Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1883-09-15
Volcanic Surprises.

For avolcano once supposed to be inactive.
Vesnvius has prepared some lively surprises fol
the dwellers In Its neighborlIOod It's latest
surprise has been to shake up railroad and de-
stroy several houses The people OF Hercu.
laneum and Pompeii thought vesuvius ex-
tinct. till one day it proved in very thorough
manner that 1t could still be reused to activity
Since then no one has been deceived by its
quietude.
Other volcanoes beside Vesuvius have from
time to time INDUCED in what seems to be the
general volcanic propensity of creating snr.
prises. Thus no one would expect to have a
mass OF rock of some three thousand cubic feet
suddenly descend upon them from the sky. But
people living nine miles from COtopaxi were
on one occasion treated to such surprise The
Carthagenlans, when they set out against Syra-
cuse, were not prepared to cross the fiery river
which, to their surprise. intercepted their march
at Mount Etna. They had no boats with which
to cross it.
The great eruption of Tomboro SURPRISED
people for some $40 miles around. the distance
at which the force of the explosion was heard
Ihey wondered what was the matter until thew
learned of the eruption from one of the twenty
SIX persons who were saved out of population
OF twelve thousand.
Surprises of another kind. fearful delures are
the first indications in many South American
ulstrlcts That volcanoes whose peaks are in the
region OF perpetual snow have suddenly be-
come active, the delnge being caused by the
melting of great masses OF snow
1t must also be a surprise of A beautifn,
though fearful kind to see a fiery fountain play
to height OF seven hundred feet from the side
of mountain. Such fountain on Mama I,oa
IN 1852 was magnificent illustration of VOL
canic INSURE the pressure Of lava at the crater
oelnS relieved by this new outlet. The cracks
often seen on volcanoes, which form bikes "a
dating from the center, are created in this
manner. small extra craters, volcanoes on
volcanoes, which gradually become cone shaped.
are found along these assures.
Another surprise. There is no fame in VOL
canic eruption, as is generally represented
most graphically in chrOmOs. The suppositi-
tious names are simply reflection OF the lava
on the cloud of ashes and cinders. How great
volume OF the latter is elected can be well un-
and cinders were elected during the Tomboro
eruption to cover the whole Of Germany two
Ieet deep.
The islands which have occasionally SURPRISED
the inhabitants along the coast of the Mediter-
ranean by appearing suddenly under their very
eyes are the results of volcanic action Rnt
probably the greatest surprise connected with
TINS subject Is the formation of volcanoes
volcano is originally nothing but hole in the
ground. formed often at no elevation by the
swelling and breaking of an earth bubble The
mountain which springs up around this OMEN
ing Is formed by accumulatiOns OF successive
teruptIons The great age OF volcanoes which.
IKE Mauna Loa and Mount Etna. are Ii. 600 and
IL :OoOfe high. can be readily appreciated from
THIS TACT, and from the further fact that Etna
had attained almost its present height when #
was observed by Greek writer's $500 years ago.
volcano Is furnace on a magnificent scale.
Ihe lava which 1t elects being molten rock The
rock Is so thoroughly fused by some volcanoes
That the lava is as thin as honey and flows with
velocity of fifteen miles an hour. Sometimes
IL Is spun out In long, CLASSY threads by the ac-
ton OF bursting gas bubbles
Whie there are two kinds of eruptlons. the
quiet and the explosive, there are MANY theories
regarding the heat which fuses the rocks into
lava Many think that the interior of the earth
IL III liquid condition. but the better Opinion
seems to be that thelava occurs in subterranean
lakes But the theorists agree that the proxi-
OF water with molten rock.