EARTHLY PARADISE 



2765 



EARTHQUAKE 



lined, stone-paved corridors, often 

 planned with a sharp bend, as at 

 Tealing, Forfarshire, where it is 

 80 ft. long, 5 ft. 8 ins. high, with 

 cup-markings. On the moor of 

 Clova, Aberdeenshire, about 50 of 

 these so-called Picts' Houses lie 

 within two sq. m. At Skerrebrae, 

 Orkney, several groups of cham- 

 bers one 21 ft. by 11 ft. were 

 reached from a common corridor. 

 At Cairn Conan, Arbroath, the 

 underground chamber lay near 

 surface foundations, pointing to its 

 probable use for refuge and storage 

 in connexion with surface dwellings. 

 The cultural range of the asso- 

 ciated remains querns, spindle- 

 whorls, horn and bronze imple- 

 ments, rough pottery, Samian ware 

 resembles that of the Broch. 

 Similar structures occur in Ireland 

 and Cornwall. See Underground 

 Dwellings. 



Earthly Paradise, THE. Poem 

 or cycle of narrative poems by 

 William Morris, published in four 

 parts from 1868-70. The stories, 

 chosen from classical and medieval 

 sources, are supposed to be told by 

 a miscellaneous group of 14th cen- 

 tury story-tellers, banded together 

 in search of that earthly paradise 

 which gives its name to the whole. 

 The first poem in the series, The 

 Life and Death of Jason, was pub- 

 lished as a separate volume, 1867. 



Earth Movement. Ever since 

 the outer rocky layer, or crust, was 

 formed on the surface of the earth, 

 it has been crumpled, folded, and 

 otherwise disturbed. Areas have 

 been elevated or depressed within 

 historic times, as may be seen 

 along the sea coasts. Thus, at the 

 Temple of Serapis at Pozzuoli, near 

 Naples, a pavement now below 

 present beach-level, with several 

 neighbouring pillars, still upright, 

 which bear marks of boring by 

 shell-fish that never live above high- 

 water mark, indicates both move- 

 ments. At more remote periods, 

 sea-beaches have been raised many 

 feet above present beach-level ; on 

 the other hand, depression of land 

 has caused areas of thick vegeta- 

 tion to be turned into submerged 

 forests. 



Simple movements of elevation 

 have raised great land-masses to 

 form plateaux. When the strain on 

 the strata becomes too great, frac- 

 tures take place, the lines where 

 they break being known as faults. 

 In this way large areas are some- 

 times let down to a level lower than 

 the surrounding country, and rift 

 valleys have been formed. The 

 valley of the Jordan is an example. 

 The Dead Sea, the Red Sea, Nyasa 

 and Tanganyika, and other lakes 

 in E. Africa, lie in such areas. 

 Earth stresses producing horizontal 



movements result in crumpling and 

 folding of strata, and, on a large 

 scale, in the formation of mountain 

 chains. The Alps are folding mts. 

 Rock-beds may be arched, forming 

 anticlines, or depressed into 

 troughs, forming synclines ; com- 

 plications in bending may result in 

 compound flexure or fan-structure. 

 See Earthquake ; Fault. 



Earth-Nut Cake. Artificial 

 feeding stuff. It is prepared from 

 the underground fruit of the legu- 

 minous plant variously known as 

 earth-nut, ground-nut, monkey- 

 nut, or pea-nut (Arachis hypogaea), 

 after the oil has been extracted. 

 In the decorticated form, which is 

 better known than the undecorti- 

 cated, the husk has been removed, 

 and it is then a good substitute for 

 decorticated cotton-cake. Per- 

 centage composition : Water, 10 '43; 

 oil, 8-17; albuminoids, 48'32 ; 

 digestible carbohydrates, 22 '99 ; 

 fibre, 4-67 : ash, 5'42. 



Earth Pillar. Pillars of clay 

 capped by stones. In an area con- 

 sisting of clav or soft rock contain- 



Eartb Pillar. Example of this curious 

 nature formation at Euseigne, 

 Switzerland. It is caused by large 

 stones, acting like umbrellas, protect- 

 ing the rock beneath, after the softer 

 material nas been washed away by rain 



ing large stones the softer materials 

 will be readily washed away by the 

 rains, but the stones, acting like 

 umbrellas, will protect the clay or 

 soft rock immediately beneath 

 them. In this way pedestals 

 capped by stones are formed. See 

 Geology ; Rock. 



Earth Plate. Metal plate, fre- 

 quently of copper. Buried in the 

 ground, to it the end of an electric 

 conductor is secured. In telegraphy 

 an earth plate is employed at each 

 end of a conductor. See Circuit. 



Earthquake. The crust of the 

 earth, the outside layer of solid 

 rock, is not always still ; it is sub- 

 ject to strain and stress due to the 



cooling of the earth, to its revolu- 

 tion, and to the attractive force 

 of the other heavenly bodies. The 

 crust not being homogeneous, 

 these strains produce varied re- 

 sults in different areas. Large 

 sections of the crust have sunk 

 below the general level of the 

 neighbouring portions; thus, for 

 example, the basin of the western 

 Mediterranean is a depression 

 caused by sinking of this nature 

 during remote geological eras. The 

 edges of such depressions are lines 

 of weakness in the crust, and are 

 usually marked by the existence of 

 extinct or active volcanoes. In the 

 western Mediterranean area are the 

 volcanoes Strom bo li, Etna, and 

 Vesuvius, as well as the extinct 

 volcanoes of Central France. 



These lines of structural weak- 

 ness in the outer crust of the earth 

 sometimes give opportunity for 

 earthquakes, which occur when a 

 hidden segment of the crust breaks 

 away from its original location. 

 The shock produced by the sudden 

 fracture sets up vibrations in the 

 solid matter of the earth's crust, 

 and these vibrations, waves or 

 tremblings, travel long distances 

 and produce movements in build- 

 ings, bridges, rly. lines, etc. Near 

 the volcanoes in Italy there have 

 been two great recent earthquakes : 

 the Neapolitan earthquake of 

 1857, in which more than 12,000 

 lives were lost, and that of Messina 

 in 1908, which cost 77,000 lives. 

 In Sept., 1920, earthquake shocks 

 occurred in N. and Central Italy, 

 causing hundreds of deaths and 

 much damage. The modern study 

 of earthquakes, the science of 

 seismology, dates from 1857. . 



Earthquakes usually arise at no 

 great depth below the land surface, 

 and the stability of the " outer 

 skin " of the earth depends partly 

 upon its angle of slope. Earth- 

 quakes are not to be expected 

 where there are extensive plains, 

 but wherever the slope of the land 

 is very steep the rocks tend to slip 

 and give rise to earthquake shocks. 

 The coast lands of the Pacific are 

 usually tilted very sharply ; deep 

 water is close to the sea shore 

 and high mts. rise close to the 

 coast; consequently, Japan is a 

 land of earthquakes, which also 

 occur in New Zealand near Wel- 

 lington, while San Francisco was 

 devastated by the earthquake and 

 subsequent fire of 1906. For a 

 similar reason there have been 

 severe shocks near the base of the 

 Himalayas, e.g. at Shillong, Assam, 

 in 1897. The highest mts. of the 

 world are located roughly along 

 two lines in America from N. to 

 S. close to the Pacific shores, in the 

 Old World in a west-east direction 



