Science: Restive Earth

A few hours steaming from where Dutch seaplanes bombed De Zeven Provincien (see p. 17), lies a volcano, Krakatoa, which blew up 50 years ago, killed 36,000 East Indian islanders. Last week Krakatoa snorted, belched volcano ash. Lava drooled over the crater's lips.

Stuttgart, Karlsruhe, Rastatt, all Germany's Black Forest region shook last week with the most violent earthquake it has felt this quarter century. Also shaken were the Argentine provinces of Tucuman, Salta, Santiago del Estero.

Seismographers guessed the place at the time. But not until last week when a traveler emerged from inarticulate inner Asia, did all mankind know that day after last Christmas an earthquake of "catastrophic intensity" had wrecked the populous Kaotai District of Kansu Province, middle China, where the Great Wall ends in a snarl of mountains. Deaths estimated from refugee reports: 70,000; deaths reported officially, 280.