MICHIGAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 49 



what broken line for between 200 and 300 miles. Where this fault intersected 

 roadways, fences and other artificial features, it was patent that the land 

 upon the southwest side had been bodily shifted northward a maximum dis- 

 tance of about 21 feet. During the Japanese earthquake of 1896, as well as 

 during the Sonora earthquake of 1S87, two great faults opened upon opposite 

 sides of mountain ranges and the entire included range was bodily uplifted 

 between these fissures by several feet. 



Smaller faults and fissures born during an earthquake are numbered by 

 the hundreds or even thousands. When these appear in parallel groups the 

 ground is sometimes actually sliced by them, as was the case in the recent 

 Alaskan earthquake of 1899. Again, individual fissures may zig-zag across 

 the country with gaping sides, or be detected only through the derangement 

 of the surface drainage within the district. 



With this introduction to my subject, I shall take the liberty of referring 

 to certain observations which I made in Calabria about a year and a half 

 ago, and directly after the heaviest earthquake of that region in more than 

 a century. I was so fortunate as to reach the affected district while the 

 work of succor was still only in part accomplished, and when the destruc- 

 tion wrought could be examined to the best advantage. In Monteleone, 

 though the greater part of the city had escaped serious damage, one could 

 look down the entire length of the Strada di Forgiari along a straight and 

 narrow lane of destruction as clearly marked out as the track of a tornado. 

 Going into the country upon either hand this line was found to be extended 

 by ruined villages, yet nowhere was there a fissure in the ground. General 

 Ferrario, who commanded the division of regular troops engaged in the work 

 of succor, had established his headquarters at Monteleone, though his com- 

 mand had been largely dispersed through the province in order best to render 

 assistance to the people. All reports from subordinate commands reached 

 headquarters at Monteleone, -and with commendable scientific spirit they 

 had been entered upon a great maneuver map in such a way that communes 

 which had suffered most appeared as red s}:)ots upon the map. As soon as 

 this map was exhibited, I remarked that the red spots fell within straight 

 lines which were generally parallel either to the coast line or to the margins 

 of the mountain masses, only to find that this observation had already im- 

 pressed itself upon the staff. ■ ' 



Such a localization of special damage from earthquakes along a series of 

 lines which sustained relationships to the relief of the land surface, obviously 

 called for explanation; and as the borders of the mountain masses had here 

 in most cases been recognized by geologists as fracture lines, i't was at once 

 suspected that the observed relationship was accounted for through an ad- 

 justment at the time of the earthquake between different sections of the 

 earth's crust outlined by the fractures. It had been noticed, after the earth- 

 quake in Japan in 1896, that when the surface faults appeared to die out, 

 their continuation could be followed over the loose soil which covered the 

 rock in the lines of ruined villages. Should it be true that in Calabria the 

 movements had taken place upon hidden planes within the crust, it seemed 

 likely that these planes would have been the seat of movement not once only 

 but many times when earthciuake shocks had been felt within the district. 



No country save perhaps Japan can rival Calabria in the long and tragic 

 record of its earthquakes. For purposes of study an additional advantage 

 favors Calabria, since an Italian seismologist of reputation has recently 

 compiled and carefully edited the scattered records in a work of nearh^ one 

 thousand pages. My field work completed, I repaired to Rome and devoted 

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