52 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA GEOLOGY 



FUNDAMENTAL DATA PROVED TO BE 

 ERRONEOUS 



The layman may not have clearly comprehended it, 

 but the entire structure of Dr. Willis's theories and 

 damaging predictions were founded upon certain de- 

 ductions from reports of the re-surveys by the United 

 States Coast and Geodetic Survey of its triangulation 

 points situated upon high mountains in California. 

 These observations were made at intervals of years 

 before and after the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, 

 as reported in its Special Publication No. 106, Wash- 

 ington, D. C, 1924, entitled "Earth Movements in Cali- 

 fornia," by William Bowie, Department of Commerce, 

 Serial No. 203. 



The report shows certain astounding results to the 

 effect that the positions of stations in the Coast 

 Ranges between Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz on the 

 west side of the San Andreas Rift had changed north- 

 ward at various rates from four to twenty-four feet in 

 the past thirty years, and that ten or more stations 

 east of the rift had changed southward on an average 

 of about four feet. The differences were between re- 

 sults of old surveys made from 1851 to 1899 and new 

 surveys made after the San Francisco earthquake from 

 1906 to 1922. 



These results, as shown in Plate VI, were astound- 

 ing for, if true, they suggested as has been quoted 

 from Dr. Willis that "mountain masses are moving 

 measurable distances along either side of the San An- 

 dreas fault line." Gaviota Peak, for instance, was re- 

 ported to have moved northward twenty-four feet in 

 thirty years. This supposed movement was inter- 



