Abstract
THE violent earth tremors which were experienced on Monday, September 5, over a considerable area about fifty miles south of Algiers (The Times, Sept. 7) cannot be said to have affected an area where earthquakes of destructive intensity are usual. Small tremors are, however, quiet common, especially where the land shelves steeply to the ocean deeps. Between 1911 and 1931, Mme. A. Hée listed 586 tremors, distributed in twenty-two different zones, only four of which reached destructive intensity. The observatory of Alger-Bouzaréah is actively engaged in recording and studying these local earthquakes, and we anticipate more information at a later date. An earth tremor shook Colombo, in Ceylon, early on Sunday, September 11, but no damage is reported (The Times, Sept. 12). In this zone severe earthquakes are practically unknown. Slight earthquakes are common along a line through Madras passing south-south-west near the southern edge of the Deccan of India, and these are often in sympathy with larger ones occurring in northern India, a fact which may be attributable to the strained condition of the peninsula. The Ceylon tremor was most probably a local surface shock due to slipping along a fault. Another strong shock was recorded by the Stuttgart Seismological Station on Sept. 7 d. 4 h. 15 m. (Continued on p. 533) 58 s. with suggested epicentre in Formosa, but no confirmation has yet been obtained.
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Recent Earthquakes. Nature 142, 508 (1938). https://doi.org/10.1038/142508d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/142508d0