Volcanoes: What They are and What They TeachJudd, John W. (John Wesley)
Science
Volcanoes: What They are and What They Teach
Judd, John W. (John Wesley)
Volcanoes
But if, on the other hand, the lavas be of much more viscid
consistency, the character of the volcanic cones which are produced by
their extrusion will be very different. The outwelling material will
tend to accumulate and heap itself up around the vent. By successive
ejections the first-formed shell is forced upwards and outwards, and
a steep-sided protuberant mass is formed, exhibiting in its interior
a marked concentric arrangement. Dr. Ed. Reyer, of Grätz, has devised
a very ingenious method for reproducing on a miniature scale the
characteristic features of these eruptions of viscid lavas. He takes a
quantity of plaster of Paris reduced to a pasty consistence, which he
forces through a hole in a board. The plaster accumulates in a great
rounded boss about the orifice through which it has been forced. If the
plaster have some colouring matter introduced into it, the mass, on
being cut across, will exhibit in the disposition of its colour-bands
the kind of action which has gone on during its extrusion, fig. 43.
[Illustration: Fig. 43.--Experimental illustration of the Mode of
Formation of volcanic cones composed of viscid lavas.]
[Illustration: Fig. 44.--The Grand Puy of Sarcoui, composed of
trachyte, rising between two breached scoria-cones (Auvergne).]
There are many volcanic cones which exhibit clear evidence of having
thus been formed by the extrusion of a viscid mass of lava through
a volcanic fissure. Among such we may mention the domitic Puys of
Auvergne, fig. 44, many andesitic volcanoes in Hungary, the phonolite
hills of Bohemia, and the so-called 'mamelons' of the Island of
Bourbon. See figs. 45 and 46. When the interior of these masses is
exposed by natural or artificial sections, they are all found to
exhibit the onion-like structure which occurs in the plaster models.
[Sidenote: INTERNAL STRUCTURE OF LAVA-CONES.]
[Illustration: Fig. 45.--Volcanic Cone (Mamelon) composed of very
viscid lava. (Island of Bourbon.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 46.--Another Mamelon in the Island of Bourbon, with
a crater at its summit.]
But while some volcanoes are composed entirely of the fragmentary
ejections and others are wholly formed by successive outflows of lava,
the majority of volcanoes, especially those of larger dimensions, are
built up of alternations of these different kinds of materials.
[Illustration: Fig. 47.--Cliff-section in the Island of Madeira,
showing how a composite volcano is built up of lava-streams, beds of
scoriæ, and dykes.]
[Sidenote: NATURAL SECTIONS OF CONES.]
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