1908] on Recent Earthqimhes. 141 



miles in length. The largest fault which has been created in 

 extremely recent geological times seems to be the Great Rift Valley 

 of Central Africa. We are told that it commences in the south near 

 Lake Nyassa, passes northward through Tanganyika, the great lakes 

 of Central Africa, branches north-eastward towards Lake Rudolph, 

 up the Red Sea, through Akaba to the Jordan Valley, a distance of 

 4000 miles. In certain districts it shows itself as a strip of country 

 let down between two parallel fractures. It has been compared to 

 the cracks which can be seen in the moon. If we accept this as a 

 reality, we have only to imagine this Great Rift fault to be extended 

 as regards its length and breadth, and we have a trough in many 

 respects similar to that which holds, not 30 lakes, but the waters of 

 the Atlantic. If we look at the Atlantic, either as shown on a 

 Mercator's chart or on a globe, we notice the complimentary resem- 

 blances between the contours of the old world and the new. Then, if 

 we draw a line down the submerged backbone of this ocean, we see 

 that this is the reflection of the European and North Af i-ican western 

 coast line. Next, if these old world contours are pushed westwards 

 towards this median line, while the contours of the two x\mericas are 

 pushed eastwards, we find that one approximately fits in with the 

 other. The fit becomes more marked if we bring together the sub- 

 merged edges of Continental shelves or lines representing the general 

 direction of the opposing coast lines. Another point not to be over- 

 looked, is that the rock formations on the west side of the Atlantic 

 are very similar to those in the same latitude on the eastern side. It 

 is as if we had a street with the shops on one side of it exactly similar 

 to those on the other side. In Northern Spitzbergen and again in 

 Greenland, we find a large development of crystalline and palaeozoic 

 rocks, and these continue southwards through Labrador, Newfound- 

 land, Maine and southwards through the Alleghanies. They again 

 appear in Brazil as far south as Monte Video. On the eastern 

 frontier of the Atlantic from Scandinavia through Scotland and 

 Ireland, Wales, Western France and Western Africa as far as Cape 

 Town, we see a replica of the two Americas. The Atlantic is a canal, 

 the opposing banks of which are symmetrical in form and geological 

 material. An idea, but one which is not very probable, which this 

 suggests is that at some very early period in the world's history two 

 Rift Valleys, one parallel to the eastern submerged backbone of the 

 Atlantic, and the other parallel to its western frontier, were formed. 

 Separation subsequently took place along these faults, and these 

 under the influence of surface and underground activities, have 

 continually increased. If, then, the Atlantic had an origin due to 

 Rift Valley formation, rather than to folding or contraction, then 

 the greatest earthquake in the history of the world may have taken 

 place when east became east and west became west, and our world 

 was cracked from pole to pole. 



Just as the frequency of earthquakes has fluctuated during geo- 

 logical time, similar fluctuations have taken place during historical 



