Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 1 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
- Page 373 of 407 - First - Home
In That Land Where Nature Has
Covered Every Mountain And Every Valley With Her Marvels?
If we
consider a burning crater only as an isolated phenomenon, if we be
satisfied with merely examining the mass of stony substances which
it has thrown up, the volcanic action at the surface of the globe
will appear neither very powerful nor very extensive.
But the image
of this action becomes enlarged in the mind when we study the
relations which link together volcanoes of the same group; for
instance, those of Naples and Sicily, of the Canary Islands,* of
the Azores, of the Caribbee islands of Mexico, of Guatimala, and of
the table-land of Quito; when we examine either the reactions of
these different systems of volcanoes on one another, or the
distance at which, by subterranean communication, they
simultaneously convulse the earth. (I have already observed
(Chapter 1.2) that the whole group of the Canary Islands rises, as
we may say, above one and the same submarine volcano. Since the
sixteenth century, the fire of this volcano has burst forth
alternately in Palma, Teneriffe, and Lancerote. Auvergne presents a
whole system of volcanoes, the action of which has now ceased; but
in the middle of a system of active volcanoes, for instance, in
that of Quito, we must not consider as an extinguished volcano a
mountain, the crater of which is obstructed, and through which the
subterraneous fire has not issued for ages. Etna, the Aeolian
Isles, Vesuvius, and Epomeo; the peak of Teyde, Palma, and
Lancerote; St. Michael, La Caldiera of Fayal, and Pico; St.
Vincent, St. Lucia, and Guadaloupe; Orizava, Popocatepetl, Jorullo,
and La Colima; Bombacho, the volcano of Grenada, Telica, Momotombo,
Isalco, and the volcano of Guatimala; Cotopaxi, Tunguragua,
Pichincha, Antisana, and Sangai, belong to the same system of
burning volcanoes; they are generally ranged in rows, as if they
had issued from a crevice, or vein not filled up; and, it is very
remarkable, that their position is in some parts in the general
direction of the Cordilleras, and in others in a contrary
direction.)
The study of volcanoes may be divided into two distinct branches;
one, simply mineralogical, is directed to the examination of the
stony strata, altered or produced by the action of fire; from the
formation of the trachytes or trap-porphyries, of basalts,
phonolites, and dolerites, to the most recent lavas: the other
branch, less accessible and more neglected, comprehends the
physical relations which link volcanoes together, the influence of
one volcanic system on another, the connection existing between the
action of burning mountains and the commotions which agitate the
earth at great distances, and during long intervals, in the same
direction. This study cannot progress till the various epochs of
simultaneous action, the direction, the extent, and the force of
the convulsions are carefully noted; till we have attentively
observed their progressive advance to regions which they had not
previously reached; and the coincidence between distant volcanic
eruptions and those noises which the inhabitants of the Andes very
expressively term subterraneous thunders, or roarings.* (* Bramidos
y truenos subterraneos.) All these objects are comprehended in the
domain of the history of nature.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 373 of 407
Words from 193550 to 194079
of 211363