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Manhattan's leading seismologist, Father Joseph Lynch of Fordham University, talked about flywheels:
"There will always be earthquakes, just as it will always be necessary to adjust flywheels. The spinning of the earth is not unlike a flywheel's motion. Factors are constantly at work calling for readjustment. Pressure on different parts of the earth's crust varies. Even the moon may have some effect. I look upon the quake recorded yesterday as the first of a series."
Backing up Father Lynch, minor shocks occurred last week in New Zealand, South America, Germany.
Disagreeing radically with the seismologists, Naples' dour Cardinal Ascalesi, guardian of St. Januarius' skull, insisted that the real cause of the earthquake was the indecent dresses of Neapolitan women.
"The conduct of our young people," said His Eminence, "has attracted the vengeance of providence."