The Waxahachie daily light. [volume] (Waxahachie, Tex.) 1894-current, 1911-07-26
WHY MEXICO CITY TREMBLES


about many times a year by earth
quakes, but until the one last week
none of them has caused much loss
of life and property. 1t has been sup
posed that this immunity from dam
age by earth tremors was due to the
I city being built on bed of mud
which acted like a stupendous shock
absorber. Judging from the quake
recently, in which nearly 100 per-
sons lost their lives and about half
| million dollars worth of property
was destroyed this substratum OF
mud must be drying up.
1t was Alexander Won Humboldt,
| the great explorer of the last century
who propounded the mud bed theory
| regarding the City of Mexico, which
| has been accepted ever since Won
| Humboldt was an unusually inquis-
| tive sort of scientist and traveller.
| He had been in the Mexican capital
| less than a week when an earthquake
| shock came along shortly after mid
| night and tipped him out of bed,
|
| ally collecting all the data about
| earthquakes in the valley of Mexico
| that he could get hold of. He ques-
toned every one, from the native
| Indians who told him the protection
| from the disastrous consequences OF
earthquakes. was due to the watch
| fulness of the gods of fire and thun-
der who dwelt in Popocatepetel the
extinct snowcapped volcano, forty
miles to the eastward. They told him
these gods in ages long past had bur
led the earth demon beneath the sur
face of the lake which once covered
the entire valley of Mexico, and this
spirit never could rise again until
the lake disappeared.
The scientists could tell him little.
Architects and builders informed
him the reason there We're no cellars
in the City of Mexico was that the
water was still so near the surface.
They said the foundations of the
great buildings had to be exception
ally broad and their walls unusually
thick because they rested upon a
great blanket of conglomerate rocks,
which began about fifteen feet be-
low the surface of the ground. This
rock stratum is about twenty feet in
and among the MeXicans
it is called tepetate 1t is soft when
it is dug out of the earth and can
be sawed into blocks like wood. 1t
hardens on exposure TO the air, and
is the principal building material
that is used in the construction of
modern edifices in the city today
This tepetate is all that upholds the |
weight of the buildings of the City of |
Mexico Where it has been placed |
by nature it is strong and elastic
the latter Beneath it there
bed of mud, cushion as soft as
l feather pillow, upon which it rests.
No one knows how deep is this mass
Of semi-liquid earth. 1t has been ex-
plored by drills to the extent of 250 |
feet without finding bottom.
Won Humboldt learned all these |
things No one has learned anything
more since Won Humboldt deducted
co never would be destroyed by an
earthquake He said unless the bed
Of mud beneath the city should dry
up-which was impossible-one
earthquake might follow another
until eternity without overthrowing
the massive walls which were part
of every great building.
Since Won Humboldt's day the val
ley of Mexico has been drained. In
the last ten years the huge drainage
canal, one of the greatest engineer
ing feats on the western hemisphere
has been completed Since it was fin
shed it has been noted that the soil
beneath the city has grown dryer
and dryer to a great depth each year.
! The Mexicans are slaves to ancient
custom, and one of the architects
has ventured to put easements or
cellars as yet under the few steel
| skeleton structures which have been
| erected there of late, A few have
| been curious enough to dig deep
| enough to ascertain that the mud
bed beneath the city is turning to
| solid earth Now comes the earth
quakes which proves that the shock
| absorber that nature placed under
the Mexican capital is no longer as
| efficient as 1t used to be simply be-
| cause man has been tampering with
| it, The result will be that people OF
| Mexico, instead of dying slowly oil
| typhoid as they used to do, are like
ly to pass away quickly in earth
| quake shocks hereafter
| This is borne out by the fact that
! the ancient buildings that were oV-
| erthrown last week had stood the
| earthquakes of two centuries Their
walls were of concrete from ten to
| twenty feet thick The great muni-
| cipal prison of Belem was built in
| the days when the viceroys ruled
| New Spain 1t originally was con
vent and a school for children. Its
| gray walls inclose about ten acres
| Of ground upon which are clustered
| groups OF massive buildings. Little
| hoe haap char cod within pYpqDt that