186 OCEANOGRAPHY 



because a wave proceeds at different speeds in different depths of 

 water. 



Mr. CuRTix. That is all, Mr. Chairman. 



Mr. Miller. "Wliat is the cost of maintaining the network? 



Captain Earle. Sir, we get about $21,000 a year but, of course, we 

 absorb most of the cost in our seismic and magnetic station costs. 

 Specifically allotted for the seismic seawave warning system is 

 around $21,500 a year. 



Mr. ISIiLLER. There are a lot of these stations. I assume the one at 

 Scripps would be maintained by the Scripps Institution ? 



Captain Earle. That is correct, sir. At the stations in our mag- 

 netic and seismological nets, most of the cost of maintaining the 

 seismic seawave warning system is borne by the other functions. 



Mr. Miller. Nearly every big university has a seismographic 

 center. 



Captain Earle. That is right, and we depend on our own, and 

 particularly the seismographs at CalTech and the University of Cali- 

 fornia. Dr. Byerly and Dr. Press are very loyal in seeing that their 

 reports are forwarded immediately. Those are the ones we can de- 

 pend on in California. 



Mr. Miller. Is that not true around the world ? 



Captain Earle. The Japanese are very prompt in forwarding re- 

 ports from Tokyo Univei-sity. At other universities we have coopera- 

 tive arrangements. Of course, this does not affect the seismic seawave 

 warning system. We sometimes pay an assistant professor on a con- 

 tract up to $100 a month to tend tlie instrument, read the records, and 

 send us a report once a month. This is for our epicenter location 

 work. 



In some universities we supply the instrumentation and they do 

 the rest, but some will not do it that way and we want better records. 



Mr. ]\Iiller. Is there any progi^ess being made in predicting 

 earthquakes ? 



Captain Earle. I would say at the present time, no. There are 

 all kinds of studies being made relative to strain gages which we put 

 in deep holes and various other things but it is all in the line of re- 

 search and I do not think they liave come up with anything that gives 

 us any hope of pi-edicting earthquakes as yet. 



j\Ir. JSIiLLER. I remember that many yeai-s ago somebody came out 

 and make statements that the next major earthquake on the Pacific 

 coast would take place in the Los Angeles area and people down there 

 were up in arms because it affected some real estate deals and one 

 thing and another. 



I guess maybe the next one Avas down in that part of the countr}-. 

 I come from Alameda County and we get our shaie of them. 



Captain Earle. With regard to that point, in our office here, we 

 continually get letters from people who are predicting earthquakes. 

 Two of them are very persistent — one in this country, and one in 

 France who does it by astrology. We just file them away and pos- 

 sibly compare data when we have a major event. 



Mr. Miller. Of course, you always have those people who say, 

 "This is eartliquake weather." 



Captain Earle. That is right. I have heard that, too, sir. 



