F. A. Ferret — Report on the Messina Earthquake. 333 



to the type which he denominates " inter-volcanic." In their 

 nature they are, of course, tectonic, and I often permit myself 

 to ask if the primal cause of all tectonic earthquakes may not 

 yet be found in magmatic intrusion, the fact of their non- 

 occurrence in the immediate neighborhood of active volcanic 

 vents and of their prevalence in the steeply folded portions of 

 the earth's surface constituting, in my opinion, an argument 

 for, and not against, the hypothesis. 



Fig. 12. 



Fig. 12. North end of Quay. 



At all events, this portion of the Italian peninsula lying, as 

 it does, between the Tyrrhenian and Ionian deeps and subject 

 to the upheaval revealed by the Quaternary terraces of the 

 Aspromonte, must be considered as one of the most pro- 

 nouncedly seismic areas of the globe. This being the case, it is 

 idle and harmful to encourage the hope that this region will not 

 be subject in the future, as it has been in the past, to frequent 

 and severe earthquakes. Rather should it be impressed upon 

 both government and people that, sooner or later, these are 

 certain to occur and that the proper construction of houses to 

 withstand their effects is an absolute necessity. Only thus, 

 with the active prosecution of the study of prediction, may we 



