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Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 398, 6 January 1909, Page 7

Hon of Aspromonte through Pezzani, Soriano, Terranova, Oppido, and banta Cristina, and finally, on: the other Side 'of tho Straits, it passes to the 60uth of tho Peloritan. mass', through Ali to Aetna, whence it is continued through Bronte and Nicosia to ' the Montes Madonie. ->■-.■ , The Sinking Process Defined: . We are thus led to the conclusion that * within a space bounded by the peripheral line e pf 1783, the crust of the earth has sunk down • in tho form of a dish, and thus radial fractures B havo been produced, which to the 0 Lipari Isles. These converging lines are beset with volcanos near their: oentre of origin Any disturbance in the equilibrium of j, the several fragments of: the crust gives ~ rise to increased volcanic, aotivity .on . the islands, and to earthquakes on the mainland in ' Sicily/ ■ '•-.■ B If this process of subsidence should pursue its - course, then tho low gneis9o9o hills of Cape s Vaticano, tho granite mountains of Scylia, an • - a largo part of the Peloritan Mountains, with j the Madonio, will sink beneath tho Tyrrhenian , Sea, which will then, after the complete def molition of the Tertiary-deposits now lying-in x front of it, wash against the peripheral fracture j on the west Eide of Aspromonte, as it now does .- on the west side of Coouzzo. .The Straits of Messina, will bo broader, and all that wffl be left of the curvo described by the younger zones 1 of the Apennines, which may at'present still be ' recognised from its remains, will be at most t an isolated fragment rising between "AH" and ) Taormiaa, forming the eastern promontory of . a greatly diminished Trinaoria, and presenting 1 to the geologist an almost insoluble problem, l It will be seen in a later chapter that the s separation of Sioily from North Africa may be attributed to similar processes, For the-pre- , sent, we may draw the following inferences from these observations) That radial fissures j play an important part in .tho subsidence of 1 the western Bide of the Apennines, and that tho 1 Cause of the numerous centres of eruption in : . the Lipari Isles is'probably to be found in the convergence of these radial lines and in : their mutual intersection. ; .