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Show HARD TO EXPLAIN WHY EARTH QUAKES Still Much to Be Learned on the Subject. Seismologists' explanations of tfce earthquake prevalence In the Far West offer no basic reasons. They say that the Santa Barbara temblor was tectonic, that It was caused by a recurrent slip along old fault lines near the Pacific coast, and that the slip was probably set In motion by the slight quakes In Montana. This really gets nowhere, for It has long been known that the Pacific coast has many fault lines, and there" is not even an effort to explain why the preliminary tremors were felt In Montana, where there are no fault lines, and where there had been no earthquakes In the memory of man. It Is predicted there will be continuing con-tinuing quakes for some time, and they may be felt In widely separated parts of North America. This is, however, how-ever, no cause for alarm. Except In regions of known earthquake prevalence! prev-alence! where the faults are marked, an earthquake seldom or never does any large damage. The earthquake which a few months ago was lightly felt In Cleveland and more markedly in New England and Canada, was quite Innocuous. The Montana quake was one of the severest In - a non-earthquake non-earthquake region, but the damage was comparatively small and there was no loss of life. As for California, the danger is more real, but it is to be borne In mind' that only two disastrous earthquakes earth-quakes have "been recorded In that state, the really calamitous San Francisco Fran-cisco temblor and the one which recently re-cently caused considerable damage In the small city of Santa Barbara. By the law of probabilities no more cities are due for visitations for a long time. That the danger Is considered very slight Is proved by San Francisco's Fran-cisco's magnificent rebuilding on the ruins of the destroyed city. We csnnot tell the wherefore of earthquakes and we cannot predict when or where they will occur. It Is possible, of course, for cities In earthquake earth-quake regions to build with some thought of earthquake possibilities, but otherwise nothing can be done, and American life is not to be disturbed dis-turbed by phenomena as yet so inadequately in-adequately explained. Cleveland Flaln Dealer. ! I |