The Leavenworth echo. [volume] (Leavenworth, Wash.) 1904-current, 1910-12-30
WONDERS OF LAVA
This Molten Rock Is a Most Pc
CuIiar Substance.
REDH0T SNOW SANDWICHES.
Curious Effect on Mount VesuVius
Produced by the LaVa's Amazing
Properties as a N~onoonductor of
Heat-DeadIy Volcanic Ashes.

Properties as a ~Nonconductor of
Heat-Deadly Volcanic Ashes.
Vesuvius. the most famous volcano
in the world. with its mighty vomit-
Ings of ava and dust. is guilty of
many queer freaks. Mighty rainstorms
have set in motion the lava dust and
lava cinders that lie on its sides, and
torrents Of muddy lava have over
whelmed towns and villages as 1t
swept down to the sea. The resulting
effect from this has been so great that
it changed the face of the coast line
by forming a new promontory.
Lava is one of the most curious Of
substances. 1t is simply rock melted
by a heat so intense that it flows like
thin cruel. When Vesuvius is in erup-
ton thousands of tons of it are squirt
ed up the pipe" and out of the crater.
AS it flows out over the edge 1t soon
cools and leaves a thick, ropy coating.
which spreads over the entire coun-
tryside.
But it is only on the top that it really
cools. A few inches below the sur
face of the lava is often red hot. Wis
itors are often invited to light their
cigarettes in the chinks of a bed of
lava that has been lying out in the
open air for twenty years or more.
1t is the most wonderful noncon-
ductor of heat known. Behring'S made
through some lava beds have shown
that they are made up of layers of lava
and layers of unmelted snow. AS sue
cessive torrents of lava came pouring
down the surface that lay on the
nov cooled at once, and the surface
open to the air also cooled at once.
But between the two surfaces there
was blazing heat; so If you bored
down through some lava beds you
would find a cool upper surface. a
redhot inside. a cool layer. snow. a
cool layer. a redhot one. a cool n
and then snow again.
In fact, a layer of lava will let nei-
Their heat nor cold through. If you
built a house entirely of lava on a
scorching summer day you would still
have 95 degrees inside when there was
snow outside. If you built it in the
winter ice would form in your parlor
in July.
This clearly demonstrates what an
extraordinary nonconductor lava is.
There is, indeed, on the slopes of
Vesuvius a little lava hut into which
summer visitors put bottles of wine
to get them chilled.
When a volcano throws its lava out
with such tremendous force that it
jets high into the air 1t very often
falls In the form Of dust, owing to the
explosive power Of the high pressure
steam that spurts out with it. 1t
bursts into a fine spray and falls as
dust-dust far finer than any other
dust known.
1t is so fine, indeed. that sometimes
years elapse before it settles. When
the mighty island volcano of Kraka-
toa blew itself nearly into bits in 1888
with a crashing sound of cannonading
that smashed windows hundreds of
miles away the lava dust was so thick
in the air that for hundreds of miles
round midday was as black as night.
Volumes Of infinitely fine dust sailed
round and round the earth in the up
per atmosphere and made England's
sunsets of that year unusually splen-
did. 1t was three years before the
upper air became quite clear again.
Lava dust has the same properties
as lava. Shepherds on the slopes OF
Vesuvius sprinkle patches of snow In
the winter with lava dust so that
they may have it when the scorching
days Of summer arrive.
1t was lava dust turned TO mud by
torrents of rain such as usually come
with volcanic outbursts, that, nearly
1000 years ago destroyed the famous
pleasure city of Herculaneum, and it
was showers of volcanic ashes that
overwhelmed Pompeii. Herculaneum
still lies nearly forty yards from the
open air.
There are rivers Of lava mud that are
blotting out towns and villages now.
A curious point has always been
noticed when Vesuvius is in eruption,
and that is the strong odor of washing
day that hangs around the mountain.
One might wonder why the slopes
of such a mountain are so thickly
populated when there is always dan
ger of eruptions and of avalanches OF
lava mud. Well, the reason Is that
volcanic soil is always very fertile.
Some Of the best wine Of Italy comes
from Vesuvian vineyards, and people
are ready to take the risks.-London
American.