REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, 



Etc. 



Seismological Investigations.— Thirty-tJiird* Report of Committee 

 (Prof. H. H. Turner, Chairman ; Mr. J. J. Shaw, Secretary ; Mr. 

 C. Vernon Boys, Dr. J. E. Crombie, Dr. C. Davison, Sir F. W. 

 Dyson, Sir R. T. Glazebrook, Dr. Harold Jeffreys, Prof. H. 

 Lamb, Sir J. Larmor, Prof. A. E. H. Love, Prof. H. M. Macdonald, 

 Dr. A. Crichton Mitchell, Mr. R. D. Oldham, Prof. H. C. Plummer, 

 Rev. J. P. Rowland, S.J., Prof. R. A. Sampson, Sir A. Schuster, Sir 

 Napier Shaw, Sir G. T. Walker, and Mr. F. J. W. Whipple). 

 [Drawn up by the Chairman except where otherwise mentioned.] 



General. 



We regret to record the death of Mr. W. E. Plummer, Director of the Bidston 

 Observatory, who was a member of this Committee from 1900 until his resignation 

 owing to failing health last j^ear. He set up at Bidston in 1914 the very earliest 

 seismograph of the Mihie-Shaw pattern, replacing a Milne machine which had been 

 set up in 1901. 



Dr. H. Jeffreys writes : — Prof. Emil Wiechert, Director of the Geophysical 

 Institute of Gottingen, died on 1928 March 19, at the age of 66. He was the first to 

 investigate the figure of the Earth on the hypothesis of a rocky shell and a metallic 

 core ; he initiated the great Gottingen series of papers, " Ueber Erdbebenwellen " ; 

 and he was the inventor of one of the best known seismographs. 



The seismograph basement presented to the University of Oxford by Dr. J. E. 

 Crombie has now been completed at the University Observatory, and the two Milne- 

 Shaw seismographs will shortly be transferred to it from the basement of the Clarendon 

 Laboratory, which has been courteously lent by Prof. Lindemann and his predecessor 

 since October 1918. The first instrument (E.W.) was set up there by Mr. J. J. Shaw 

 just in time to catch the big Porto Rico earthquake (1918 Oct. Ud. 14h. 14m. 25s. 

 epicentre 18-5° N., 67-5° W.). 



The salary of Mr. J. S. Hughes has again been provided, half by Dr. Crombie and 

 half by the University ; and it is hoped that this arrangement may be continued at 

 least until the next meeting of the Int. Geod. and Geoph. Union in 1930. 



Helpful telegrams have been received, on the occasion of important earthquakes, 

 from Fordham, Helwan, Hyderabad and Perth (W. Australia). Oddly enough, what 

 was perhaps the biggest shock of the year — the great Mexican earthquake (Oaxaca) 

 of 1928 June 17d. 3h. 19m. 13s. — brought scarcely any telegrams at all ; perhaps 

 because it was presumed that the usual information through the Press would suffice. 

 A large area (extending over nine States) was shaken, but the damage done was less 

 than in other similar cases. Possibly the focus was deep-seated. 



The earthquakes in Bulgaria and at Corinth in April last were less intense, 

 but caused much damage and naturally attracted much attention. A leader in 

 The Times of April 24 contains the following sentences : — 



Yesterday came the news of the destruction of Corinth. In 1858 the city of Old 

 Corinth, which had survived the sack by Mummius — who deservedly became the type 

 of the armed Philistine — and the ravages of Goths, Normans and Turks, received its 

 coup de grdce from the angry earth. . . . New Corinth had low houses and wide 

 streets. ... On Sunday their turn came after seventy quiet years. Under the impact 

 of a long series of shocks house after house went down till only a few new buildings 

 were left standing. 



An earthquake on 1928 Jan. 6d. 19h. 31m. 40s. epicentre 0-2° N., 36-2° E., was 

 noteworthy from the fact that two Milne-Shaw pendulums had recently been set up 

 at Entebbe (4'G° from the epicentre) by the officers of the Geological Survey of Uganda, 

 The instruments were thrown out of action by the violence of the shock, but good 

 readings of P were available. 



* The previous report (1927) was incorrectly numbered: it should have been 

 given as the thirty-second. 



