Show Valley Lands Are Heavier Than Mountain Soil Expert Reveals I By HARRY B B. B HUNT NEA Service o Writer W WASHINGTON Nov 17 11 Moun 17 Moun- Moun ains are lighter than Ulan valleys vil Submerged Submerged Submerged Sub Sub- merged lands are heavier per area than han the upland plains Such is the decision of William Bowie Bowle chief of at Uncle Undo Sams Sam's geodesy experts whose Job it Is Xo to o study variations van varl- of ot gra gravity vity It n is the tho effort of old Id Mother Earth Karth to adjust changing pressures pressures due to these weights that causes earthquakes hp lIp says ays Bowie pictures the earths earth's s crust as asa asa a covering approximately sixty miles thick lick resting on on a central mass which Which instead of ot being molten as generally Believed has at least the rigidity of steel This crust he conceives as a massoC massof mass of oC f vertical columns comprising respectively respectively re- re mountains plateaus coastal coast- coast al plains and submerged lands At a given iven time these are In a state of ot perfect equilibrium But natural changes disturb this equilibrium Freezing and thawing rain rainfall tall and melting snow erode and wash ash away hundreds of ot millions of ot tons ons from the mountains and high high- lands These are carried out into the ocean cean and deposited as sediment on i ithe tl the he e ocean bed j SLOW LOW MOVEMENT This accumulating weight on OIl the Ue I ocean cean bottom slowly forces forced the co col- col I L L.- L. CO ST L PlA or These ear have the section e ot their heir bases VMS same maw or weight but different volumes The forger th block the smaller is the I i b beLol Ic v ie Material below this depth acts es Os if it t IW were pl plastic to long continued stresses n n 01 rr tJ Ym re SeQ ep r It CO of noen 01 0 fM to I. IfO noi I of aF bl t Diagrams Illustrating Bowies Bowie's theory of above Identical weight columns cOlumns cOlumns' of earth resting on a central mass and below of earth shifting to Keep keep these columns of equal weight of ot crust downward The compensating com corn pen sating movement which must take place is an en upward of ot the mountain column carried through the solid central mass which Is plastic to long continued stresses as Is steel or glass Whenever quick shifts result through some weakness or fault In Inthe Inthe inthe the upper crust or between two cha chaing chafing cha- cha ing weight columns then there is an earthquake Normally however the adjustment In weight proceeds slowly plastically without tremor th the result being that mountain plateau and plain main maintain tam apparently unchanging altitudes being forced upward from below as they are worn away at the top They They- are Bowie says simply floating oVi ou the central mass the lighter columns col floating highest est the tile heavier sections lower or submerged I Every Ever few millions of ot years however however however how how- ever there comes a different re read read- d- d In which new continents and now mountain moul ranges are arc thrown up out of ot the Oceans Ocean's ceans cean's depths and exIsting exIsting existing ex ex- ex- ex continents and mountains sink beneath the seas A submerged column weighted down through the h tho centuries by accumulating I sediment I. I a as much as as' or feet or OOOO In depth pros ea slowly into a rC a zone of oc greater h heat hat a The which l J 1 I k results finally culminates In an up upheaval upheaval upheaval up- up which throws up a a. whole new continent or mountain range JAP QUAKE SLIGHT The Himalayas the highest m mountains moun- moun un In the world were once below the sea Bowie explains citing the power power of such subterranean sion slon Nearly all mountain areas were a at t one time areas of heavy sedi sedi- I This process 01 heavy 1 sedimentation Is now POW going on at the mouth of oC the Congo In m the Indo Indo- region and about the LaPlata LaPlata La ia Plata estuar estuary TI Bow Bowie I. I The recent Japanese quake e contends was not scientifically speaking of or first magnitude The public conception of ot an r earthquake t tut ut by ei the eh ho amount says K t of gauges rd damage g is done Intensity in intensity In- In property and the number of lives lost loar From Irom that standard the Japanese quake was severe But in actual violence vio yb- vio- vio lence and shifting of ot the earths earth's s surface cur Bur face It much lI lighter l r than al tIle the was tyas 1 Chilean al We J quake k of a year ri i ago go or r the Alaskan quake Quale of at 1902 That quake which raised ono one side of Resurrection Insurrection bay In the tha t rep region Ion on between thirty and forty feet teet vertically was a ay y vastly greater quake But since it was was- in a sparsely Inhibited inhabited region legion and anel caused used little or oruO loss 1055 of at life it its Is s remembered only by scientists I |