EARTHQUAKE OF CENTRAL JAPAN, 1891. 3()3 



shcjuld be counted among this class of convulsions will be argued 

 out in detail in the sequel. 



ß) As we have already said, the stress proceeding from contraction 

 of the eartli resolves itself into tw(j elements, of which one acts more 

 or less in a tangential or horiz(3ntal direction, while the other works 

 vertically, and dislodges a large tract of land into a caldron-like de- 

 pression. Of tlie dislocations due to the tangential component, we 

 have already given a general sketch. Now it will l)e clearly apparent 

 that, while these horizontal shiftings are going on, especially along 

 transverse faults, some parts will receive a passive movement in the 

 vertical direction, resulting in a local dovvnfidl of beds and in landslips 

 on a large scale, as if also the radial component were working from 

 great depths. 



Tlie (jemiiiie radial movement should not he confounded with siicli a 

 local depression of strata into a holloiv in the superficial part of the crust, 

 as that of Fujitani in tlie Nco ralleij, which, up to the present, is supposed 

 to hare been the sole cause of the earthquake that convulsed nearly tlie 

 ivhole of Southern Japan in Octoher, 1891. True radial displacement, of 

 which we are now speaking, is the downward movement of an im- 

 mense tract of the solid crust, and its effect does not usually come 

 clearly into relief in a country, except in a less disturbed bed like 

 that of the Plateau of Colorado. 



The caldron-like dej)ression resuhing from vertical displacement, 

 topographically known as a basin, can be found in various locali- 

 ties along the inner or Japan-Sea c(^ast of the Main Island, which 

 curves down from the Ivuriles (Chishima) to Kyu-shû, with its 

 convex side towards the l*acific Ocean. Here, as on the Tyrrhenian 

 <-oast along the inner side of the Apennine curve, we find, with Dr. E. 

 Xauinann*, a number oï depressed basins, each having a gigantic 



* Ueber den. Ban unci die Entstehung der japanischen Inneln, p. 74. 



