Science: Continents on the Loose

Over southern Luzon stands a plume of ashy smoke (see cut). Mt. Mayon in the Philippines has again blown its graceful top. Most other recent seismic unrest (earthquakes and volcanoes) has also hit the shores of the Pacific: Peru, the Aleutians, Japan. Hasty guessers have therefore concluded that a wave of seismic shakes is burrowing molelike, and counterclockwise, around the Pacific. Having passed the Philippines, quivers and brimstone ought to strike the East Indies next, then the New Guinea region, then New Zealand, and back to Chile and Peru.

Calmer seismologists say that in 50 years they may be able to...

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