 What reason did the newspaper have to focus on the possible active volcano theory and not the opinion of the geographer?
Sunday supplements ran four-color artists' conceptions of the possible volcano. "Only Active Volcano in U. S.?" demanded the headlines, and some papers even left off the question mark. Only Joseph Schwartzberg, head geographer of the Department of the Interior, wondered if the disturbance might not be a settling of the Kiowa Fault. The idea was not nearly so exciting as a volcano, even a lava-less one, and you couldn't draw a very dramatic picture of it. The dust volcano was on the face of it a more plausible theory. East, where sharp reports and muffled wheezes told of continued buckling and dropping, the earth trembled downward.
 Simply that the idea of an active volcano was much more interesting to the public.
 There wasn't enough evidence to disprove the active volcano theory.  There wasn't enough evidence to write about the fault line theory.  Simply that the idea of an active volcano was much more interesting to the public.  Joseph Schwartzberg was the only geologist saying otherwise.