But in quiet eruptions, and still more in the irruption of
intrusive sheets and masses, there is little if any evidence that
steam is the driving force. It is therefore believed by many
geologists that it is PRESSURE DUE TO CRUSTAL MOVEMENTS AND
INTERNAL STRESSES which squeezes molten rock from below into
fissures and ducts in the crust. It is held by some that where
considerable water is supplied to the rising column of lava, as
from the ground water of the surrounding region, and where the
lava is viscid so that steam does not readily escape, the eruption
is of the explosive type; when these conditions do not obtain, the
lava outwells quietly, as in the Hawaiian volcanoes. It is held by
others not only that volcanoes are due to the outflow of the
earth's deep-seated heat, but also that the steam and other
emitted gases are for the most part native to the earth's interior
and never have had place in the circulation of atmospheric and
ground waters.
VOLCANIC ACTION AND DEFORMATION. Volcanoes do not occur on wide
plains or among ancient mountains. On the other hand, where
movements of the earth's crust are in progress in the uplift of
high plateaus, and still more in mountain making, molten rock may
reach the surface, or may be driven upward toward it forming great
intrusive masses. Thus extensive lava flows accompanied the
upheaval of the block mountains of western North America and the
uplift of the Colorado plateau. A line of recent volcanoes may be
traced along the system of rift valleys which extends from the
Jordan and Dead Sea through eastern Africa to Lake Nyassa. The
volcanoes of the Andes show how conspicuous volcanic action may be
in young rising ranges. Folded mountains often show a core of
igneous rock, which by long erosion has come to form the axis and
the highest peaks of the range, as if the molten rock had been
squeezed up under the rising upfolds. As we decipher the records
of the rocks in historical geology we shall see more fully how, in
all the past, volcanic action has characterized the periods of
great crustal movements, and how it has been absent when and where
the earth's crust has remained comparatively at rest.
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