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
In the second place, notice must be taken of the frequent results
of movements within the terrestrial crust, whereby rocks have not
only been ruptured but, as already pointed out, have been crushed
into fragments. In this way, important masses of breccia or
conglomerate have been formed, sometimes running for a number of
miles and attaining a breadth of several hundred feet. The stones,
often in huge blocks, have been derived from the surrounding rocks,
and while sometimes angular, are sometimes well-rounded. They are
imbedded in a finer matrix of the same material, and may be scattered
promiscuously through the mass, in such a way as to present the closest
resemblance to true volcanic breccia. Where the crushed material has
included ancient igneous rocks it might deceive even an experienced
geologist. Indeed, some rocks which have been mapped and described as
volcanic tuffs or agglomerates are now known to be only examples of
"crush-conglomerates."[18]
[Footnote 18: For an account of "crush-conglomerates," see Mr.
Lamplugh's paper on those of the Isle of Man, _Quart. Journ. Geol.
Soc._, li. (1895), p. 563. Mr. M'Henry has pointed to probable cases of
mistake of this kind in Ireland, _Nature_, 5th March 1896. A. Geikie,
_Geol. Mag._ November 1896.]
Not only have vast quantities of detritus of non-volcanic rocks been
shot forth from volcanic vents, but sometimes enormous solid masses of
rock have been brought up by ascending lavas or have been ejected by
explosive vapours. Every visitor to the puys of Auvergne will remember
the great cliff-like prominence of granite and mica-schist which, as
described long ago by Scrope, has been carried up by the trachyte of
the Puy Chopine, and forms one of the summits of the dome (Fig. 344).
The same phenomenon is observable at the Puy de Montchar, where large
blocks of granite have been transported from the underlying platform.
Abich has described some remarkable examples in the region of Erzeroum.
The huge crater of Palandokän, 9687 feet above the sea contains, in
cliff-like projections from its walls as well as scattered over its
uneven bottom, great masses of marmorised limestone and alabaster,
associated with pieces of the green chloritic schists, serpentines
and gabbros of the underlying non-volcanic platform. These rocks,
which form an integral part of the structure of the crater, have been
carried up by masses of trachydoleritic, andesitic and quartz-trachytic
lavas.[19] Examples will be given in a later chapter showing how
gigantic blocks of mica-schist and other rocks have been carried many
hundred feet upwards and buried among sheets of lava or masses of
agglomerates during the Tertiary volcanic period in Britain (Fig. 262).
[Footnote 19: Abich, _Geologie des Armenischen Hochlandes_ (Part ii.,
western half), 1882, p. 76.]
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