Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
for, in a learned way, as the result of “seismic disturbances.” Does the absence
of annoyance in the late tenant's experience demonstrate that there are no
such things as seismic disturbances, or, at all events, none in Athol? And, if
this be not quite a logical inference, is it more logical to infer that the recent
tenant's immunity from noises proves that there are no such things as bogies,
in Athol at any rate? or would it not be fair to say that what is sauce for the
seismic goose is sauce for the psychic gander?
obediently yours, An Earnest Inquirer
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In other words, the evidence for earthquakes and for ghosts would rise and
fall together. Seismic and psychic research unfolded according to the same
rules. Each depended on the negotiation of authority between metropolitan
experts and provincial residents. Comrie's status as a center of either para-
normal or seismic activity hinged on its ability to draw London's experts to
the scene. those experts expected to be able to issue the final interpretation
of local shudders and creaks. However, from James Drummond to the pro-
prietors of Ballechin, Comrie maintained a tradition of refusing to submit
to metropolitan scientific authority.
“Who Killed the British Earthquake?”
In 1972 Queen Elizabeth II presided over the festive opening of a new ex-
hibit hall at the London Geological Museum. It bore the romantic title “the
Story of the Earth,” inspired by Mahler's “Das Lied von der Erde.”
70
Ac-
cording to the curator, Frederick Dunning, the hall was “designed expressly
for people with no knowledge of geology whatever, but nevertheless with
above-average intelligence: the level of IQ we had in mind was around
115.” From the start, Dunning's vision for the exhibit had included a ma-
chine that would simulate the experience of an earthquake: “a mechanically
vibrated platform on which a visitor can stand and at the press of a but-
ton experience a simulated earthquake shock accompanied by the familiar
'express-train' sounds.”
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the popularity of this “earthquake machine” re-
called the Lisbon panorama to which Londoners flocked in 1848. over a
century later, the entertainment value of a simulated temblor was still a
function of the exoticism of earthquakes to British sensibilities.
By 1972, however, the British could no longer afford to be so compla-
cent. As the scale of human construction grew in the twentieth century,
so did the vulnerability of edifices to weak seismicity. with the advent of
nuclear power, even a small tremor could unleash catastrophe. As the Ed-
