The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-06-13
MAY GET SHAKING UP.
ARE LIKELY
 TO BE HEADED

l A question arising out of the Mar
 unique disaster, and one that seems to
 have escaped completely the attention
 of scientists, is whether the seismic and volcanic disturbance in the islands
 of Martinique, St, Vincent, St. Lucia,
 Guadeloupe, and others will not result
 in series of underground disturbances
 that will be felt in the United States,
 especially in the southern and western
 parts.
 This question is far more important
 and serious than it may at first appear,
 and, what is more, it's likelihood Is
 backed on all sides by the strongest
 kind of proof and precedent. To make
 this clear, it is first necessary to explain
 that, broadly speaking, earthquakes
 and volcanoes are confined within cer-
 tain definite areas, and that beyond the
 boundaries of these earthquake zones
 seismic and volcano phenomena are
 comparatively unknown. In fact there
 are large areas of the earth's surface in
 which such pheonmena are completely
 unknown, nothing of the kind having
 occurred from the dawn of history
 down to the present day.
 This earthquake zone takes the form
 of ribbon, and beginning in the Ant
 arctic continent, in the neighborhood Of
 the two active volcanoes, Mount Erebus
 and Mount Terror, that lie at distance
 of 1000 miles or more to the south or
 New Zealand runs in northeasterly
 direction to Cape Horn and up the west
 coast of South America. Reaching the | Isthmus of Panama, this ribbon, or
 zone, divides, one fork turning east and running through Venezuela, Guiana.
 Trinidad, Martinique. St. Vincent, Bar
 badoes. Guadeloupe, St. Kitts, Porto Rico. Haiti, Cuba thence through
 Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas, and from there west through the Mississippi valley to the Pacific coast, rsjoining the other branch of the ribbon running north through Central America and Mexico. Coalescing, the zone then ex- tends north along the west coast of North America into Alaska and the Aleutian islands Thence from the Aleutian islands south through Kam- chatka, Japan, Formosa, the Philip pines, the Malay peninsula and Su- matra to Java.
 THE RIBBON AGAIN DIVIDES.
 In the last named island the great earthquake and volcano ribbon again divides, one branch running sonth through Borneo, Celebes, New Geuinea- Australia and New Zealand, and thence on south to the place of beginning in the Antarctic continent, making a com plete circle over very large section of the earths surface. The other branch runs west through India, Persia, Tur key. Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal, through Central France and Rhenish Prussia, disappearing under the North Atlantic, to again reappear in Iceland in the active volcano, Mount Mecla, and the geysers of that country. The last named branch is very much broken and rather indistinct, and the connection is far less complete than the parent rib- bon running from the Antarctic up through South America, Mexico, the Antilles and West Indies and along the Pacific coast of North America.
 Bearing these facts in mind it is easy to see that part of the United States
 lies within the earthquake and volcano zone, and that by reason of the same it is not only possible, but quite likely that the disaster at Martinique may produce earthquakes within the United States. The only question that is likely to strike the mind of the reader is whether or not there is any pCecedent for such a thing. This is easily and quickly answered, for history is full of the most striking proof that seismic and volcanic disturbances in the Antilles have in every case been at- tended by corresponding phenomena in the United States.
 In December 1911, the United States experience the most terrific and far reaching seismic disturbance in its his- tory or in what is known as the New Madrid earthquake, which was felt in almost every state in the Union, and which changed completely the topogra- phy of region of 150 square miles, en1- bracing the whole of Southern Illinois, Western Kentucky, West Tennessee, | Northeast Arkansas and Southeast | The town from which this earthquake took its name and in the neghborhood of which the | shocks were most severe was an old fort 1 and trading post which the Spaniards, l then in possession of Louisiana, estab- ished on the Mississippi river in 17So | fto-day the town is situated in Mis- | souri, twelve miles inland from the riv- er), and by the year 1S03 when the then Louisiana territory, that, subsequent to .7S0, had been receded by Spain to I France was purchased from the French government by the United States, the own of New Madrid had a population if French trappers, Spaniards and American frontiermen not exceeding 000
 The majority of the people were ig- lorant American backwoodsmen, in- !, ensely religious, and they were firmly convinced that the judgment day had laWned.
 The high ridge along the St. Francis iver, which followed some twenty niles west of New Madrid, disappeared, md into the depression thus formed the ;t, Francis plunged, forming a lake even miles in length by sixteen in breadth at it's widest point. This lake S still in existence, and the tops of the rees that covered the highA ridge are till to be seen at the bottom of this