Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1902-06-19
VOLCANOES OF AMERICA.
A Great System of Vents, n Chain OF
Fire Which Surrounds the Pa
c~ffc-Views of Scientists.

Prof. Israel C. Russell in his book on
the "Volcanoes of America" says that
they form a part of a great system of
volcanic vents which may be said to
''chain of fire" extends along the west
border of South America, where it's
course is marked in the Andes by some
OF the loftiest igneous mountains in
the world; it is narrow and well defined
on the west border of Central America
and far into Mexico, where still steam
ing craters define its position.
The volcanic belt broadens in the
northern part of Mexico and the
United States, but is unmarked by &C.
tive craters. Again contracting and
approaching close to the ocean shore,
and in several instances marked by is
land volcanoes, the igneous belt follows
the coast of British Columbia and
Alaska, and extends westward through
out the length of the Aleutian islands.
Still active craters in Alaska show the
positions of earth fractures, which
unite the volcanic belt of the New
World with the still more energetic
volcanoes of Kamchatka, Korea, Japan,
Formosa, the Philippine islands, New
Guiena, New Hebrides, New Caledonia
and New Zealand.
The greatest volcanic belt in the
world embraces the largest ocean, but
Prof. Russell is not willing to say that
this association indicates an essential
or genetic connection.
Interesting in connection with the
Martinique disaster and the state
ments of eminent scientists. and par
ticularly biologists, is the fact that
they ascribe the growth of the Ameri-
ran continent to a circle of volcanoes
in the original archaean nucleus, and
the sea-, which occupied what is now the
Mississippi valley and the northward
extension of the same interior basin to
the arctic regions.
Recent as have been the migration of
civilized people into North America
they have witnessed volcanic out
breaks that are scarcely second to any
that have occurred elsewhere on the
earth during the'same period. In some
instances volcanoes have been born
and grown to lofty mountains since
white men have occupied the land of
their nativity, This is particularly
true of Central America. Neighboring
mountains, built by similar forces IN
more distant times, exhibit the unmis-
taxable marks of age.
There are is volcanoes in the United
States and II in Alaska. There arc
none in the eastern states-that is,
none that have been active in millions
OF years. Several of the western vol
canoes have shown signs of life in the
past, and may not now be dead.
Cinder Cone, near Lassens Peak, Cal,
has been twice in eruption within 200
years. At the summit of the cone
there is a we~ll-developed crater
with a double rim. The whole aspect
of Cinder Cone suggests recent dis
t%urbance, yet there is evidence that
the earliest eruption occurred before
the beginning of the present century.
Its age is shown by the relation of the
old and new forest trees to the volcanic
sand of the first eruption, there. Trees
grow upon the top of the sand, but
there is another larger forest which
grew from the soil covered by the
sand. The first eruption must have
occurred some 200 years ago, and the
second more than SO years ago.
Mount Hood, in northwestern Ore
gon, was assembled in 1888 by NJ. W.