Imperial Valley press., 1914-01-12

activities are just as surely dead as
would be a blast furnace after it
had stood without fire for a hundred
years. 1t isscontended that there is
no more likelihood of volcanic erup-
ton in Los Santos province than
there is of a field of glacial ice form
ing in the mountains and destroying
he rice crops of the highlands.
A very thorough Investigation was
made by the commissioners. They
considered and reported upon the geo.
graphy of the region visited, physi-
ographic types, the general geology
and the economic geology of that sec
ton, the relation of rock groups to
land forms, volcanic activity, cause of
earthquakes in general, assures and
recks, landslides, cause of the sub
:erranean, rumblings, damage to prop
2rty, injury of individuals, etc.
In regard to general damage, and
death or injury of individuals, it was
found that only one person succumbed,
and that was a native woman at Los
Iatos, distric of Macaracas, who died
If hysteria. Not a, single case of di-
ect injury was discovered, although
1 large number of people were In a
high state of excitement and doubt
less the nerves of many will be af-
fected permanently. Here and there
fences were thrown down, allowing
i've stock to escape. Buildings were
damaged in the towns of Los Santos,
Macaracas and Tonosi. In nearly
every instance, these houses were
either dilapidated or out of plumb.
The tower of the Macaracas church,
eighty feet high, was thrown down
md part of the roof demolished. In
La Villa de Los Santos, the capital
If the province, the government pal
ace, a poorly constructed affair or
bubble masonry, was badly cracked.
Fissures were found in various
parts of the province, although many
were not more than cracks in loose
SOIL In Tonosi an entire barbed
wire fence was engulfed for dis
.ance of 500 yards. At Las Huertas
it was found that the Joaquin river
had cut a new channel fifty yards
long. Small land slides along river
banks were noted. 1t appears that
..he ocean bottom off the coast of To-
nosi sank. 1t is presumed that this
sinking was the beginning of the Sc
ries of shocks which began October
I. This movement also sundered the
submarine cable about fifteen miles
off shore, near North Fraile island.
Concerning photographic types the
province of Los Santos may be di-
vided into three distinct groups, or
types of land forms, as follows: The
mountain type, comprising steep hills
and mountains up to about 5000 feet
in elevation; the savanna type, con-
sisting of flat to rolling savanna, or
llano land, up to a, few hundred feet
in elevation; costal plain and flood
plain land, comprising the low-lying,
rich, silty soil lands that border the
coast and fill the lower valleys of the
larger rivers, and which locally merge
into costal swamps when near the sea.
The highest peaks in the first forma-
tion ar Quema, 5000 feet, and Cerro
Canajagua, of about $500 feet. These
peaks and surrounding hills form the
Azuero Highlands. The. savanna
lands are found in and around Maca-
racas, while the coastal plains and
flood plain land takes in the Tonosi
valley.
To sum up, Messrs. Macdonald and
Johnston were convinced that the
causes of the October earthquakes
which shook up Los Santos province,
but did no damage whatever to Pan
anna City and the canal strip, were
as follows: The settlement of the
ocean bottom SOUTH of an old faulty
escarpment; that this set up strains
in the adjacent land mass of the Azu-
cro peninsula; that these strains re-
suited in fracture and shearing of the
rocks along lines of least resistance;