EARTHQUAKE OF CENTRAL JAPAN, 1891, 353 



explosion; and of all llie tectonic eartlujiiake« a snddon faultinî^ of tlie 

 solid crust across the strike of strata are said to ])rodnce tlie most 

 fearful kind of eartli-niovements, as is evinced l)y tlie Spanish earth- 

 ([iiake of 1(S,S4, along the transverse fractures of ^lalaga. ]\[otri], and 

 Gnadix across tlie lîetic chain of Andalusia* (Suess' HJattcrlicJn'u), 

 One of the characteristics of the transverse faulting is tlie simultaneous 

 occurrence of the horizontal ' carriage ' of a thick mass along the 

 vertical thrust-})l:ine, which is very rarely ohserved, if ever, in longi- 

 tudinal fissures. 



The hackbone of South Japan — the cordilleras of the Sinical 

 system, traverses the boundary of the two provinces of ]\Iino and 

 Echizen, in the east-west direction, with the prevailing dips of the 

 Pala?ozoic formations towards the north, as is shown in V\. XXV III. 

 A system of p'u-allel, transverse valleys intersects the axis (^f the 

 mountains in an oblique direction from north-west to south-east, and 

 the Xeo vullev, id(Hiir which tlie ' jxreat earth-rent of X"eo ' u'oin"- deei) 

 into the rocky crust was produced, is one of these. A sudden ßdl in g of 

 the Valœozoic strata on the ri(jht n-ing alomj ilte line of tlie ''Jdidt of Xeo,' 

 accompanied hi/ hiteral shiftimj toirard tlie nQiih-irest, caused tlie shal^ing 

 which constituted the hife dreadful catastrophe of Mino, ( hrari, and Ecl>.i:en. 



I wish here to express my thanks to Professors Edward Divers 

 and Dairoku Kikuchi for their kindness in undertaking a laborious 

 and time- wasting work to see the paper through the press. 



April, 1892. Geological Institute of the College of Science. 



* Misfiion d'Aiidaloufii' : FJudfs^ rehibiren an tvcmhlcDicnt du tirrf du '!■'). Dt'irnihn' 1SS4, Mcik. 

 Acad, des Science>t, T, XXX. 



