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Show A Beep Hole. j For the last 200 or 80 years there haa ! been much speculation among scientific men as to the exact cause of the phenomenon phe-nomenon of earthquakes, which has in-1 cidentolly added new interest to tire query: How thick is the earth's crust? In discussing the earthquake problem . different schools of scientists have taken different views of the matter, one branch of them supposing the "quake" to be the result of an effort of the great internal heat to escape through a weak portion of the earth's crust; the others declare that it is caused by shrinkage of the outer strata on account of the cooling process going on deep down in the bowels of the earth. About ten or twelve years ago the German Ger-man government made a gigantic effort to settle this perplexing question for all time to come by sinking a shaft near the city of Schladebach, with the object especially ef obtaining trustworthy data concerning the rate of increase of the earth's temperature with each succeeding succeed-ing 100 or fraction of 100 feet of descent. At last accounts the shaft had reached a depth of 1,302 meters, which is believed to be the greatest depth to which man has yet penetrated the substratum of the globe. The temperature of the shaft at the 1,300 meter level was 48 degs. centigrade, centi-grade, or 120 Fahrenheit If thia percentage per-centage of increase is maintained the boiling point of water will be reached at about 8,000 meters, and at 45 miles the heat would be sufficient to melt any known substance. St. Louis Republic j |