WE MAY HAVE AN EARTHQUAKE

But There Is No Probability of a Bad One, Says W. S. Valiant—Milltown Center of a Geological Movement That May Cause a Convulsion.

Is New Brunswick liable to have a serious earthquake? A good many people have asked each other that question in the last two weeks. A Home News reporter asked it of W. S. Valiant, curator of Rutgers College and an authority on geology. Mr. Valiant said that this section was liable to earthquakes and has had them, but how serious one might come here was impossible to come anywhere near guessing.

“The San Francisco earthquake,” said Mr. Valiant, “was caused by a sudden movement in what is known in geology as a fault. This is a fissure in the earth’s crust which has become detached from the adjoining strata.

“There are two very large faults in the San Francisco peninsula and it was a sudden movement in one of them that caused the earthquake there.

“These faults are found in all parts of the world where the surface is broken up by rough, mountainous country. A large fault exists under the Harlem River, where the Croton aqueduct crosses. A serious movement in this would cut off New York’s water supply just as was San Francisco’s in the recent shock. There are several faults in New Jersey’s strata, a small one existing in New Brunswick, near Fox’s Gully. Of course, the larger the fault, the more serious the earthquake it could cause. This season, however, is far less liable to earthquakes than is the Western coast of the country. It is a well-established fact that the older the land is, the less liable it is to earthquakes. We are living on the edge of the oldest land that exists in the world. The Adirondack mountains were the first land to appear above the water, with the possible exception of the rock of Gibraltar. The first continent reached out from the Adirondacks as far west as Wisconsin and as far south as Tennessee. All the rest of North America, South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia, all made their appearance later. Of course, the growth of other parts has been much more rapid than this and that is why the Rockies, the Andes, and Himalayan mountains are so much higher than the Appalachians.

“All the time, however, the land is growing up along the borders of the continents and this edge of North America is no exception. There is a slow movement going on which raises this country higher and higher above sea level. This is accomplished by the silt carried down by the rivers to the ocean and the building up along the ocean has the effect of squeezing back the land. The center of this movement, as far as can be ascertained, is at Milltown. If there is ever any very serious convulsions of the earth in New Jersey, Milltown is liable to be the center of it. The movement now going on must result sometime in a new range of mountains being thrown up on the Atlantic coast and one of these eminences will be where Milltown now stands. Of course, all this is in the far distant future, countless ages ahead. It is not likely that anyone now living will see even the slightest indication of the upheaval that is bound to come in this neighborhood. That the land is rising, however, requires no other proof than the Raritan River affords. There are men now living who can remember when there was enough water in the river to float large vessels up to the Landing bridge; indeed, the bridge got its name from the boats unloading there. But I would like to see anything but the smallest boats get up there now. This is not because the river has filled up with deposits, but because the bed has risen at least three feet, within the memory of men now living in this city.”

Mr. Valiant said that the earthquake question need not trouble anyone here, because it is only a possibility. It is impossible to tell when an earthquake will occur, geologists can only indicate the places where they can occur.