Volcanoes: What They are and What They Teach

by John W. Judd

When a strong wind is blowing during a volcanic outburst, the materials may be driven to one side of the vent, and accumulate there more rapidly than on the other. Thus lop-sided cones are formed, such as may frequently be observed in some volcanic districts. In areas where constant currents of air, like the trade-winds, prevail, all the scoria-cones of the district may thus be found to be unequally developed on opposite sides, being lowest on those from which the prevalent winds blow, and highest on the sides towards which these winds blow.

ANGLE OF SLOPE IN VOLCANIC CONES.

The examination of any careful drawing, or better still of the photograph, of a volcanic cone, will prove that the profile of such cones is not formed by straight lines, but by curves often of a delicate and beautiful character. The delineations of the sacred volcano of Fusiyama, which are so constantly found in the productions of Japanese artists, must have familiarised everyone with the elegant curved lines exhibited by the profiles of volcanoes. The upper slope of the mountain is comparatively steep, often exhibiting angles of 30° to 35°, but this steepness of slope gradually diminishes, till it eventually merges in the surrounding plains. The cause of this elegant form assumed by most volcanic mountains is probably two-fold. In the first place we have to remember that the materials falling upon the flanks of the mountain differ in size and shape, and some will rest on a steeper slope than others. Thus, while some of the materials remain on the upper part of the mountains, others are rolling outwards and downwards. Hence we find that those cones which are composed of uniform materials have straight sides. But in some cases, we shall see hereafter, there has certainly been a central subsidence of the mountain mass, and it is this subsidence which has probably given rise to the curvature of its flanks.

We have hitherto considered only the methods by which the froth or foam, which accumulates on the surface of fluid lava, is dispersed. But in many cases not only is this scum of the lava ejected from the volcanic vent by the escaping steam, but the fluid lava itself is extruded forcibly, and often in enormous quantities.

The lava in a volcanic vent is always in a highly heated, usually incandescent, condition. Seen by night, its freshly exposed surface is glowing red, sometimes apparently white-hot. But by exposure to the atmosphere the surface is rapidly chilled, appearing dull red by night, and black by day. Many persons are surprised to find that a flowing stream of lava presents the appearance of a great mass of rough cinders, rolling along with a rattling sound, owing to the striking of the clinker-like fragments against each other. When viewed by night, the gleaming, red light between these rough, cindery masses betrays the presence of incandescent materials below the chilled surface of the lava-stream.

No fact in connection with lavas is more striking than the varying degrees of liquidity presented by them in different cases. While some lava-streams seem to resemble rivers, the material flowing rapidly along, filling every channel in its course, and deluging the whole country around, others would be more fitly compared to glaciers, creeping along at so slow a rate that the fact of their movement can only be demonstrated by the most careful observation. Even when falling over a precipice such lavas, owing to their imperfect liquidity, form heavy, pendent masses like a 'guttering' candle, as is shown by [fig. 18], which is taken from a drawing kindly furnished to me by Capt. S. P. Oliver, R.A. The causes of these differences in the rate of motion of lava-streams we must proceed to consider.

Fig. 18.—Cascade of Lava tumbling over a cliff in the Island of Bourbon.

TEMPERATURE OF LAVA-STREAMS.

There can be no doubt that the temperature of lavas varies greatly in different cases. This is shown by the fact that while some lavas are in a state of complete fusion, similar to that of the slags of furnaces, and like the latter, such lavas on cooling form a glassy mass, others consist of a liquid magma in which a larger or smaller number of crystals are found floating. In these latter cases the temperature of the magma must be below the fusing-point of the minerals which exist in a crystalline condition in its midst. It has indeed been suggested that the whole of the crystals in lavas are formed during the cooling down of a completely fused mass; but no one can imagine that the enclosed crystals of quartz, felspar, leucite, olivine, &c., have been so formed, such crystals being sometimes more than an inch in diameter. The microscopic examination of lavas usually enables us to discriminate between those complete crystals which have been formed at great depths and carried up to the surface, and the minute crystalline particles and microliths which have been developed in the glassy mass during cooling. Crystals of the former class, indeed, exhibit abundant evidence, in their liquid cavities and other peculiarities, that they have not been formed by simple cooling from a state of fusion, but under the combined action of heat, the presence of water and various gases, and intense pressure.