Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1906-06-20
eRITAIN's VOLCANIC HAZARDS.
Possibilities of Provoking an outburst
Suggested.

Possibilities of Provoking an outburst
Suggested.
We naturally ask the biologists,
with an agreeable thrill, whether they
are certain that we are free from al,
likelihood of a similar outbreak In our
own islands. The answer is not quite
so reassuring as we could wish. Our
islands are covered with the relics O:
prehistoric volcanic activity. The
hills of the lake district-Snowdown
and its mountain fellowship great
basalt plateaus of Antrim and Skye
the conical Laws of North Berwick
and Largo, with Arthurs Seat and the
Castle Rock of Edinburgh--are all the
product of ancient volcanoes. There
is no real guarantee that the central
fires may not burst out again at any
Of these spots, except the fact that
they have been quiescent for a thous.
and centuries of a great boiler charg.
ed with high-pressure steam, of which
Vesuvius and Hekla and Mauna Loa
are so many safty-valves The true
stood in principle, though many of its
details are still obscure. The earth
possesses an intensely heated interior
in which the heat and pressure com
bine to keep all substances in the
state of true gases, although these
same gases must be denser and more
rigid than steel. Between this sing.
ular interior and the solid crust on
which we live there must be layer
OF molten magma, or lava, which
furnishes the materials and the
energy for volcanic activity. 1t is
permanently under great hydrostatic
pressure from the weight of the su-
perincumbent rocks, and any weaken
ing in the crust serves as an opening
for this molten magma to force its
way up to the surface. We do not
as yet thoroughly understand the
laws of such weakenings; but we do
know that certain regions are subject
to their occurrence, and that others
| are not; and within historic times our
| islands have fortunately fallen within
the latter category.
In discussing the recent eruption Of
Vesuvfus, an ingenious friend sug.
gested to the writer to consider
whether a multi-millionaire greedy
for new excitement, could possibly
devote the great resource of his
wealth to produce volcano in some
| remote part of the British islands. In
! theory the thing is not impossible.
We know that the raw material OF
volcanic energy lies everywhere at a
depth of few miles below the sur.
| race, and that if it could once be tap
ped and set going it would probably
take the work over, and build a very
respectable volcano-say over that
great fault in Perthshire which is
still the main focus of British earth
\ quakes. One of the chief agents in
volcanic eruptions is the explosive
force OF steam. Attempts have been
made to discover some relation be.
tween meteorological changes and
eruptions, and it has been established
that these events are more frequent
after a rainy season. Water per.
| colating through the crust, and sink.
ing to the heated depths at which 1t
is raised above it's critical tempera-
ture-about 773 degrees Fahrenheit
becomes an exceedingly powerful ex.
ploslve, as soon as an outlet for its
powers is discovered. 1t is this
super-heated water, rising in the vol.
| canic vent, which flashes into steam
and disrupts the lava into fine dust
| which has been covering the streets
in Naples, and which once buried
Pompeii. If a shaft could be dug
sufficiently deep to reach the sub
| terranean fires, and a river turned
into it, we should have all the con-
ditions necessary to start a very fine
volcano anywhere in the British
Isles. Fortunately, no device has vet
been invented for tunneling to the
necessary depth,-though something
might be done by boring down a
nile or so and exploding so tons OF
dynamite, and repeating the process
until Nature took it over. Still more
fortunately, such an amusement is
not likely to suggest itself to even a
multi-milionaire, though a modern
Nero might see in it a chance of i'm.
proving upon the emperor who burnt
Rome. We are perhaps more likely
to return to the medieval view that
the earth is a living creature, END
that volcanoes and earthquakes are
her way of scratching off her human
fieas when they irritate her beyond
endurance.-Spectator.