On consideration it seems improbable that the great sheets of augitic
lava, such as cover the surface of the land of Bashan, are altogether
the product of the volcanic mountains which appear to be confined to
special districts in this wide area. Some of the craters do indeed send
forth visible lava-streams, but they are insignificant as compared with
the general mass of the plateau-basalts; and the crater-cones themselves
appear in some cases to be posterior to the platforms of basalt from
which they rise. It is very probable, therefore, that the lavas of this
region have, in the main, been extruded from fissures of eruption at an
early period, and spread over the surface of the country in the same
manner as those of the Snake River region, and the borders of the
Pacific Ocean of North America, and possibly of the Antrim Plateau in
Ireland, afterwards to be described.
The volcanic hills which rise above the plateau are described in detail
by Schumacher. Of these, Tell Abû Nedîr is the largest in the Jaulân. It
reaches an elevation of 4132 feet above the Mediterranean Sea, and 1710
feet above the plain from which it rises; the circumference of its base
is three miles, and the rim of the crater itself, which is oval in form,
is 1331 yards in its larger diameter. The interior is cultivated by
Circassians, and is very fruitful; the walls descend at an angle of
about 30° on the inside, the exterior slope of the mountain being about
22°. The cone seems to be formed chiefly of scoriæ, and the lava-stream,
which issues forth from the interior, forms a frightfully stony and
lacerated district.[7]
[Illustration: Fig. 24.--Extinct Craters in the Jaulân, north-east from
the Sea of Galilee, called Tell Abû en Nedâ and Tell el Urâm, with a
central cone.--(After Schumacher.)]
Another remarkable volcano is the Tell Abû en Nedâ (Fig. 24). This is a
double crater, with a cone (probably of cinders) rising from the
interior of one of them. The highest point of the rim of one of the
craters reaches a level of 4042 feet above the sea. A lava-stream issues
forth from Abû en Nedâ, and unites with another from a neighbouring
volcano.
Tell el Ahmâr is a ruptured crater of imposing aspect, reaching an
elevation of 4060 feet, and sending forth a lava-current, which falls in
regular terraces from the outlet towards the west and north.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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