VOLCANOES.
Number of volcanoes.—It is impracticable to state exactly the number of volcanoes that are active at the present time, because most volcanoes are periodic, and become active at more or less distant periods, and it is impossible to say whether a given volcano that may be now quiescent has really become extinct or is only enjoying its customary period of rest. It is quite safe to include at least 300 in the active list, and the number may reach 350 or more. The numbers that have been active so recently that their cones have not been entirely worn away is several times as great.
Distribution of Volcanoes.
1. In time.—In the earliest known ages igneous action appears to have been very general, if not practically universal. No area of the earliest (Archean) rocks is now known which is not formed chiefly of rocks that appear to have been either intruded or extruded. Rocks which can reasonably be assigned to the hypothetical molten globe, if there be such, are not here included. It is probable that the surface of the early earth was as thickly occupied with points of extrusion as the surface of the moon appears to be. In the ages between the Archean and the present, the distribution of volcanic action over the surface seems to have been in a general way much what it is to-day; that is, certain areas were volcanically active at times, while other and larger areas were measurably free from any outward expressions of igneous action. This is not equally true of all ages, as will be seen in the historical studies that follow. There were periods when volcanic activity seems to have been widespread and energetic, and others when it was limited both in amount and distribution. The known facts do not indicate a steady decline in volcanic activity, but rather a periodicity; at least this is so for the portion of the globe that is now well enough known geologically to warrant conclusions. One of the greatest of the volcanic periods falls within the Cenozoic era, just preceding the present geological period, and the volcanic activity of the present is perhaps but a declining phase of that time.
2. Relative to land and sea.—At present the active volcanoes are chiefly distributed about the borders of the continents, and, less notably, within the great oceanic basins. On this account the sea has often been supposed to have some connection with volcanic action, and the presence of chlorine in the volcanic emanations has been cited in support of this position. When critically examined, however, the argument from distribution is not very strong; for the volcanoes are not distributed equally or proportionately about the several oceans, as if dependent on them. Volcanoes are especially numerous around and within the Pacific, the greatest of the oceans, and this might seem a favorable instance, but they are also numerous around and within the Mediterranean, a relatively small body of water. Volcanoes are not especially abundant in or about the margins of the Atlantic.
Fig. 460.—Volcanoes in the Pacific. Jones Relief Globe. (Photo. by R. T. Chamberlin.)
If volcanoes were dependent upon proximity to the sea, the relation should be close in the past as well as in the present, but this does not seem to be true. There has recently been much volcanic activity in the plateau region of western America at long distances from the Pacific basin. Even on the plains east of the Rocky Mountains notable volcanic action took place. There were also volcanoes in the interior of Asia and of Africa.
3. Relative to crustal deformations.—The distribution of present and recent volcanoes is much more suggestively associated with those portions of the crust that have undergone notable changes in position in comparatively recent times. The great “world-ridge” stretching from Cape Horn to Alaska and thence onwards along the east coast of Asia is a striking instance, for it is dotted throughout with active and recently extinct volcanoes. The tortuous zone of mountainous wrinkles that borders the Mediterranean and stretches thence eastward to the Polynesian Islands is another notable volcanic tract. These two belts include the greater number of existing and recent volcanoes on the land, while the great basins associated with them embrace the chief oceanic volcanoes.
Fig. 461.—Active volcanic area at the junction of the continental segments of North and South America, and of the abysmal segments of the Atlantic and Pacific. Jones Relief Globe. (Photo. by R. T. Chamberlin.)
There is perhaps some significance in the fact that the most active regions of vulcanism to-day lie at the angular junctions of the great earth-segments. The Antillean and Central American volcanic region, that has recently been so demonstrative, lies where the southern angle of the North American continental block joins the northern angle of the South American continental block, and where the western angle of the North Atlantic abysmal segment closely approaches one of the eastern angles of the great Pacific abysmal segment. The complex and very active Java-Philippine volcanic region lies where the southeastern angle of the great Asian segment projects toward the Australian block, and where the western angle of the Pacific block approaches the northeastern angle of the Indian oceanic segment. The active Alaskan volcanic area lies at the angles of the North American, Asian, Pacific, and Arctic segments. The Mediterranean volcanic area falls less notably under this generalization, but it lies where the continental blocks of Europe and Africa come into peculiar relations to each other on either side of the remarkable Mediterranean trough. The eastern angle of the North Atlantic segment is near by, but not in very close relations. The Icelandic region, small but vigorous, lies near the junction of the North American, European, North Atlantic, and Arctic segments, and the New Zealand volcanic region is somewhat less closely related to the approach of the Australian, Antarctic, Pacific, and Southern oceanic segments. Nearly all of these angular conjunctions involve two depressed segments joining two relatively elevated segments. This relationship suggests a causal connection between the intensified movements at these angular conjunctions and the intensified volcanic action of these regions. There are enough volcanoes, however, that do not fall into these groups, or apparently into any other grouping, to suggest that the development of volcanoes is not wholly dependent on any surface relationship, but that it is connected with deep-seated causes that are indeed modified, but not wholly controlled, by surface conditions, or even by the movements of the master segments of the earth’s crust.
Fig. 462.—Active volcanic area at the junction of the continental segments of Asia and Australia, and the abysmal segments of the Pacific and Indian oceans. Jones Relief Globe. (Photo. by R. T. Chamberlin.)
4. In latitude.—The distribution of volcanoes appears to have no specific relation to latitude. Mounts Erebus and Terror, amid the ice-mantle of Antarctica, and Mount Hecla in Iceland, as well as the numerous volcanoes of the Aleutian chain, give no ground for supposing that volcanoes shun the frigid zones. On the other hand, the numerous volcanoes of the equatorial zone do not imply that they avoid the torrid belt. Their distribution appears to be independent of latitude. This is not cited because of any supposed effects of external temperature, for that must be trivial, but because it bears on the question whether strains are now arising from the supposed slackening of the earth’s rotation, which have any connection with volcanic action. If the oblateness of the earth is decreasing, the equatorial belt must be sinking and growing shorter, and hence must be under lateral pressure, while the polar caps must be rising, and increasing their curvatures, and should be under tension. These conditions, if real, might be supposed to have something to do with the extrusion of lava. Nothing in the present or the past distribution of igneous action seems to afford much support to this hypothetical inference.
5. In curved lines.—In the Antilles, the Aleutian Islands, the Kurile Islands, and in other instances, there is a notable linear arrangement of volcanoes with appreciable curvature. It has been noted that the convexity of the curves is turned toward the adjacent ocean. In some cases, however, there is a notable linear arrangement without appreciable curvature, as in the Hawaiian range, in the recently extinct line of cones of the Cascade Range, and in others. Less often, volcanoes are bunched irregularly, as in some of the groups of volcanic islands of the Pacific ([Fig. 460]).
Relations of Volcanoes.
1. Relations to rising and sinking surfaces.—So far as observations cover this point, the area immediately adjacent to active volcanoes is rising (Dutton). This is shown by raised beaches, terraces, coral deposits, etc. Whether this is wholly due to the expansional effect of the heating of the subterrane by the rising lava, or whether it has a wider significance, is not known. If a broader view is taken, it does not appear that there are sufficient data to connect volcanic action exclusively with either the rising or the sinking of the general surface. It is certain that the great mountain ranges and plateaus in which so much of the more recent volcanic action has taken place have been recently elevated relatively, but they have also undergone more or less of oscillation, involving some relative depression. The question whether the Pacific basin as a whole has been relatively elevated or depressed in modern times is a mooted one. Darwin[278] and Dana,[279] as the result of their early studies on its coral deposits and on other phenomena, concluded that the Pacific was a sinking area, but this view has been recently challenged by Murray[280] and Agassiz[281] with at least some measure of success. From the fiords on the borders of the Pacific and other physical phenomena, the inference has been drawn that relative sinking of the land has recently taken place. Raised beaches on the coasts are interpreted as indicating a relative rise of the land or a sinking of some ocean basin, for the withdrawal of the waters can only be the result of increasing the capacity of the oceanic basin as a whole. The most probable view is that the general areas of present and recent volcanic action are partly rising areas and partly sinking areas, and that movement of either kind may be connected with the extrusion of the lavas. The rising and sinking are but complementary phases of a deformation of the earth’s body, and involve a readjustment of stresses within the body of the earth. These stresses are possibly an essential factor in eruptions.
2. Relations to one another.—A most significant feature of volcanic action is the degree of concurrence or of independence of action in adjacent volcanoes. In some instances they act as though in sympathy, as in the recent outburst in Martinique and Saint Vincent, and the concurrent symptoms of activity in other places. On the other hand, the independence of neighboring vents is sometimes extraordinary. The group of volcanoes near the center of the Mediterranean, of which Vesuvius and Etna are the most conspicuous examples, usually act with measurable independence of one another, an eruption in the one not being habitually coincident with an eruption in the others. But the most conspicuous instance of independence is found in the great craters of Mauna Loa and Kilauea in Hawaii. They are only about twenty miles apart, the one on the top and the other on the side of the same great mountain mass. The crater of Mauna Loa is about 10,000 feet higher than the crater of Kilauea, and yet, while the latter has been in constant activity as far back as its history is known, the former is periodic. The case is the more remarkable because of the greatness of the ejections. The outflow of Mauna Loa in 1885 formed a stream from three to ten miles in width, and forty-five miles in length, with a probable average thickness of 100 feet, and some of its other outflows were of nearly equal greatness; indeed its outflows are among the most massive that have issued from volcanoes in recent times. Besides this massiveness there have been extraordinary movements of the lava within the crater, if the testimony of witnesses may be trusted. But throughout these great movements in the higher crater, the lava-column of Kilauea, 10,000 feet lower, continued its quiet action without sensible effects from its boisterous neighbor. The bearing of such extraordinary independence upon the sources of volcanic action is very cogent, for the lavas are of the same type, both being basalts, that of Mauna Loa being notably basic and probably as high in specific gravity as that in Kilauea. No difference in specific gravity that could at all account for a difference in height of 10,000 feet can be presumed, unless their ducts remain separate to extraordinary depths. Nor does it appear possible that a superior amount of gas within the column of Mauna Loa could account for such an extraordinary difference in height, for the hydrostatic pressure of such a column is not far from 10,000 pounds to the square inch. Even if the difference in the heights of the columns could be explained by differences in specific gravity, the agitation of the one should be communicated to the other, and an outflow of the one, particularly an outflow by a breakage through its walls sufficient to lower its surface hundreds of feet, as has repeatedly occurred in Kilauea, should change the surface of the other proportionately, if they were in hydrostatic equilibrium. It seems a necessary inference, therefore, that the two lava-columns have no connection with each other or with a common reservoir. The tops of some lava-columns stand about 20,000 feet above the sea, while others emerge on the sea-bottom far below sea-level. The total vertical range is, therefore, probably between 30,000 and 40,000 feet, a difference which tells its own story as to their relative independence.
Fig. 463.—Surface of lava-flow of 1881, from Mauna Loa, as seen back of Hilo, Hawaii. (Photo. by Calvin.)
3. Unimportant coincidences.—Eruptions seem to be somewhat more liable to occur at times of high atmospheric pressure than at low, doubtless because the increased atmospheric weight on a large area of the adjacent crust aids in forcing out the lava or the volcanic gases. This can only be effective when other forces have almost accomplished the result, and would doubtless have completed it a little later had not the atmospheric wave supplied the little remaining pressure needed. Eruption seems also to be more common when the tidal strains favor it, for like reasons. In the same class are probably to be put the effects of heavy rains, whether they act by gravity or by giving rise to steam. Such agencies are to be regarded as mere incidents of no moment in the real causation of vulcanism, but of some value in determining the precise moment of action. This is not to be understood as inconsistent with the view that the periodic stresses of the body-tides of the earth are important factors in vulcanism, as elsewhere explained, but merely that the special time of surface-eruption is only incidentally connected with the water-tides.
Fig. 464.—Crater of Kilauea.
Periodicity.—Most volcanoes are periodic in their stages of action. Long dormant periods intervene between eruptive periods. Volcanoes supposed to be extinct occasionally awaken with terrific violence. Sometimes also they awaken quietly. This larger periodicity yet awaits an explanation, but it very likely means a temporary exhaustion of the supply of gas or of lava, or of both, to which the active stage is due.
Formation of Cones.
Lava-cones.—The lava usually flows away from the vent in short streams which solidify before running far. As the lava-streams flow in different directions at different times, the total effect is a low cone formed of radiating tongues surrounding the point of exit. Occasionally the streams run a dozen or a score of miles, but such cases, except in the gigantic volcanoes of Hawaii and a few others, are rare. Often the streams congeal before they reach much beyond the base of the cone, and quite often while they are yet on its slope. So far, therefore, as the volcanic cone is formed of lava, it has a radiate structure made up of a succession of congealed lava-streams. In these cases the slopes are low, because the fluidity of the lava prevents the development of high gradients. It is, however, rather the exception than the rule, that the cone is made up mainly of lava-streams, though the great Hawaiian volcanoes are of this class.
Fig. 465.—Typical cinder-cone, Clayton valley, Cal. (Turner, U. S. Geol. Surv.)
Cinder-cones.—The larger portion of the lava blown into the air by the expanding gas-bubbles falls back in the immediate vicinity of the vent and builds up a cinder-cone. From the nature of the case, this often takes on a beautiful symmetry and assumes a steep slope ([Fig. 465]). The ragged cinders lend themselves readily to the formation of an acute cone, quite different from the flatter cone formed by lavas. Sometimes the cinders are still plastic when they fall, and weld themselves together and hold their places even on very steep slopes, but usually they have already hardened before they reach the surface.
Fig. 466.—Spatter-cone and cavern. Kilauea, Hawaii. (Photo. by Libbey.)
Fig. 467.—Hollow spatter-cone. Oregon. (Russell, U. S. Geol. Surv.)
Subordinate cones.—Small or temporary vents formed as offshoots from the main vents often give rise to secondary or “parasitic” cones. These are sometimes numerous, as in the case of Etna, and they may be so important that the mountain becomes a compound cone. A still more subordinate variety consists of “spatter-cones” formed by small mildly explosive vents that spatter forth little dabs of lava which form chimneys, or cones, and sometimes completely curved domes over vents (Figs. [466] and [467]). Spatter-cones often arise from the lava-flows themselves.
Composite cones.—From most existing volcanoes there issue both lava-flows and fragmental ejecta, and the resulting cones are composite in material. The lava more frequently breaks through the side of the cone than overflows its summit, and this gives rise to irregularities of form and structure. The cones are also subject to partial destruction both by the outbursts of lava and by the explosions, and perhaps also by migration of the vents. As a result, many volcanic regions show old, partially destroyed craters, together with new and more perfect ones, and the history of volcanic action in a region may often be read in the succession of cone formations.
The form of the cone, when composed chiefly of lava, is also affected by the mass of the outflow and by its fluidity. The larger the outflow at a given time, other things being equal, the wider it distributes itself and the flatter is the cone. As a rule, the basic lavas are more fluid than the acidic, and the cones of basic lavas are flatter than the cones of acidic lavas.
Extra-cone distribution.—In violent eruptions, the steam, accompanied with much ash, is shot up to great heights, often rolling outwards in cumulus or cauliflower-like forms ([Fig. 458]). In the more violent explosions these columns are projected several miles. In the phenomenal case of Krakatoa the projection was estimated at seventeen miles. The steam, by reason of its great expansion and its contact with the colder regions of the upper air, is quickly condensed, and prodigious floods of rain frequently accompany the eruption. This rain, carrying down a portion of the ash and gathering up much that had previously fallen, gives rise to mud-flows, which in some cases constitute a large part of the final deposit. These mud-flows chiefly lodge on the lower slopes of the volcano or adjacent to its base, and give rise to rather flat cones, sometimes designated as tufa-cones to distinguish them from cinder-cones formed by the direct fall of fragmental material. Mud-flows appear also to be formed by the ejection of mud and water that had gathered in quiescent craters during intervals between stages of eruption.
A portion of the finer exploded material floats away in the air to greater or less distances, and forms widespread tufa-deposits. In. some cases beds of volcanic ash of appreciable thickness (as those of Nebraska)[282] are found far from any known volcanic center. The extremely fine ash from the great explosion of Krakatoa floated several times around the earth in the equatorial belt and spread northward into the temperate zones.
Fig. 468.—Mt. Shasta, a typical extinct cone, furrowed by erosion, but retaining its general form. (Diller, U. S. Geol. Surv.)