Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 1 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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On Examining The
Circumstances Which Accompanied The Formation Of The New Island,
Called Sabrina, In The Archipelago Of The Azores;* (* At Sabrina
Island, Near St. Michael's, The Crater Opened At The Foot Of A
Solid Rock, Of Almost A Cubical Form.
This rock, surmounted by a
small elevated plain perfectly level, is more than two hundred
toises in breadth.
Its formation was anterior to that of the
crater, into which, a few days after its opening, the sea made an
irruption. At Kameni, the smoke was not even visible till
twenty-six days after the appearance of the upheaved rocks.
Philosophical Transactions volume 26 pages 69 and 200, volume 27
page 353. All these phenomena, on which Mr. Hawkins collected very
valuable observations during his abode at Santorino, are
unfavourable to the idea commonly entertained of the origin of
volcanic mountains. They are usually ascribed to a progressive
accumulation of liquified matter, and the diffusion of lavas
issuing from a central mouth.) on carefully reading the minute and
simple narrative, given by the Jesuit Bourguignon of the slow
appearance of the islet of the little Kameni, near Santorino; we
find that these extraordinary eruptions are generally preceded by a
swelling of the softened crust of the globe. Rocks appear above the
waters before the flames force their way, or lavas issue from the
crater: we must distinguish between the nucleus raised up, and the
mass of lavas and scoriae, which successively increases its
dimensions.
It is true that from all existing records of revolutions of this
kind, the perpendicular height of the stony nucleus appears never
to have exceeded one hundred and fifty or two hundred toises; even
taking into the account the depth of the sea, the bottom of which
had been lifted up:
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