adji's Explosion

May Have ractical Results

From a Special Correspondent ICIENTISTS, I understand, are now • getting ready to sit in on New Guinea’s “big bang” at Tadji. In •itain and elsewhere they are interested, pecially since the Heligoland explosion letted their appetite for large ex osions.

Says Dr. E. C. Bullard. FRS, telling of e results that modern seismologists are (taming from earthquakes and ex osions, “I have been looking round the Drld for unwanted dumps of ammuni m and for people who will let them f. I find that it is less easv than you ight suppose to find suitable ones. People tve an understandable objection to loud ,ngs, and it is only in rather wild and mote places that one can get away with em.”

Hence the interest in the 3,000 tons bombs near Aitape, on the New Guinea Drth Coast. This is not just superficial terest in sheer destructiveness. Waves om an earthquake, or an explosion, avel at different speeds through dif rent kinds of rock, and usually go ster through the hard rocks. The time ,ey take to reach a given point shows e kind of rocks they have been through. ) the blast may give useful indirect idence of what lies below the surface cks.

Or, as Dr. Bullard puts it, “A study of ie parts of the earth that we cannot see ;epens our understanding of the parts lat we can see, the parts on which we ;pend for our minerals, our metals, and ir fuel.” And he reminds us that the ;epest mine in the world goes less than vo miles into the earth.

One valuable product of the earth it is Dped to find and develop in payable lantities in New Guinea is oil. Now hat Dr. Bullard has to say about the ismological developments in this regard

worth quoting.

“After the first world war,” he says, Jome Germans saw that seismology >uld be more than an academic science, id started to apply the methods de doped for the study of the interior of ie earth to the detailed examination of jology near the surface, and. in par cular, to the finding of oil. For these jplications of seismology small explosions ere used instead of earthquakes as the mrce of the waves. This work was mtinued in America, in Persia, and else here. The results have been outstand ig, and without them we should be even lorter of petrol than we are now.

“The success of this work suggested that rge explosions might be more useful lan earthquakes had been, in the study ’ the earth’s interior. The main dif mlty with an earthquake is that you d not know when or where it is going ) happen; so you cannot place your istrurnents where they will get the most seful records. You must keep them run

ning the whole time, and hope to record something useful when it comes. When an explosion is made deliberately, these difficulties do not occur. You know when and where the explosion will go off, and can get just what you want from it. In this way you can get more information from a ‘single large explosion than from dozens of ordinary earthquakes. The only difficulty is to arrange your explosion.”

So these “useless” bombs —3,000 tons as against 4,000 tons detonated in one enormous bang at Heligoland—may be of some use to Australia and New Guinea after all. When Heligoland went up, parties of seismologists were on the qui vive in all the surrounding countries, and beautifully clear records were obtained at most of the stations. No doubt equally elaborate preparations have been made to record New Guinea’s big bang.

Mr. and Mrs. B. B. Perryman, and Mr.

W H. Carpenter, of Messrs. W. R. Car penter & Co.. Ltd., left Sydney by the last “Malaita” for New Guinea. Mr. and Mrs. Perryman are returning to Rabaul and Mr. Carpenter is making an inspec tion of the New Guinea branches.

The wedding of Dr. P. M. Woods, Government Medical Officer in Madang, to Miss Daphne Camm, took place on June 30. at Madang. The bride arrived by air from Mackay that morning. Rev A A. Maahs performed the ceremony: Mr. J. K. McCarthy, District Officer, gave the bride away; Sister Pauline Moss, of the European Hospital, was bridesmaid; Mr. J. McLellan was best man; and Mrs.

K. Chambers arranged the bridal bouquet At the reception, Mr. and Mrs. J. K.

McCarthy received about 60 guests. An informal atmosphere was created by the buffet supper arranged and decorated by Mrs. R. Sourbee.