Principles of Geology Part 30

_a_, Monte Somma, or the remains of the ancient cone of Vesuvius.

_b_, The Pedamentina, a terrace-like projection, encircling the base of the recent cone of Vesuvius on the south side.

_c_, Atrio del Cavallo.[533]

_d_, _e_, Crater left by eruption of 1822.

_f_, Small cone thrown up in 1828, at the bottom of the great crater.

_g_, _g_, Dikes intersecting Somma.

_h_, _h_, Dikes intersecting the recent cone of Vesuvius.]

In the annexed diagram (fig. 45) it will be seen that on the side of Vesuvius opposite to that where a portion of the ancient cone of Somma (_a_) still remains, is a projection (_b_) called the Pedamentina, which some have supposed to be part of the circ.u.mference of the ancient crater broken down towards the sea, and over the edge of which the lavas of the modern Vesuvius have poured; the axis of the present cone of Vesuvius being, according to Visconti, precisely equidistant from the escarpment of Somma and the Pedamentina.

In the same diagram I have represented the slanting beds of the cone of Vesuvius as becoming horizontal in the Atrio del Cavallo (at _c_), where the base of the new cone meets the precipitous escarpment of Somma; for when the lava flows down to this point, as happened in 1822, its descending course is arrested, and it then runs in another direction along this small valley, circling round the base of the cone. Sand and scoriae, also, blown by the winds, collect at the base of the cone, and are then swept away by torrents; so that there is always here a flatish plain, as represented. In the same manner, the small interior cone (_f_) must be composed of sloping beds, terminating in a horizontal plain; for, while this monticule was gradually gaining height by successive ejections of lava and scoriae, in 1828, it was always surrounded by a flat pool of semi-fluid lava, into which scoriae and sand were thrown.

In the steep simicircular escarpment of Somma, which faces the modern Vesuvius, we see a great number of sheets of lava inclined at an angle of about 26. They alternate with scoriae, and are intersected by numerous dikes, which, like the sheets of lava, are composed chiefly of augite, with crystals of leucite, but the rock in the dikes is more compact, having cooled and consolidated under greater pressure. Some of the dikes cut through and shift others, so that they have evidently been formed during successive eruptions. While the higher region of Somma is made up of these igneous products, there appear on its flanks, for some depth from the surface, as seen in a ravine called the "Fossa Grande,"

beds of white pumiceous tuff, resembling the tuff which, at Pausilippo, and other places, near Naples, contain sh.e.l.ls of living Mediterranean species. It is supposed by Pilla, Von Buch, and others, that the tufaceous beds, which rise in Somma to more than half the height of that mountain, are, in like manner, of submarine origin, because a few sea-sh.e.l.ls have been found in them, here and there, together with serpulae of recent species attached to included blocks of limestone.[534]

It is contended, therefore, that as these strata were once acc.u.mulated beneath the sea, they may have been subjected as they rose to such an upward movement as may have given rise to a conical hill; and this hypothesis, it is said, acquires confirmation from the fact, that the sheets of lava near the summit of Somma are so compact and crystalline, and of such breadth individually, as would not have been the case had they run down a steep slope. They must, therefore, have consolidated on a nearly level surface, and have been subsequently uplifted into their present inclined position.

Unfortunately there are no sections of sufficient depth and continuity on the flanks of Somma, to reveal to us clearly the relations of the lava, scoriae, and a.s.sociated dikes, forming the highest part of the mountain, with the marine tuffs observed on its declivity. Both may, perhaps, have been produced contemporaneously when Somma raised its head, like Stromboli, above the sea, its sides and base being then submerged. Such a state of things may be indicated by a fact noticed by Von Buch, namely, that the pumiceous beds of Naples, when they approach Somma, contain fragments of the peculiar leucitic lava proper to that mountain, which are not found in the same tuff at a greater distance.[535] Portions, therefore, of this lava were either thrown out by explosions, or torn off by the waves, during the deposition of the pumiceous strata beneath the sea.

We have as yet but a scanty acquaintance with the laws which regulate the flow of lava beneath water, or the arrangement of scoriae and volcanic dust on the sides of a submarine cone. There can, however, be little doubt that showers of ejected matter may settle on a steep slope, and may include sh.e.l.ls and the remains of aquatic animals, which flourish in the intervals between eruptions. Lava under the pressure of water would be less porous; but, as Dr. Daubeny suggests, it may retain its fluidity longer than in the open air; for the rapidity with which heated bodies are cooled by being plunged into water arises chiefly from the conversion of the lower portions of water into steam, which steam absorbing much heat, immediately ascends, and is reconverted into water.

But under the pressure of a deep ocean, the heat of the lava would be carried off more slowly, and only by the circulation of ascending and descending currents of water, those portions nearest the source of heat becoming specifically light, and consequently displacing the water above. This kind of circulation would take place with much less rapidity than in the atmosphere, inasmuch as the expansion of water by equal increments of heat is less considerable than that of air.[536]

We learn from the valuable observations made by Mr. Dana on the active volcanoes of the Sandwich Islands, that large sheets of compact basaltic lava have been poured out of craters at the top or near the summits of flattened domes higher than Etna, as in the case of Mount Loa for example, where a copious stream two miles broad and twenty-five miles long proceeded from an opening 13,000 feet above the level of the sea.

The usual slope of these sheets of lava is between 5 and 10; but Mr.

Dana convinced himself that, owing to the suddenness with which they cool in the air, some lavas may occasionally form on slopes equalling 25, and still preserve a considerable compactness of texture. It is even proved, he says, from what he saw in the great lateral crater of Kilauea, on the flanks of Mount Loa, that a ma.s.s of such melted rock may consolidate at an inclination of 30, and be continuous for 300 or 400 feet. Such ma.s.ses are narrow, he admits, "but if the source had been more generous, they would have had a greater breadth, and by a succession of ejections overspreading each cooled layer, a considerable thickness might have been attained."[537] The same author has also shown, as before mentioned, that in the "cinder cones" of the Sandwich Islands, the strata have an original inclination of between 35 and 40.[538]

Mr. Scrope, writing in 1827, attributed the formation of a volcanic cone chiefly to matter ejected from a central orifice, but partly to the injection of lava into dikes, and "to that force of gaseous expansion, the intensity of which, in the central parts of the cone, is attested by local earthquakes, which so often accompany eruptions.[539] It is the opinion of MM. Von Buch, De Beaumont, and Dufrenoy, that the sheets of lava on Somma are so uniform and compact, that their original inclination did not exceed four or five degrees, and that four-fifths, therefore, of their present slope is due to their having been subsequently tilted and upraised. Notwithstanding the light thrown by M.

de Beaumont on the laws regulating the flow and consolidation of lava, I do not conceive that these laws are as yet sufficiently determined to warrant us in a.s.signing so much of the inclined position of the beds of Somma to the subsequent rending and dislocation of the cone. Even if this were admitted, it is far more in harmony with the usual mode of development of volcanic forces to suppose the movement which modified the shape of the cone to have been intermittent and gradual, and not to have consisted of a single effort, or one sudden and violent convulsion.[540]

_Vesuvian lavas._--The lavas of Somma are characterized by containing disseminated crystals of leucite (called, by the French, amphigene), a mineral said to be very rare in the modern lavas of Vesuvius, which are in general much more scoriaceous and less crystalline than those of Somma.[541]

At the fortress near Torre del Greco a section is exposed, fifteen feet in height, of a current which ran into the sea; and it evinces, especially in the lower part, a decided tendency to divide into rude columns. A still more striking example may be seen to the west of Torre del Annunziata, near Forte Sca.s.sato, where the ma.s.s is laid open to the depth of twenty feet. In both these cases, however, the rock may rather be said to be divided into numerous perpendicular fissures, than to be prismatic, although the same picturesque effect is produced. In the lava-currents of Central France (those of the Vivarais, in particular), the uppermost portion, often forty feet or more in thickness, is an amorphous ma.s.s pa.s.sing downwards into lava irregularly prismatic; and under this there is a foundation of regular and vertical columns; but these lavas are often one hundred feet or more in thickness. We can scarcely expect to discover the same phenomenon in the shallow currents of Vesuvius, where the lowest part has cooled more rapidly, although it may be looked for in modern streams in Iceland, which exceed even those of ancient France in volume.

Mr. Scrope mentions that, in the cliffs encircling the modern crater of Vesuvius, he saw many currents offering a columnar division, and some almost as regularly prismatic as any ranges of the older basalts; and he adds, that in some the spheroidal concretionary structure, on a large scale, was equally conspicuous.[542] Brieslak[543] also informs us that, in the siliceous lava of 1737, which contains augite, leucite, and crystals of felspar, he found very regular prisms in a quarry near Torre del Greco; an observation confirmed by modern authorities.[544]

_Effects of decomposition on lavas._--The decomposition of some of the felspathic lavas, either by simple weathering, or by gaseous emanations, converts them from a hard to a soft clayey state, so that they no longer retain the smallest resemblance to rocks cooled down from a state of fusion. The exhalations of sulphuretted hydrogen and muriatic acid, which are disengaged continually from the Solfatara, also produce curious changes on the trachyte of that nearly extinct volcano: the rock is bleached, and becomes porous, fissile, and honey-combed, till at length it crumbles into a white siliceous powder.[545] Numerous globular concretions, composed of concentric laminae, are also formed by the same vapors in this decomposed rock.[546]

_Vesuvian minerals._--A great variety of minerals are found in the lavas of Vesuvius and Somma; augite, leucite, felspar, mica, olivine, and sulphur are most abundant. It is an extraordinary fact, that in an area of three square miles round Vesuvius, a greater number of simple minerals have been found than in any spot of the same dimensions on the surface of the globe. Hauy enumerated only 380 species of simple minerals as known to him; and no less than eighty-two had been found on Vesuvius and in the tuffs on the flanks of Somma before the end of the year 1828.[547] Many of these are peculiar to that locality. Some mineralogists have conjectured that the greater part of these were not of Vesuvian origin, but thrown up in fragments from some older formation, through which the gaseous explosions burst. But none of the older rocks in Italy, or elsewhere, contain such an a.s.semblage of mineral products; and the hypothesis seems to have been prompted by a disinclination to admit that, in times so recent in the earth's history, the laboratory of nature could have been so prolific in the creation of new and rare compounds. Had Vesuvius been a volcano of high antiquity, formed when nature

Wanton'd as in her prime, and play'd at will Her virgin fancies,

it would have been readily admitted that these, or a much greater variety of substances, had been sublimed in the crevices of lava, just as several new earthy and metallic compounds are known to have been produced by fumeroles, since the eruption of 1822.

_Ma.s.s enveloping Herculaneum and Pompeii._--In addition to the ejections which fall on the cone, and that much greater ma.s.s which finds its way gradually to the neighboring sea, there is a third portion, often of no inconsiderable thickness, composed of alluviums, spread over the valleys and plains at small distances from the volcano. Aqueous vapors are evolved copiously from volcanic craters during eruptions, and often for a long time subsequently to the discharge of scoriae and lava: these vapors are condensed in the cold atmosphere surrounding the high volcanic peak, and heavy rains are thus caused. The floods thus occasioned, sweep along the impalpable dust and light scoriae, till a current of mud is produced, which is called in Campania "lava d' acqua,"

and is often more dreaded than an igneous stream (lava di fuoco), from the greater velocity with which it moves. So late as the 27th of October, 1822, one of these alluviums descended the cone of Vesuvius, and, after overspreading much cultivated soil, flowed suddenly into the villages of St. Sebastian and Ma.s.sa, where, filling the streets and interior of some of the houses, it suffocated seven persons. It will, therefore, happen very frequently that, towards the base of a volcanic cone, alternations will be found of lava, alluvium, and showers of ashes.

To which of these two latter divisions the ma.s.s enveloping Herculaneum and Pompeii should be referred, has been a question of the keenest controversy; but the discussion might have been shortened, if the combatants had reflected that, whether volcanic sand and ashes were conveyed to the towns by running water, or through the air, during an eruption, the interior of buildings, so long as the roofs remain entire, together with all underground vaults and cellars, could be filled only by an alluvium. We learn from history, that a heavy shower of sand, pumice, and lapilli, sufficiently great to render Pompeii and Herculaneum uninhabitable, fell for eight successive days and nights in the year 79, accompanied by violent rains.[548] We ought, therefore, to find a very close resemblance between the strata covering these towns and those composing the minor cones of the Phlegraean Fields, acc.u.mulated rapidly, like Monte Nuovo, during a continued shower of ejected matter; with this difference however, that the strata inc.u.mbent on the cities would be horizontal, whereas those on the cones are highly inclined; and that large angular fragments of rock, which are thrown out near the vent, would be wanting at a distance where small lapilli only can be found. Accordingly, with these exceptions, no ident.i.ty can be more perfect than the form, and distribution of the matter at the base of Monte Nuovo, as laid open by the encroaching sea, and the appearance of the beds superimposed on Pompeii. That city is covered with numerous alternations of different horizontal beds of tuff and lapilli, for the most part thin, and subdivided into very fine layers. I observed the following section near the amphitheatre, in November, 1828--(descending series):--

Feet Inches.

1. Black sparkling sand from the eruption of 1822, containing minute regularly formed crystals of augite and tourmaline 0 2

2. Vegetable mould 3 0

3. Brown incoherent tuff, full of _pisolitic globules_ in layers, from half an inch to three inches in thickness 1 6

4. Small scoriae and white lapilli 0 3

5. Brown earthy tuff, with numerous pisolitic globules 0 9

6. Brown earthy tuff, with lapilli divided into layers 4 0

7. Layer of whitish lapilli 0 1

8. Gray solid tuff 0 3

9. Pumice and white lapilli 0 3 ------- 10 3 -------

Many of the ashes in these beds are vitrified, and harsh to the touch.

Crystals of leucite, both fresh and farinaceous, have been found intermixed.[549] The depth of the bed of ashes above the houses is variable, but seldom exceeds twelve or fourteen feet, and it is said that the higher part of the amphitheatre always projected above the surface; though if this were the case, it seems inexplicable that the city should never have been discovered till the year 1750. It will be observed in the above section that two of the brown, half-consolidated tuffs are filled with small pisolitic globules. This circ.u.mstance is not alluded to in the animated controversy which the Royal Academy of Naples maintained with one of their members, Signor Lippi, as to the origin of the strata inc.u.mbent on Pompeii. The mode of aggregation of these globules has been fully explained by Mr. Scrope, who saw them formed in great numbers in 1822, by rain falling during the eruption on fine volcanic sand, and sometimes also produced like hail in the air, by the mutual attraction of the minutest particles of fine damp sand. Their occurrence, therefore, agrees remarkably well with the account of heavy rain, and showers of sand and ashes recorded in history.[550]

Lippi ent.i.tled his work, "Fu il fuoco o l' acqua che sotter Pompei ed Ercolano?"[551] and he contended that neither were the two cities destroyed in the year 79, nor by a volcanic eruption, but purely by the agency of water charged with transported matter. His letters, wherein he endeavored to dispense, as far as possible, with igneous agency, even at the foot of the volcano, were dedicated, with great propriety, to Werner, and afford an amusing ill.u.s.tration of the polemic style in which geological writers of that day indulged themselves. His arguments were partly of an historical nature, derived from the silence of contemporary historians, respecting the fate of the cities, which, as we have already stated, is most remarkable, and partly drawn from physical proofs. He pointed out with great clearness the resemblance of the tufaceous matter in the vaults and cellars at Herculaneum and Pompeii to aqueous alluviums, and its distinctness from ejections which had fallen through the air. Nothing, he observes, but moist pasty matter could have received the impression of a woman's breast, which was found in a vault at Pompeii, or have given the cast of a statue discovered in the theatre at Herculaneum. It was objected to him, that the heat of the tuff in Herculaneum and Pompeii was proved by the carbonization of the timber, corn, papyrus-rolls, and other vegetable substances there discovered; but Lippi replied with truth, that the papyri would have been burnt up if they had come in contact with fire, and that their being only carbonized was a clear demonstration of their having been enveloped, like fossil wood, in a sediment deposited from water. The Academicians, in their report on his pamphlet, a.s.sert, that when the amphitheatre was first cleared out, the matter was arranged on the steps in a succession of concave layers, accommodating themselves to the interior form of the building, just as snow would lie if it had fallen there. This observation is highly interesting, and points to the difference between the stratification of ashes in an open building and of mud derived from the same in the interior of edifices and cellars.

Nor ought we to call the allegation in question, because it could not be substantiated at the time of the controversy after the matter had been all removed; although Lippi took advantage of this removal, and met the argument of his antagonists by requiring them to prove the fact. There is decisive evidence that no stream of lava has ever reached Pompeii since it was first built, although the foundations of the town stand upon the old leucitic lava of Somma; several streams of which, with tuff interposed, had been cut through in excavations.

_Infusorial beds covering Pompeii._--A most singular and unexpected discovery has been recently made (1844-5) by Professor Ehrenberg, respecting the remote origin of many of the layers of ashes and pumice enveloping Pompeii. They are, he says, in great part, of organic and freshwater origin, consisting of the siliceous cases of microscopic infusoria. What is still more surprising, this fact proves to be by no means an isolated or solitary example of an intimate relation between organic life and the results of volcanic activity. On the Rhine, several beds of tuff and pumiceous conglomerate, resembling the ma.s.s inc.u.mbent upon Pompeii and closely connected with extinct volcanoes, are now ascertained to be made up to a great extent of the siliceous cases of infusoria (or Diatomaceae), invisible to the naked eye, and often half fused.[552] No less than 94 distinct species have already been detected in one ma.s.s of this kind, more than 150 feet thick, at Hochsimmer, on the left bank of the Rhine, near the Laacher-see. Some of these Rhenish infusorial acc.u.mulations appear to have fallen in showers, others to have been poured out of lake-craters in the form of mud, as in the Brohl valley.

In Mexico, Peru, the Isle of France, and several other volcanic regions, a.n.a.logous phenomena have been observed, and everywhere the species of infusoria belong to freshwater and terrestrial genera, except in the case of the Patagonian pumiceous tuffs, specimens of which, brought home by Mr. Darwin, are found to contain the remains of marine animalcules. In various kinds of pumice ejected by volcanoes, the microscope has revealed to Professor Ehrenberg the siliceous cases of infusoria often half obliterated by the action of heat, and the fine dust thrown out into the air during eruptions, is sometimes referable to these most minute organic substances, brought up from considerable depths, and sometimes mingled with small particles of vegetable matter.

In what manner did the solid coverings of these most minute plants and animalcules, which can only originate and increase at the surface of the earth, sink down and penetrate into subterranean cavities, so as to be ejected from the volcanic orifices? We have of late years become familiar with the fact, in the process of boring Artesian wells, that the seeds of plants, the remains of insects, and even small fish, with other organic bodies, are carried in an uninjured state by the underground circulation of waters, to the depth of many hundred feet.

With still greater facility in a volcanic region we may conjecture, that water and mud full of invisible infusoria may be sucked down, from time to time, into subterranean rents and hollows in cavernous lava which has been permeated by gases, or in rocks dislocated by earthquakes. It often happens that a lake which has endured for centuries in a volcanic crater, disappears suddenly on the approach of a new eruption. Violent shocks agitate the surrounding region, and ponds, rivers, and wells are dried up. Large cavities far below may thus become filled with fen-mud chiefly composed of the more indestructible and siliceous portions of infusoria, destined perhaps to be one day ejected in a fragmentary or half-fused state, yet without the obliteration of all traces of organic structure.[553]

_Herculaneum._--It was remarked that no lava has flowed over the site of Pompeii, since that city was built, but with Herculaneum the case is different. Although the substance which fills the interior of the houses and the vaults must have been introduced in a state of mud, like that found in similar situations in Pompeii; yet the superinc.u.mbent ma.s.s differs wholly in composition and thickness. Herculaneum was situated several miles nearer to the volcano, and has, therefore, been always more exposed to be covered, not only by showers of ashes, but by alluviums and streams of lava. Accordingly, ma.s.ses of both have acc.u.mulated on each other above the city, to a depth of nowhere less than 70, and in many places of 112 feet.[554]

The tuff which envelops the buildings consists of comminuted volcanic ashes, mixed with pumice. A mask imbedded in this matrix has left a cast, the sharpness of which was compared by Hamilton to those in plaster of Paris; nor was the mask in the least degree scorched, as if it had been imbedded in heated matter. This tuff is porous; and, when first excavated, is soft and easily worked, but acquires a considerable degree of induration on exposure to the air. Above this lowest stratum is placed, according to Hamilton, "the matter of six eruptions," each separated from the other by veins of good soil. In these soils Lippi states that he collected a considerable number of land sh.e.l.ls--an observation which is no doubt correct; for many snails burrow in soft soils, and some Italian species descend, when they hybernate, to the depth of five feet and more from the surface. Della Torre also informs us that there is in one part of this superimposed ma.s.s a bed of true siliceous lava (_lava di pietra dura_); and, as no such current is believed to have flowed till near one thousand years after the destruction of Herculaneum, we must conclude, that the origin of a large part of the covering of Herculaneum was long subsequent to the first inhumation of the place. That city, as well as Pompeii, was a seaport.

Herculaneum is still very near the sh.o.r.e, but a tract of land, a mile in length, intervenes between the borders of the Bay of Naples and Pompeii.

In both cases the gain of land is due to the filling up of the bed of the sea with volcanic matter, and not to elevation by earthquakes, for there has been no change in the relative level of land and sea. Pompeii stood on a slight eminence composed of the lavas of the ancient Vesuvius, and flights of steps led down to the water's edge. The lowermost of these steps are said to be still on an exact level with the sea.

_Condition and contents of the buried cities._--After these observations on the nature of the strata enveloping and surrounding the cities, we may proceed to consider their internal condition and contents, so far at least as they offer facts of geological interest. Notwithstanding the much greater depth at which Herculaneum was buried, it was discovered before Pompeii, by the accidental circ.u.mstance of a well being sunk, in 1713, which came right down upon the theatre, where the statues of Hercules and Cleopatra were soon found. Whether this city or Pompeii, both of them founded by Greek colonies, was the more considerable, is not yet determined; but both are mentioned by ancient authors as among the seven most flourishing cities in Campania. The walls of Pompeii were three miles in circ.u.mference; but we have, as yet, no certain knowledge of the dimensions of Herculaneum. In the latter place the theatre alone is open for inspection; the Forum, Temple of Jupiter, and other buildings, having been filled up with rubbish as the workmen proceeded, owing to the difficulty of removing it from so great a depth below ground. Even the theatre is only seen by torch-light, and the most interesting information, perhaps, which the geologist obtains there, is the continual formation of stalact.i.te in the galleries cut through the tuff; for there is a constant percolation of water charged with carbonate of lime mixed with a small portion of magnesia. Such mineral waters must, in the course of time, create great changes in many rocks; especially in lavas, the pores of which they may fill with calcareous spar, so as to convert them into amygdaloids. Some geologists, therefore, are unreasonable when they expect that volcanic rocks of remote eras should accord precisely with those of modern date; since it is obvious that many of those produced in our own time will not long retain the same aspect and internal composition.

Both at Herculaneum and Pompeii, temples have been found with inscriptions commemorating the rebuilding of the edifices after they had been thrown down by an earthquake.[555] This earthquake happened in the reign of Nero, sixteen years before the cities were overwhelmed. In Pompeii, one-fourth of which is now laid open to the day, both the public and private buildings bear testimony to the catastrophe. The walls are rent, and in many places traversed by fissures still open.