Storm and Surf Microseisms 



107 



Passing now to the proponents of the surf 

 center theory loosely so called, the work of 

 Kammer and Dinger is cited. Quite properly 

 Dr. van Straten states that she must accept all 

 of the published data as valid. It is one thing 

 to accept the data as valid — it is quite another 

 thing to accept author's conclusions from data 

 as valid. 



Dr. van Straten states that "Kammer and 

 Dinger demonstrate that microseisms occur 

 only if surf action is appreciable and that the 

 magnitude of response to surf action is such as 

 to mask any direct storm response." I think 

 that is a fair statement of the conclusion of 

 Kammer and Dinger, but I emphasize that it 

 is their conclusion from their data and not 

 merely a statement of their data. 



Since it is Kammer and Dinger who are 

 being criticized, it seems fair to quote them 

 verbatim. Their conclusion in NRL Memoran- 

 dum Report No. 3 reads : "No microseisms can 

 be identified as being propagated through the 

 earth from the storm center when the storm is 

 over deep water. Therefore the early warning 



value of microseisms in the Atlantic and Carib- 

 bean seems to be non existent!" 



I cannot agree that this necessarily follows 

 from their data. The old logicians had a say- 

 ing "QUI NIMIS PROBAT, NIHIL PROBAT!" 

 He who proves too much proves nothing. 



That Kammer and Dinger did not get any 

 bearings on the center of the storm is an ex- 

 tremely interesting and important fact. That 

 their comparatively meagre experiments dem- 

 onstrate that no bearings can be obtained 

 from the center of the storm is too sweeping an 

 assertion. Gilmore did obtain bearings on the 

 center of the storm in deep water. The inter- 

 esting problem to be solved now is — "Why did 

 Kammer and Dinger fail to get bearings while 

 Gilmore succeeded?" Gilmore too failed on oc- 

 casion. What are the conditions that cause 

 failure? 



The problem of the two conflicting views 

 on microseisms is very much like the problem of 

 the nature of light that confronted physicists 

 during the past few decades. Is light a corpus- 



ONE MINUTE 



Figure 2. Microseisms recorded by Benioff vertical seismograph at Pasadena. 



