RECORDS IN DOMINION.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20363, 21 July 1934, Page 1

RECORDS IN DOMINION.

Valuable Data Gathered for Scientists.

During the past few days, two major earthquakes have been recorded. They were both “ world shakers,” and seismographs as far afield as London and the Dominion recorded them. The first was located in Central America, and the in the Solomon Islands, the latter being the more severe earthquake of the two, says the “ Evening Post,” Wellington. A mesage from the Kew Observatory, London, placed the first earthquake—the one recorded at Kelburn at 1.20 p.m. on Wednesday— at a distance of “ about 5800 miles away, probably in the Pacific Ocean off Ecuador.” Calculations made at the Dominion Observatory placed the distance from Wellington as almost 7700 miles. This agrees with the Kew estimate of the locality of the centre. The second earthquake, recorded in Wellington at 7.16 a.m. on Thursday and lasting for three hours, was very severe. The Dominion Observatory calculated this earthquake to have been about 2000 miles from New Zealand. The Riverview Observatory at Sydney placed the origin as being 1950 miles north-east of Sydney, in the vicinity of San Cristobal Island in the Solomons group. Big earthquakes have previously occurred in that region. Here again the estimates agree. The records made of both these earthquakes at the Dominion Observatory are exceptionally good, and each earthquake is without doubt one of very great magnitude. Since their occurrence a number of after-shocks have been recorded, some of considerable intensity. Valuable Records. For some time past there has been comparative qiiiescence in the matter of earthquakes, and the seismographs at the Dominion Observatory have been ticking away day after day without recording anything of moment. That two such remarkable records should be obtained within a few hours of each other was quite an unexpected event. An examination of the records shows that each of the earthquakes had quite distinctive characteristics, and these are reflected in the tracings which record the oscillations. It is not thought that there is any connection between the two earthquakes, occurring as thev did at spots such a long distance apart. An interesting theory that earthquakes are in some way related to the movement of the earth’s poles is at present holding much favour in Japan and is being tested at the Dominion Observatory. These two earthquakes, although not welcomed otherwise, will % help in providing data for the testing * of this theory. Good records of earthquakes made in all parts of the world are, when correlated, exceedinglv valuable in helping scientists to greater understanding of the phenomenon, and those made at the Dominion Observatory these last, two will be examined with interest by seismologists in other parts of the world. -