Science: Earthquake

Seismograph needles, the world over, jumped wildly a fortnight ago. So violently did the earth tremble that many a seismograph was jarred out of commission. One of the severest shocks in years had occurred and scientists pictured one of history’s worst disasters in its wake. That evening they expected to find the press full of hideous headlines—cities razed, thousands killed, islands submerged, raging fires.

But the newspapers had heard of no earthquake. A week passed and no far-flung correspondent cabled, radioed or telegraphed news of a disaster. But seismographs do not lie. There had been an earthquake and it had been violent.

Commander Nicholas H. Heck, earthquake expert of the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, assembled seismograph records, studied them, decided that the dire disturbance had been in western China or in Tibet, where population is thin, communication slow. He waited to hear if mountains had toppled, lonely caravans been swallowed up.