Fig. 45.—Map of Meizoseismal Area. (Koto.)[ToList]
Fig. 46.—Ploughshare Appearance of the Fault near Fujitani. (Koto.)[ToList]
Fig. 47.—The Fault-scarp at Midori. (Koto.)[ToList]
The general character of the fault-scarp changes with the surface features. On flat ground, where the throw is small, it cuts up the soft earth into enormous clods, or makes a rounded ridge from one to two feet high, so that it resembles, more than anything else, the pathway of a gigantic mole (Fig. 46). When the throw is considerable—and in one place it reaches from 18 to 20 feet—the fault-scarp forms a terrace, which from a distance has the appearance of a railway embankment (Fig. 47). Or, again, where the rent traverses a mountain ridge or a spur of hills, "it caused extensive landslips, one side of it descending considerably in level, carrying the forest with it, but with the trees complicatedly interlocked or prostrate on the ground."