Beagle Expedition (1831-1836); Geology -- South America; Volcanoes
In several parts of this tract, and especially at the base of the small
craters, there are circular pits, with perpendicular sides, from twenty
to forty feet deep. At the foot of one small crater, there were three
of these pits. They have probably been formed, by the falling in of the
roofs of small caverns. (M. Elie de Beaumont has described (“Mem. pour
servir” etc. tome 4 page 113) many “petits cirques d’eboulement” on
Etna, of some of which the origin is historically known.) In other
parts, there are mammiform hillocks, which resemble great bubbles of
lava, with their summits fissured by irregular cracks, which appeared,
upon entering them, to be very deep; lava has not flowed from these
hillocks. There are, also, other very regular, mammiform hillocks,
composed of stratified lava, and surmounted by circular, steep-sided
hollows, which, I suppose have been formed by a body of gas, first,
arching the strata into one of the bubble- like hillocks, and then,
blowing off its summit. These several kinds of hillocks and pits, as
well as the numerous, small, scoriaceous craters, all show that this
tract has been penetrated, almost like a sieve, by the passage of
heated vapours. The more regular hillocks could only have been heaved
up, whilst the lava was in a softened state. (Sir G. Mackenzie “Travels
in Iceland” pages 389 to 392, has described a plain of lava at the foot
of Hecla, everywhere heaved up into great bubbles or blisters. Sir
George states that this cavernous lava composes the uppermost stratum;
and the same fact is affirmed by Von Buch “Descript. des Isles
Canaries” page 159, with respect to the basaltic stream near Rialejo,
in Teneriffe. It appears singular that it should be the upper streams
that are chiefly cavernous, for one sees no reason why the upper and
lower should not have been equally affected at different times;—have
the inferior streams flowed beneath the pressure of the sea, and thus
been flattened, after the passage through them, of bodies of gas?)
ALBEMARLE ISLAND.
This island consists of five, great, flat-topped craters, which,
together with the one on the adjoining island of Narborough, singularly
resemble each other, in form and height. The southern one is 4,700 feet
high, two others are 3,720 feet, a third only 50 feet higher, and the
remaining ones apparently of nearly the same height. Three of these are
situated on one line, and their craters appear elongated in nearly the
same direction. The northern crater, which is not the largest, was
found by the triangulation to measure, externally, no less than three
miles and one-eighth of a mile in diameter. Over the lips of these
great, broad caldrons, and from little orifices near their summits,
deluges of black lava have flowed down their naked sides.
FLUIDITY OF DIFFERENT LAVAS.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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