Lastly, at Tura, which is 95 miles west of Maophlang, a battalion of
military police were accustomed to signal by heliograph with another
station, Rowmari, 15 miles farther to the west. This, formerly, could
just be done by means of a ray which grazed a hill between the two
places; it can now be done quite easily, and, in addition, a broad
stretch of the plains east of the Brahmaputra is visible from the same
spot.
_Revision of the Trigonometrical Survey._--The movements described in
the preceding pages are of course referred to points which may
themselves have been displaced, and only a revision of the
trigonometrical survey of the epicentral area and of part of the
surrounding district could determine their absolute magnitude. During
the cold weather of 1897-98, some of the triangles were re-measured by
a member of the trigonometrical survey; but, as the time at his
disposal was short, they were confined to the eastern part of the
epicentral area, as the focus at that time was supposed to lie under
the Khasi hills. The positions of some of these stations are indicated
by crosses in Fig. 75; and in Fig. 77 the more important triangles are
shown. In the revised work, all tower stations, consisting of brick
towers built on alluvium, were omitted, as it could not be assumed
that they had been undisturbed by displacements of the superficial
beds.
In re-calculating the lengths of the sides, the side
Rangsanobo-Taramun Tila was adopted as the initial base, and the
height of Rangsanobo as the initial height; a choice which later
experience showed to be unfortunate, for Taramun Tila probably lies
just outside, and Rangsanobo within, the epicentral area. Of the 16
sides, whose old and new lengths were compared, only one was found to
be apparently unchanged, two were shortened by an inch or two, while
the others were all lengthened by amounts varying from one to eight
or nine feet, the numbers affixed to the sides in Fig. 77 denoting the
calculated increases in feet. Assuming the new base-line to be
unaltered by the earthquake movements, these changes imply the
following displacements of the principal stations:--Thanjinath 6 feet,
Mun 4, and Laidera 2, feet to the north; Mopen 5, Dinghei 9, Landau
Modo 12, and Umter 11, feet to the north-west; and Mosingi 3, and
Mautherrican 5, feet to the west. At the same time, the height of
most of the stations was found to be increased with reference to that
of Rangsanobo: Mun by 2 feet, Thanjinath and Umter by 3, Mosingi by 4,
Taramun Tila and Laidera by 6, Dinghei by 7, Landau Modo by 17, and
Mautherrican by 24, feet; while the height of Mopen seems to have been
diminished by 4 feet. Thus, at first sight, these calculations appear
to indicate "a general elevation and extension of the hills, such as
might follow on a bulging upwards of the surface due to the extension
of a large mass of molten matter underground."
[Illustration: FIG. 77.--Re-triangulation of Khasi hills.
(_Oldham._)]
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