EARTHQUAKE WEATHER

Star (Christchurch), Issue 9915, 2 August 1910, Page 2

EARTHQUAKE WEATHER

EXPERT DISCUSSES POPULAR

IMPRESSION,

Two wfeoks ago, writes Professor Milne, in tho ''Daily Mail," my friends interested me with queries about the possibility of a relationship between earthquakes and a comet. After their experiences this week thoy want to know whether there is any relationship between earthquakes and thunderstorms. Earthquakes, I tell them, havo to do with that which is in tho earth beneath, but if they wish to know about happenings in the heavens above authorities are to be found in every village in Great Britain.

But to leave out comets, _ auroras, fire-balls, strange lights, glimmeringcoruscations, and all the other queer things which are from time to time seen above our heads, let me offer a few comments on tho phenomena which so rudely awakened the half of Southern England and the shakings which ruined Central Calabria oarly this week. In a certain sense these phenomena have a very close relationship. Ido not know whether it is a continued thunderstorm or a first-class . earthquake that makes one think most. Both of them make you wonder what is coming next. They fill you with expectation and cause anxiety. Occasionally thoy unnerve people, while those who have not completely lost their senses seek places of supposed se» curity or at least look for mutual protection. Both earthquakes and thunderstorms, like a mountain railway, a water-chute, or a wiggle-woggle, have given rise to many new acquaintanceships. At times of great danger even enemies become civil, and when Mr t Roosevelt can command an earthquake* or a thunderstorm his cherished wish—the poace of the world—will be in. his hands.

The psychological effects of both earthquakes and thunderstorms are as various as they are curious. Throughout all time they have stimulated the imagination, given subjects for thought and for reflection. As we all know, they have.had marked effects upon religious worship, while Vulcans, Plutos, Poseidons and Gods of Thunder owe their creation to the necessity of explaining the natural forces we are now considering. The ancients have left us these deities as legacies, and these havejeft their stamp upon modern literature, art and daily conversation. Should these alarming exhibitions of natural forces cease to exist, naturally dull people, for want of conversation, would become unbearable. \ Not only are these activities, inasmuch, as each has produced a tremendous effect upon mankind, closely related, but they both have exerted and continue to exert'an influence on the lower animals. "VVe know that pheasants will cry a, short interval of time before the tromors of an earthquake are peiceptible to a human being, while it is said that in Mexico a similar behaviour of parrots gives warning of approaching shocks and has thus been the means of saving many lives. Mr R. F. Cuninghame, the Fidus Achates of Mr Roosevelt when in Central ■ Africa, describes the wild and eccentric "cavorting" of a herd of wild elephants at the time of an earthquake. That many dogs will bolt for shelter at the time of thunder was no doubt witnessed by many people this week. In California a theory was once held that before that country was joined up by railways to the east, earthquakes were frequent, but the frequency decreased after tho laying down of rails. The inference was that earthquakes were due to the sudden discharge of electricity. Earthquakes were, in fact, subterranean thunder. After the metallic lines had been laid th<» subtle fluid was drained away as it w*s created, and theroforo dangerous accumulations were no longer possible Without going into the manufacture of subterranean electricity,, evidences of which are seen by some in the forked lightning playing above the ulcerated red-hot throats of active volcanoes, I will only say that since wes?t joined east by metallic lines, British snareholders connected with Californian insurances have had to meet a bill of £l2 000,000 for damage caused ;by earthquakes in that country. To look at this matter a little more scientifically, let us first consider the cause ihunder is the noise which accompanies the discharge of electricity which is seen as lightning, between one cloud and another or between a cloud and the earth. A flash of lightning may be many miles in length. By lts heat it oxpands the air with enormous rapidity, and hence the commencement of the sound. One theory is that clouds obtain their electrifity during the process of their formation, which may be traced to evaporation from some surface of water. We mav picture during the last few weeks of warm weather particles of aqueous vapour being torn from a water surface and then travelling upwards, each carrying with it its little charge oi electricity, obtained at the time of tearing, to condense and coalesce with other particles and form a cloud. These clouds, as they floated towards our shores, suddenly gave up their aciuinitiated char?** t 0 other clouds or to our earth. Assuming such a view to bo correct, each clap of thunder which we recently heard heralded the dumb ing and destruction upon our southern shores of fresh cargoes of electricitv. gathered possibly from the surface oi the Atlantic.

The nioin point., however, is that tU clouds before a thunderstorm are eV trifled, and this being the case they exercise the same sort of attraction upon tho ground above which thev float as does a stick of sealing-wax, after it has boon rubbed, upon a bit W paper Although tho paper jumps up to the sealing-wax, we cannot say that all the bits of paper in Great Britain ever jumped up to the clouds. This indicate, that the pull exerted by the clouds upon the earth .cannot"bo so very great. Neither does the counterattraction of tho earth pull the clouds downwards. Whichever way we look at it the electrical mill between clouds and earth or earth and clouds must bo exceedingly feeble. Notwithstanding the fact that the pull of a big black cloud may bo very smnll cnties may say that, if the around beneath should bo in a critical state or ready to give way under earthquake strain, the feeble force exerted by the cloud may play tho part of the' proverbial straw upon the camel's back A more convincing argument against the connection between earthquakes and thunderstorms is the fact that they only occasionally occur at the same timo. Earthquakes are rare in Great Britain and in South Africa while thunderstorms are fairly common. Jn Japan we find what is practically the reverse. Next let us ask what is the cause uf an earthquakcF Earthquakes, ias wo know, are associated with breakages or fanltitigs in the. crust of our earth. When these aro created rocks -nay be cracked and displaced along lengths of some hundreds of miles! What produces these fractures is ai> •rther .matter, but they represent re--1 lei's of strain only to bo measured bv millions upon millions of tons. Theforces jnvolved—-ostiinates of which 'nave been made—are enormously htrr>o n.s compared with the attrne.t.jve influence of a thunder cloud. To suppc.-.e L .he latter brought about a collapse in the crust of our earth would be as ''easonablo as imagining that the collapse of a railway bridso was the result of the additional weight of a fly.