The Ancient Volcanoes of Great Britain, Volume 1 (of 2)Geikie, Archibald
History
The Ancient Volcanoes of Great Britain, Volume 1 (of 2)
Geikie, Archibald
Volcanoes -- Great Britain
No agglomerate appears to have been noticed by any observer among the
other supposed vents along the line that runs south-westwards from
Penmaen-mawr, to the promontory of Lleyn. These bosses are rudely
circular in ground-plan and rise vertically out of the Lower Silurian
or Cambrian strata, or partake more of the nature of lenticular sheets
or laccolites which have been thrust between the planes of bedding.
There is usually an observable alteration of the surrounding rocks
along the line of contact.
The material of these bosses is sometimes thoroughly acid, as is the
granophyre of Y-foel-frâs, the microgranite of Mynydd-mawr with its
riebeckite crystals, the augite-granite-porphyry of Clynog-fawr, and
the granophyric and rhyolitic quartz-porphyries of the Rivals. In other
cases the rock is of an intermediate grade, as in the enstatite-diorite
of Penmaen-mawr, the pyroxene-andesite of Carn Boduan, and the
quartz-augite-syenite of Llanfoglen.[213] A few bosses of still more
basic material occur in the Sarn district, including hornblende-diabase
and hornblende-picrite. Sometimes both the acid and the more basic
rocks are found in the same boss, as in the large mass of Y-foel-frâs.
[Footnote 213: The geological relations and petrographical characters
of these various rocks are given by Mr. Harker in the fourth and fifth
sections of his Essay.]
It must be confessed that there is no absolute proof that any of
these masses mark the actual sites of eruptive vents, except probably
the boss of Y-foel-frâs. Some of them may have been intruded without
establishing any outlet to the surface.[214] But that a few of them
really represent orifices from which the Bala volcanic group was
erupted may be plausibly inferred from their neck-like form, from
their positions with reference to the volcanic district, from the
obvious thickening of the lavas and tuffs in the direction of these
bosses, and from the petrographical relation that exists between their
component materials and rocks that were discharged at the surface. This
last-named feature has been well pointed out by Mr. Harker, who has
established, by a study of microscopic slides, a gradation from the
granophyric material of the bosses into structures greatly resembling
those of the bedded felsites, and likewise a close similarity between
the intermediate rocks of the other bosses and the andesites which
have elsewhere been poured out at the surface.[215] But perhaps the
most impressive evidence as to the sites of the chief centres of
eruption is supplied by the lavas and tuffs themselves as they thicken
in certain directions and thin away in others. This feature of their
distribution has been well expressed in the maps and sections of the
Survey, and has been clearly summarized by Mr. Harker.[216] The oldest
lavas now visible lie at the northern end of the district, and the
vents from which they proceeded may, with considerable probability, be
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