The Bismarck tribune., 1925-07-02

The science Of volcanology, Dr.
Jaggar pointed out, is growing rap
, idly. Recent advances have been
! made in the machinery necessary for
closer study Of the character and
causes Of earth disturbances. He
was frank to admit that for long
time there has been much difference
Of opinion among geol6gists as to
the actual components Of volcanic
! disturbance. He pointed out that,
often impressed by the spouting gey-
sers Of fiery ash that boiled up into
: the heavens when inactive mountains
awakened from their slumber, it was
difficult even for competent observ-
! ers to determine the chemical pro-
cesses occurring. Some scientists
asserted that the pressure Of steam
far down in the earth, forcing out to
vent itself, carried up rock and lava
and vapor.
1t is his own impression that steam
, is only secondary agent in the
process. Steam, he holds, does cause
great explosions, but the manner of
, the steam's formation he explains by
the seeping down through the earth's
crust of waters which follow a sink
ing column of lava. Moreover, re-
cent studies he has made have con-
firmcd his belief that burning hy-
drogcn plays an essential part in
true lava eruptions.
Explains the Force Of Hydrogen
His explanation is as follows:
When waters do not scep down in
to the earth's internal fires to pro-
duce the steam, which is the spec
tacular agent in volcanic cruptions,
water is produced chemically on the
spot and vaporized. The subsistence
Of great volumes of rock into vol
canic craters of an active charac-
ter bring to the gas-charged lavas
the material they need. These old
rocks, very often heavily laden with
iron oxides, release their oxygen
content in the presence of rising hy-
drogen. This oxygen then combines
easily with the hydrogen present in
solution in lava, heat enough to last
for years is released, and the water
is thereupon chemically formed-for
water, as every boy learns in his
high school, is composed of two
parts hydrogen and one part oxygen.
The water is then vaperized by the
heat. expands and rises with the lava
that flows over the crater's edge,
and often, as was the case on the
Island of Hawaii in 1919, floods into
the sea for days on end. killing the
fish by thousands and causing tidal
waves of varying intensity. With
the flow of lava comes the settling
Of the earth's crush for miles around
the active volcano, and there may be
earthquakes with destruction of
man-made structures in the vicinity
and the snuffing out of human lives.
The important part played by free
hydrogen as fundamental cause in
volcanic heat and lava flows on the
earth has been partially confirmed
by recent studies of somewhat sim
liar phenomena on the sun and the
moon. The spectroheliograph. an
instrumen. developed by the Direc-
tor Emeritus of Mount Wilson OBJ
servatory, DR.. George E. Hale. has
enabled a close study Of the gaseous
cmanations from the suns surface
that have puzzled astronomers for
more than century.
DR.. Jaggar has brought back with
him from the observatory some re-
cent photographs considered the
most sensational yet made of the
suns surface showing volcanic
whirlpools in glowing hydrogen and
calcium. making eruptions thousands
of miles high, chiefly hydrogen, and
these are observed to change in a
few minutes. Other photographs of
the moons surface also show defunct
volcanic craters of engulfment, SIM
liar to those in Hawaii.
The photographing Of the suns
surface in such manner as to dis