Palestine and Syria must be prepared for recurring destructive earth-quakes in the future, according to the claim made by Dr. Bailey Willis, a geologist who has just completed a study of the causes and effects of the earthquake of July 11 a despatch from Paris to the New York Times states.
Dr. Willis is now in Paris at the close of a trip around the world under the auspices of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, investigating earthquakes. He arrived at Jerusalem on July 12 and spent four weeks investigating the phenomena.
“This earthquake.” he said, “recalls that the Holy Land is an active earthquake country from the remotest times catastrophes have been recorded there. There has been no break in the sequence which, on the average. comprises a very severe shock in Syria or Palestine about once every century and many other less severe ones.
“There is no reason to suppose the activity is diminishing. Activities in the future are still to be reckoned with.
“In the latest Palestine earthquake the shock was preceded by a thunderous noise and was terrifying, but was moderate in violence in general, judging by the weakness of the buildings which resisted it, and would not have caused any material damage in well-built cities. But the habit of piling up heavy, incoherent walls of mud and stone in the Near East exposes the communites to extreme danger.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
