The San Francisco calamity by earthquake and fire Part 20

GREAT OUTFLOWS OF LAVA

In the course of ages lava outflows of this kind have built up in Hawaii a volcanic mountain estimated to contain enough material to cover the whole of the United States with a layer of rock 50 feet deep. These great outflows of lava are not confined to mountains, but take place now and then from openings in the ground, or from long cracks in the surface rocks. Occasionally great eruptions have taken place beneath the ocean's surface, throwing up material in sufficient quant.i.ty to form new islands.

The formation of mud is not confined to the method given, but great quant.i.ties of this plastic material flow at times from volcanic craters.

In the year 1691 Imbaburu, one of the peaks of the Andes, sent out floods of mud which contained dead fish in such abundance that their decay caused a fever in the vicinity. The volcanoes of Java have often buried large tracts of fertile country under volcanic mud.

An observation of volcanoes shows us that they have three well marked phases of action. The first of these is the state of permanent eruption, as in case of the volcano of Stromboli in the Mediterranean. This state is not a dangerous one, since the steam, escaping continually, acts as a safety valve. The second stage is one of milder activity with an occasional somewhat violent eruption; this is apt to be dangerous, though not often very greatly so. The safety valve is partly out of order. The third phase is one in which long periods of repose, sometimes lasting for centuries, are followed by eruptions of intense energy.

These are often of extreme violence and cause widespread destruction. In this case the safety valve has failed to work and the boiler bursts.

OFTEN REST FOR LONG TERMS OF YEARS

Such are the general features of action in the vast powers which dwell deep beneath the surface, harmless in most parts of the earth, frightfully perilous in others. Yet even here they often rest for long terms of years in seeming apathy, until men gather above their lurking places in mult.i.tudes, heedless or ignorant of the sleeping demons that bide their time below. Their time is sure to come, after years, perhaps after centuries. Suddenly the solid earth begins to tremble and quake; roars as of one of the buried giants of old strike all men with dread; then, with a fierce convulsion, a mountain is rent in twain and vast torrents of steam, burning rock, and blinding dust are hurled far upward into the air, to fall again and bury cities, perhaps, with all their inhabitants in indiscriminate ruin and death.

CHAPTER XIX.

Theories of Volcanic and Earthquake Action.

Though the first formation of a volcano (Italian, vulcano, from Vulcan, the Roman G.o.d of fire) has seldom been witnessed, it would seem that it is marked by earthquake movements followed by the opening of a rent or fissure; but with no such tilting up of the rocks as was once supposed to take place. From this fissure large volumes of steam issue, accompanied by hydrogen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, hydrochloric acid, and sulphur dioxide. The hydrogen, apparently derived from the dissociation of water at a high temperature, flashes explosively into union with atmospheric oxygen, and, having exerted its explosive force, the steam condenses into cloud, heavy ma.s.ses of which overhang the volcano, pouring down copious rains. This naturally disturbs the electrical condition of the atmosphere, so that thunder and lightning are frequent accompaniments of an eruption. The hydrochloric acid probably points to the agency of sea-water. Besides the gases just mentioned, sulphuretted hydrogen, ammonia and common salt occur; but mainly as secondary products, formed by the union of the vapors issuing from the volcano, and commonly found also in the vapors rising from cooling lava streams or dormant volcanic districts. It is important to notice that the vapors issue from the volcano spasmodically, explosions succeeding each other with great rapidity and noise.

All substances thrown out by the volcano, whether gaseous, liquid or solid, are conveniently united under the term ejectamenta (Latin, things thrown out), and all of them are in an intensely heated, if not an incandescent state. Most of the gases are incombustible, but the hydrogen and those containing sulphur burn with a true flame, perhaps rendered more visible by the presence of solid particles. Much of the so-called flame, however, in popular descriptions of eruptions is an error of observation due to the red-hot solid particles and the reflection of the glowing orifice on the over-hanging clouds.

ENORMOUS FORCE DISPLAYED

Solid bodies are thrown into the air with enormous force and to proportionally great heights, those not projected vertically falling in consequence at considerable distances from the volcano. A block weighing 200 tons is said to have been thrown nine miles by Cotopaxi; ma.s.ses of rock weighing as much as twenty tons to have been ejected by Mount Ararat in 1840; and stones to have been hurled to a distance of thirty-six miles in other cases. The solid matter thrown out by volcanoes consists of lapilli, scoriae, dust and bombs.

Though on the first formation of the volcano, ma.s.ses of non-volcanic rock may be torn from the chimney or pipe of the mountain, only slightly fused externally owing to the bad conducting power of most rocks, and hurled to a distance; and though at the beginning of a subsequent eruption the solid plug of rock which has cooled at the bottom of the crater, or, in fact, any part of the volcano, may be similarly blown up, the bulk of the solid particles of which the volcano itself is composed is derived from the lake of lava or molten rock which seethes at the orifice. Solid pieces rent from this fused ma.s.s and cast up by the explosive force of the steam with which the lava is saturated are known as lapilli. Cooling rapidly so as to be gla.s.sy in texture externally, these often have time to become perfectly crystalline within.

Gases and steam escaping from other similar ma.s.ses may leave them hollow, when they are termed bombs, or may pit their surfaces with irregular bubble-cavities, when they are called scoriae or scoriaceous.

Such ma.s.ses whirling through the air in a plastic state often become more or less oblately spheroidal in form; but, as often, the explosive force of their contained vapors shatters them into fragments, producing quant.i.ties of the finest volcanic dust or sand. This fine dust darkens the clouds overhanging the mountain, mixes with the condensed steam to fall as a black mud-rain, or lava di aqua (Italian, water lava), or is carried up to enormous heights, and then slowly diffused by upper currents of the atmosphere. In the eruption of Vesuvius of A.D. 79, the air was dark as midnight for twelve or fifteen miles round; the city of Pompeii was buried beneath a deposit of dry scoriae, or ashes and dust, and Herculaneum beneath a layer of the mud-like lava di aqua, which on drying sets into a compact rock. Rocks formed from these fragmentary volcanic materials are known as tuff.

VOLCANIC CONES HAVE SIMILAR CURVATURES

It is entirely of these cindery fragments heaped up with marvellous rapidity round the orifice that the volcano itself is first formed. It may, as in the case of Jorullo in Mexico in 1759, form a cone several hundred feet high in less than a day. Such a cone may have a slope as steep as 30 or 40 degrees, its incline in all cases depending simply on the angle of repose of its materials; the inclination, that is, at which they stop rolling. The great volcanoes of the Andes, which are formed mainly of ash, are very steep. Owing to a general similarity in their materials, volcanic cones in all parts of the world have very similar curvatures; but older volcanic mountains, in which lava-streams have broken through the cone, secondary cones have arisen, or portions have been blown up, are more irregular in outline and more gradual in inclination.

In size, volcanoes vary from mere mounds a few yards in diameter, such as the salses or mud volcanoes near the Caspian, to Etna, 10,800 feet high, with a base 30 miles in diameter; Cotopaxi, in the Andes, 18,887 feet high; or Mauna Loa, in the Sandwich Isles, 13,700 feet high; with a base 70 miles in diameter, and two craters, one of which, Kilauea, the largest active crater on our earth, is seven miles in circuit. Larger extinct craters occur in j.a.pan; but all our terrestrial volcanic mountains are dwarfed by those observed on the surface of the moon, which, owing to its smaller size, has cooled more rapidly than our earth. It is, of course, the explosive force from below which keeps the crater clear, as a cup-shaped hollow, truncating the cone; and all stones falling into it would be only thrown out again. It may at the close of an eruption cool down so completely that a lake can form within it, such as Lake Averno, near Naples; or it may long remain a seething sea of lava, such as Kilauea; or the lava may find one or more outlets from it, either by welling over its rim, which it will then generally break down, as in many of the small extinct volcanoes ("puys") of Auvergne, or more usually by bursting through the sides of the cone.

LAVA VARIES VERY MUCH IN LIQUIDITY

It is not generally until the volcano has exhausted its first explosive force that lava begins to issue. Several streams may issue in different directions. Their dimensions are sometimes enormous. Lava varies very much in liquidity and in the rate at which it flows. This much depends, however, upon the slope it has to traverse. A lava stream at Vesuvius ran three miles in four minutes, but took three hours to flow the next three miles, while a stream from Mauna Loa ran eighteen miles in two hours. Glowing at first as a white-hot liquid, the lava soon cools at the surface to red and then to black; cinder-like scoriaceous ma.s.ses form on its surface and in front of the slowly-advancing ma.s.s; clouds of steam and other vapor rise from it, and little cones are thrown up from its surface; but many years may elapse before the ma.s.s is cooled through. Thus, while the surface is gla.s.sy, the interior becomes crystalline.

As to what are the causes of the great convulsions of nature known as the volcano and the earthquake we know very little. Various theories have been advanced, but nothing by any means sure has been discovered, and considerable difference of opinion exists. In truth we know so little concerning the conditions existing in the earth's interior that any views concerning the forces at work there must necessarily be largely conjectural.

Sir Robert S. Ball says, in this connection: "Let us take, for instance, that primary question in terrestrial physics, as to whether the interior of the earth is liquid or solid. If we were to judge merely from the temperatures reasonably believed to exist at a depth of some twenty miles, and if we might overlook the question of pressure, we should certainly say that the earth's interior must be in a fluid state. It seems at least certain that the temperatures to be found at depths of two score miles, and still more at greater depths, must be so high that the most refractory solids, whether metals or minerals, would at once yield if we could subject them to such temperatures in our laboratories.

But none of our laboratory experiments can tell us whether, under the pressure of thousands of tons on the square inch, the application of any heat whatever would be adequate to transform solids into liquids.

It may, indeed, be reasonably doubted whether the terms solid and liquid are applicable, in the sense in which we understand them, to the materials forming the interior of the earth.

"A principle, already well known in the arts, is that many, if not all, solids may be made to flow like liquids if only adequate pressure be applied. The making of lead tubes is a well-known practical ill.u.s.tration of this principle, for these tubes are formed simply by forcing solid lead by the hydraulic press through a mould which imparts the desired shape.

"If then a solid can be made to behave like a liquid, even with such pressures as are within our control, how are we to suppose that the solids would behave with such pressures as those to which they are subjected in the interior of the earth? The fact is that the terms solid and liquid, at least as we understand them, appear to have no physical meaning with regard to bodies subjected to these stupendous pressures, and this must be carefully borne in mind when we are discussing the nature of the interior of the earth."

THE VOLCANO A SAFETY VALVE

Whatever be the state of affairs in the depths of the earth's crust, we may look upon the volcano as a sort of safety-valve, opening a pa.s.sage for the pent-up forces to the surface, and thus relieving the earth from the terrible effects of the earthquake, through which these imprisoned powers so often make themselves felt. Without the volcanic vent there might be no safety for man on the earth's unquiet face.

Professor J. C. Russell, of Michigan University, presents the following views concerning the status and action of volcanoes:--

"When reduced to its simplest terms, a volcano may be defined as a tube, or conduit, in the earth's crust, through which the molten rock is forced to the surface. The conduit penetrates the cool and rigid rocks forming the superficial portion of the earth, and reaches its highly heated interior.

"The length of volcanic conduits can only be conjectured, but, judging from the approximately known rate of increase of heat with depth (on an average one degree Fahrenheit for each sixty feet), and the temperature at which volcanic rocks melt (from 2,300 to 2,700 degrees Fahrenheit, when not under pressure), they must seemingly have a depth of at least twenty miles. There are other factors to be considered, but in general terms it is safe to a.s.sume that the conduits of volcanoes are irregular openings, many miles in depth, which furnish pa.s.sageways for molten rock (lava) from the highly-heated sub-crust portion of the earth to its surface... ."

ERUPTIONS OF QUIET TYPE

"During eruptions of the quiet type, the lava comes to the surface in a highly liquid condition--that is, it is thoroughly fused, and flows with almost the freedom of water. It spreads widely, even on a nearly level plain, and may form a comparatively thin sheet several hundred square miles in area, as has been observed in Iceland and Hawaii. On the Snake River plains, in Southern Idaho, there are sheets of once molten rock which were poured out in the manner just stated, some four hundred square miles in area and not over seventy-five feet in average thickness. When an eruption of highly liquid lava occurs in a mountainous region, the molten rock may cascade down deep slopes and flow through narrow valleys for fifty miles or more before becoming chilled sufficiently to arrest its progress. Instances are abundant where quiet eruptions have occurred in the midst of a plain, and built up 'lava cones,' or low mounds, with immensely expanded bases.

Ill.u.s.trations are furnished in Southern Idaho, in which the cones formed are only three hundred or four hundred feet high, but have a breadth at the base of eight or ten miles. In the cla.s.s of eruption ill.u.s.trated by these examples, there is an absence of fragmental material, such as explosive volcanoes hurl into the air, and a person may stand within a few yards of a rushing stream of molten rock, or examine closely the opening from which it is being poured out, without danger or serious inconvenience.

"The quiet volcanic eruptions are attended by the escape of steam or gases from the molten rock, but the lava being in a highly liquid state, the steam and gases dissolved in it escape quietly and without explosions. If, however, the molten rock is less completely fluid, or in a viscous condition, the vapors and gases contained in it find difficulty in escaping, and may be retained until, becoming concentrated in large volume, they break their way to the surface, producing violent explosions. Volcanoes in which the lava extruded is viscous, and the escape of steam and gases is r.e.t.a.r.ded until the pent-up energy bursts all bounds, are of the explosive, type. One characteristic example is Vesuvius.

"When steam escapes from the summit of a volcanic conduit--which, in plain terms, is a tall vessel filled with intensely hot and more or less viscous liquid--ma.s.ses of the liquid rock are blown into the air, and on falling build up a rim or crater about the place of discharge. Commonly the lava in the summit portion of a conduit becomes chilled and perhaps hardened, and when a steam explosion occurs this crust is shattered and the fragments hurled into the air and contributed to the building of the walls of the inclosing crater.

"The solid rock blown out by volcanoes consists usually of highly vesicular material which hardened on the surface of the column of lava within a conduit and was shattered by explosions beneath it. These fragments vary in size from dust particles up to ma.s.ses several feet in diameter, and during violent eruptions are hurled miles high. The larger fragments commonly fall near their place of origin, and usually furnish the princ.i.p.al part of the material of which craters are built, but the gravel-like kernels, lapilli, may be carried laterally several miles if a wind is blowing, while the dust is frequently showered down on thousands of square miles of land and sea. The solid and usually angular fragments manufactured in this manner vary in temperature, and may still be red hot on falling.

"Volcanoes of the explosive type not uncommonly discharge streams of lava, which may flow many miles. In certain instances these outwellings of liquid rock occur after severe earthquakes and violent explosions, and may have all the characteristics of quiet eruptions. There is thus no fundamental difference between the two types into which it is convenient to divide volcanoes."

MOUNTAINS BLOW THEIR HEADS OFF

"In extreme examples of explosive volcanoes, the summit portion of a crater, perhaps several miles in circ.u.mference and several thousand feet high, is blown away. Such an occurrence is recorded in the case of the volcano Coseguina, Nicaragua, in 1835. Or, an entire mountain may disappear, being reduced to lapilli and dust and blown into the air, as in the case of Krakatoa, in the Straits of Sunda, in 1883.

"The essential feature of a volcano, as stated above, is a tube or conduit, leading from the highly heated sub-crust portion of the earth to the crater and through which molten rock is forced upward to the surface. The most marked variations in the process depend on the quant.i.ty of molten rock extruded, and on the freedom of escape of the steam and gases contained in the lava.

"The cause of the rise of the molten rock in a volcano is still a matter for discussion. Certain geologists contend that steam is the sole motive power; while others consider that the lava is forced to the surface owing to pressure on the reservoir from which it comes. The view perhaps most favorably entertained at present, in reference to the general nature of volcanic eruptions, is that the rigid outer portion of the earth becomes fractured, owing princ.i.p.ally to movements resulting from the shrinking of the cooling inner ma.s.s, and that the intensely hot material reached by the fissures, previously solid owing to pressure, becomes liquid when pressure is relieved, and is forced to the surface.