The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1909-03-16
EARTHQUAKE REGION.
Shifting Of Lands in the Mississippi
Valley Years Ago.

EAhAhVOAhE kEGlUN.
Shifting Of Lands in the Mississippi
Valley Years Ago.
Although the great earthquake that
destroyed the Italian cities Of Messins
and Reggie on Dec. 2s last is one Of the
most disastrous of which accurate his.
torinl detail exist, the great loss OF
life was not wholly due 70 the severity
OF the shocks. Aiessina, like Charleston
and San Francisco, was unprepafed for
a violent assault OF natural forces. and
as result unsubstantial buildings.
resting on light foundations, crumpled
together like the houses children make
OF cards II the edifces Of Messina
had been built according TO the rules
which should guide architects who in.
tend TO guard against such ealamities
u seems almost certain that the dis
aftrous consequences Of that shock
would have been at least partly avoid.
ed.
A curious and instructive example OF
the manner in which hardy and con.
rageous people may face great peril and
an imminent death may be found in
the conduct Of the pioneers who inhab-
tied the lower Mississippi Valley dur
ing the shevere earthquake shocks Of
1918. Although the colonizing OF
the district had just begun, the area
Of country already cleared BY settlers
was so great that the United States
Government was compelled TO furnish
some hundreds of thousands of acres
Of new land on higher ground to those
whose dwelling places had been rem
dered uninhabitable by the sinking Of
the earth's surface.
Save perhaps, that when, In 1910. dis.
turbed the delta Of the Indus. in West.
ern Hindustan, the Mississippi earth
quake OF 1911 directly produced more
extensive and permanent local geo.
graphical changes than any other Of
which an accurate account exists. So
violent and continuous were the shak.
ings that the alluvial land in the neigh
horhood of New Madrid was lowered
ten feet or more below the previous
level. Into this depressed region the
stream Of the Mississippi poured with
such violence that for a time its lower
waters, for considerable part Of their
course, turned backward toward their
source.
II seems likely, Judging from exist.
ing data on the subject. that an area
of not less than 5000 square miles was,
CO the average, though irregllarly. low
cred to the depth of ten feet below its
original level. The energy Of the shocks
vas so great that the low, strongly built
cabins of the pioneers were wrecked.
Great forest trees. too, were beaten
against each other, and their branches
az they swung to and for.
The irregular movements of the ground
led to the formation of numerous crew
ices, from which turpid water was fire.
quently thrown up to considerable
height. And precisely at this point
Of the narrative the high courage Of
these hardy American pioneers should
be noted. Guided by an instructive
knowledge of the natural laws, and de.
termined not to abandon the land I'M
a panic. they felled trees so that they |
lay on the ground at rightangles to |
the general trend Of the tissues, and
built places Of refuge on the broad foun
dations which they thus secured. It
may be noted too, that the brave men
who thus faced a terrible natural ca.
tastrophe--cooly, conrageously, unfinch
ngly shortly afterward shouIdered
their rifles and marched TO join Gen.
Jackson in the defence of New Orleans.
Thus these brave men lived, their
women and children remaining with
them, until the gradual subsistence Of
he shocks and the reforms ton Of the
and enabled them to select new sites
,or their permanent homes. They seem
70 have accepted the strange and I'M
natural situation as calmly as they did
when they faced the British regulars at
New Orleans; and in the earthquake
'egion. as on the field Of battle, their
natural shrewdness supplied the place
If exact scientific knowledge. The hugh
rees they had felled supported their
temporary dwellings until the shocks
,raduslly subsidized, and. although new
issues opened in the ground, these al
eady formed did not widen.
The peculiar local subsistence of the
and which occurred during the earth
Iuakes of 1911 in the alluvial region
4 the Mississippi Valley is probably
o be attributed to the fact that in
lelta regions the frequent changes IN
he path Of the stream form numerous
axes in the abandoned portions of the
liver bed. These natural basins grad
lally become filled with accumulations
i vegetable matter, and in time are
Iooded over, so to speak by the river
mud In this manner all surface indi-
atoms of the layer of vegetable mat
er gradually decays, the carbon unites
With the oxygen or becomes a gas and
scapes to the atmosphere through the
'orons covering of the earth. When
his process Of decay has gone on for
great period, an earthquake shock
auses the mass to settle together, and
s result, the surface is much lowered.
he shocks which affected the Missis-
ippi Valley in 1St1-13 are, by their
iolence and continuity, to BE ranked
mong the first score of recorded earth
uakes. philadelphia Record.