THE GREAT FAULT TROUGHS OF THE ANTILLES 95 



sity being greatest from Petit Goave to Ansa a Veau, but towns 

 as far east as Port-au-Prince had houses thrown down or badly 

 damaged. In the vicinity of Anse a Veau the sea withdrew and 

 then broke with a crash on the shore. 



Soundings indicate that the fault trough of southern Haiti con- 

 tinues westward as a topographic feature at least as far as the end 

 of the Tiburon Peninsula; and, while it cannot be traced farther, 

 the trend of the entire depression is in alignment with the southern 

 scarp of the Bartlett Trough north of Jamaica. Evidence that 

 the north coast of Jamaica is determined by a fault zone has been 

 given elsewhere.' Briefly summarized, it is as follows: 



1. The coast is an almost straight line from Port Maria to 

 Montego Bay, a distance of nearly 113 km., where it is offset about 

 8 km. to the south and then continues westward to Pedro Point. 

 The east-west line between Pedro Point and Montego Bay is con- 

 tinued eastward by the valley of Montego River which runs parallel 

 to the coast for 16 km. 



2. The land rises steeply from the sea to the plateau surface 

 which has an elevation of 300 to 400 m. Wave erosion could not 

 have produced these bluffs in the relatively short time that it has 

 been active, and there is no broad, wave-cut terrace either above or 

 below sea-level. The steep slopes continue below the sea and 

 depths of 1,000 to 2,251 fathoms (1,829 to 4,117 m.) are attained 

 within less than 15 km. of the shore. 



3. There is a sudden change in slope both at the top and bottom 

 of the escarpment. 



4. The Tertiary beds terminate abruptly along the coast and 

 in places the uplift has exposed the older underlying rocks. 



5. The occurrence in modern times of several severe earth- 

 quakes with their epicenters a short distance off- the coast indicates 

 that there is here a zone of instability along which adjustments 

 are still going on. The earthquake of 1692 — one of the great catas- 

 trophes of history — and the destructive earthquake of 1907 

 both originated off the north coast of Jamaica and both were 

 accompanied by sea-waves. 



^Stephen Taber, "Jamaica Earthquakes and the Bartlett Trough," Bull. Sets. 

 Soc. Amer., Vol. X (1920), pp. 55-89. 



