Oraori, besides his observations m Japan lias on behalf of liis Government investigated on the spot the phenomena or most of the important earthquakes of recent times. “Earthquakes” lie remarked, “do act occur at random. They are the result of definite and calculable conditions and causes. The science of seismology is as yet in an early stage, there are many factors in tlie problem which at present wo are unable to appraise, but we are advancing in knowledge and understanding of them. “We know that, periodicity, space distribution and meteorological conditions are among the factors that enter into calculation, and from these with fuller knowledge, we shall be able to. caleuhite.” Proper methods of building construction do much to minimise the effects of earthquakes. Frame buildings, whether of wood or steel, so tong as the joists are sufficiently strong, are the best for resisting earthquake shocks, and the New York skyscrapers, Dr. Omori thinks, would stand an earthquake test successfully.