Abstract
QUITE recently we noticed a paper by Prof. Milne, of Japan, which contained exhaustive records of nearly 250 earthquakes that occurred in that country in two years, and which was an earthquake history of Northern Japan during that period. We have now before us another paper from the same indefatigable investigator, also on earthquakes, but on a totally different branch, viz. seismic experiments—in other words, on artificial earthquakes. These experiments are so original in their inception, and in some respects so unexpected in their results, that they are worth describing at some length. The paper, which was read before two successive meetings of the Seismological Society of Japan towards the close of last year, covers over eighty octavo pages, and contains several illustrations; but it will be possible to extract its principal results in a comparatively short space, There were in all ten series of experiments, carried on over three years. The object was to study phenomena connected with earth-vibrations produced either by some explosive like dynamite, or by allowing a heavy weight to fall from a height. Each set of experiments involved several weeks' preparation; amongst the chief difficulties to be overcome were the procuring, transporting, and storing dynamite, putting the observing-stations in telegraphic connection, arranging the firing apparatus, making electric fuses, and the like, and doing all this in the midst of a populous city. These initial difficulties could never have been overcome but for the assistance of various departments of the Japanese administration, and it is pleasing to notice the help which Japanese officials freely render Prof. Milne in his interesting and important work in the field of seismic science. Nevertheless, he warns his readers at the outset that his experiments were such that it is hardly just to expect them to be carried out satisfactorily by a private individual; the trouble, expense, danger, and magnitude of the arrangements which they involve make them fitter undertakings for an army corps.
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Artifical Earthquakes . Nature 32, 114–115 (1885). https://doi.org/10.1038/032114a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/032114a0