FORECASTING EARTHQUAKES.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume L, Issue 12145, 8 December 1908, Page 4

FORECASTING EARTHQUAKES.

New Zealand is to stiffer severely fron an earthquake, and possibly an erup-

tion, in 1911. Such is the forecast given by Professor Nowaek;, of weather plant fame, io a London correspondent of tho "New Zealand Times." Though Professor Nowaek's scheme of forecasting weather and sehmic disturbances by weather plants obtained from Cuba, has aroused a good deal ,of interest', scientific circles have been sceptical. He j has a theory that earthquake's* arid j

eruptions are not isolated happenings, but are all more or less in sympathy, ; and in certain lines of direction. These j linos he has traced on a chart of the • world. On another chart he has drawn'i lines based upon observations of baro- j metric pressures and sun spots- He lays tho second cliart over the first, and tho crossing of a red line and a blue marks a spot \vhere> a disturbance may .be expected. Where- does the weather plant come in? It has the peculiar property of being susceptible to atmospheric changes. "The indications I have learnt to observe from the movement of its leaves are such that frequently I can determine those changes months ahead. It acts like a sensitive plant. The leaves curl or point upward or downward as the caso may be-,- Each movement has a, definite significance, which to detail would take too long now. The plant, moreover, becomes violently agitated by sun spots. j By its activities, I was enabled to fol- ! low atmospheric and solar phenomena which, together "with the definite movement of the lines of direction, made the .forecasting; of seismic disturbances a matter of mathematical calculation.' People pall me a weather prophet. I am nothing so mystical, but simply a calculator." The Professor thought the outbreak would bo in the vicinity of Cook Strait, but could not give a dato for it until1 he had obtained fresh plants from Cuba, and observed their L behaviour. It is to bo hoped, says the " "Press," that someone- representing ifto Dominion ■ will keep an eye on the "Professor, and keep us posted in his conclusions. Such forecasts naturally provoke "a simile, hut he claims to have been astonishingly successful in his predictions. Some fourteen years ago lie deposited a.plan of the earth with the Meteorological Office in' London; giving dates and places when and where volcanic, disturbances could be expected for a period, of years ending 1910. Amongst those shown were the outbreaks at Martinique, Jamaica, San Francisco, India, Turkey^ and .Valparaiso. . ' . _~.. ' ■••■'•*'■'*.. '■■■' :. _■'■ '■ '■'■ ■"