The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-03-17

mended wider streets and the adoption of strIcter regulations governing build ing materials and the style of archi- lecture.
 The Brown expedition, made possible through the generosity of friends of the universitys tnrned out to be a re- markable enterprise owing to the cir- cumstance thatit was the only one or- ganized to make scientific study Of the tremendous upheaval. Professor Brown reports that owing to the facul- ty construction of many of the Kings ion buildings, due to the use of brick foundations put together with poor mortar. and the further mistake of lay ing out exceedingly -Harrow streets, the destruction of both life and prop erty by the earthquake was much severer than to judge by the intensity of the shock. should have occurred. The shock. he says. was somewhat less forceful than that which upset San Francisco nearly a year ago. The we'll built frame houses in the capital suf- fefed only @ slight, interior damage. such as the cracing of plaster. Tho white ants which infest Kingston and some other parts of the island are a really dangerous foe to the foreign woods generally used for building pur- poses but this difficulty, the scientist believes, can be overcome by Gupport- ing frame structures either on cement or on well constructed brick piers. Kingston, like San Francisco, has learned by costly experience that re inforced concrete is also a highly ser viceable material for foundations.
 This part which the Brown expedi- ton played in the work of reconstruc- tion now going on in Jamaica was quite incidental to the main purpose of the venture, which was to gather material bearing on the origin and transit of the earthquake. The expedition was planned just as soon as 1t became evil dent that the disaster was one of extra ordinary proportions. Professor Brown who led the expedition, is member of,the staff of the United States Geol- logical Survey, and in that capacity has made special study of earth for nations in the Western He nisphere.
 So far as observations of the effect of the earthquake are concerned, the expedition was remarkably successful. The origin of the earthquake. however, remains a mystery. Jamaica lies in an earthquake belt embracing about forty per cent. of the regions subject to seismic disturbances. This particular belt extends through the Mediterran- can and Caribbean seas and tfen a lit- tle westward toward the Pacific. An other belt embracing somewhat more
 
 regions encircles the Pacific Ocean. The few remaining earthquake regions are scattered over the rest of the world, There are earthquake regions both north and south of the Panama Canal zone though, strange to say, the canal zone itself has been compar- atively free from seismic troubles.
 What makes Jamaica particularly liable to earthquakes, big or little, says Professor Brown, Is the fact that from the mountain tops of the island to the depths of the ocean abysses to theeast, toward Hayti, is one of the steepest de- cli1ities un the face of the earth. Tn the course of a couple of hundred miles there is drop of about six miles. This decline from high land to sea bottom coE@etutes what is known to geologists as differeutial re- lief Less than hundred miles sep arate Jamaica from the coast line of the famous battle-ground of Cuba, to the north, between Santiago and Ca ney, and in this comparatively short space the differential relief amounts to 27.000 feet, or more than five miles
 Where the drop or declivity is so marked as 1t Is east and north of Jamaica, the result at such a roint is a weak power of resistance against the constant strain and readJustment of the earth's crust, and heace the breaks. or faults" as the geologlsts term them, due to displacement. As in the case of a landslide, such dis placement. reaching bottom, produces a thud or jar, which In turn produces the waves of vibrations In the earth which take the name of earthquakes.
 Where the thud occurred in the case of Jamaica Is the mystery. In all prob ability, according to Professor Brown, the fracture in the earth's crust oc- cured some distance south of the is- land and under the waters of the ca- ribbean, or perhaps a little to the southwest for the cables lying in that direction were broken miles of shore. Furthermore, the angle of emergence