Two Years And Three-
Quarters Afterwards, France, From Its Centre To The English
Channel, Would Have Been Again Desolated By An Earthquake
And An Island Permanently Upraised In The Mediterranean.
The space, from under which volcanic matter on the 20th
was actually erupted, is 720 miles in one line, and 400 miles
in another line at right angles to the first:
Hence, in all
probability, a subterranean lake of lava is here stretched out,
of nearly double the area of the Black Sea. From the intimate
and complicated manner in which the elevatory and eruptive
forces were shown to be connected during this train of
phenomena, we may confidently come to the conclusion, that the
forces which slowly and by little starts uplift continents, and
those which at successive periods pour forth volcanic matter
from open orifices, are identical. From many reasons, I
believe that the frequent quakings of the earth on this line
of coast are caused by the rending of the strata, necessarily
consequent on the tension of the land when upraised, and
their injection by fluidified rock. This rending and injection
would, if repeated often enough (and we know that earthquakes
repeatedly affect the same areas in the same manner),
form a chain of hills; - and the linear island of S. Mary,
which was upraised thrice the height of the neighbouring
country, seems to be undergoing this process. I believe that
the solid axis of a mountain, differs in its manner of formation
from a volcanic hill, only in the molten stone having
been repeatedly injected, instead of having been repeatedly
ejected.
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