Volcanic action, we are told, is primarily an escape of gases from
the interior, chiefly hydrogen, nitrogen, hydrocarbons, sulphur, and
various compounds, as well as vast quantities of steam. Beneath the
surface chemical change is continually taking place which results
in the release of an enormous amount of heat. Some of the gases
mentioned above combine with the oxygen in the surface rocks and heat
is evolved. It is a known fact that there is great inherent heat in
the earth's surface crust. Why not in the moon's surface crust as
well?
The water that would be expelled in the form of steam from volcanic
vents on the moon would be transformed immediately into hoar-frost,
snow and ice and would settle down upon the flanks of the
crater-cones or vents.
It should be borne in mind that only volcanic activity on an
enormous scale would be plainly visible to us even with the powerful
telescopes at our command. Ordinary eruptions such as occur on our
own planet would be very difficult to detect. Since the escaping
vapors would rapidly pass into the solid state and settle down
upon the flanks of the crater-cones or vents, we would observe in
general little if any change in an object unless we chanced to be
looking at it at the time of the eruption, when it might appear to be
temporarily obscured by a veil of vapors. What are the chances that
we would be carefully observing at the precise time of an eruption, a
minute marking, two or three miles in diameter, on a surface as large
as all of North America, a surface that is covered with some 30,000
charted craters, numberless crater-pits, streaks, rays, spots, clefts
and rills in intricate systems, mountain chains and valleys and a
mass of intricate detail?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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