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1. Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton, Qld. : 1878 - 1954), Saturday 5 June 1937, page 4
"Girdle Of Fire"
Round Pacific
Ocean
New Guinea's Position
In System
New Guinea lies on a line of weak-ness in the earth's crust, and is one of a chain of volcanic islands
stretching through the Moluccas and the Sunds Straits, and linking the Mediterranean volcanic system with
the "girdle of fire" round the Pacific Ocean.
From the Arctic, lines of volcanoes active, dormant, and extinct, stretch through the Atlantic and the Mediter-
ranean, from the shores of further India through Sumatra, Java, the Moluccas and New Guinea, to the great
Pacific ring.
A line of active volcanoes extends
from the Antarctic continent through New Zealand, New Caledonia, Papua, the Philippines, and Japan,
through Kamchatka to the Kuriles, thence to Alaska, California, Mexico, and down the Andes to the extreme
south of America.
Another line is formed by the vol-canoes of the Mediterranean, while the Atlantic chain embraces those of
Ice-land, the Azores, and the Canaries. The northern extremity of the series is found in Jan Meyen, an island
in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most im-portant of all the Atlantic centres.
ONLY ONE IN EUROPE
Vesuvius is the only active volcano on the mainland of Europe, but in the Mediterranean there is Etna in
Sicily; Vulcano and Stromboli, which has been in almost continuous eruption since Homer's day, and, farther
east, the Santorin archipelago, another centre of volcanic activity.
The most important volcanic group
in the Pacific basin is the Hawaiian archipelago, where there are three ac-tive volcanoes and at least 12
extinct examples.
In the small compass of Java, there are 50 volcanic mountains, the largest of which is 12,000 ft. in height.
DR G. D. Osborne, University lecturer in geology, told a "Sydney Morning Herald" representative that it was
a common and erroneous assumption that volcanoes and earthquakes were depen-dent on one another. This
was not so, although they frequently had a com-mon origin. A volcanic eruption did not necessarily involve
an earthquake.
Tidal waves were associated more frequently with earthquakes and often affected wider regions than those
con-nected with volcanoes. Any tidal dis-turbance at Rabaul, however, would be undoubtedly due to
submarine volcanic activity.
ON LINE OF WEAKNESS.
All these forms of disturbance were caused by a weakness in the earth's crust. New Guinea, particularly the
south aide, lay on a line of weakness which was part of the great East-West line coming from the
Mediterranean, and which conflicted with and partly merged with the Pacific trend of
weakness.

2. It was possible, added Dr Osborne, that the eruption at Rabaul would cause some change in the local geo-
graphy. Small islands might appear
above the sea, as had been the case after the great Krakatoa disaster.
The greatest volcanic eruption of modern times took place at the island of Krakatoa, in the Sunda Straits be-
tween Java and Sumatra, on August 26, 1883. The greater part of the is-
land was blown completely away. Waves 100 ft. high destroyed many coastal settlements, and caused more
than 35,000 deaths. The waves were felt at Cape Horn, 7800 miles distant, while the atmospheric disturbance
cracked walls and broke windows in Batavia, 100 miles away.
The year 1902 saw almost simul-taneous eruptions at Mt Pelee, in Mar-tinque and La Soufriers, in St
Vincent. An incandescent cloud of gas enveloped St Pierre, the capital of Martinque, and wiped ont 30,000
people, while in St
Vincent 1100 met their death.
Mt. Bandaisan, in Japan, which had been quiescent for a thousand years, came to life in 1888, when a great
erup-tion blasted off one side, removing about 2982 million tons of material, which was scattered over 27
square miles of country.
New Zealand has had its share of vol-canic activity, perhaps the most mem-orable outburst being the eruption
of Tarawera (North Island) in 1886, when the famous sinter Pink and White Terraces were destroyed.