VOLCANIC ERUPTION.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 7871, 5 August 1911, Page 15

VOLCANIC ERUPTION.

The. volcanoes of the Mediterranean and of the eastern and western coast of Africa ape .all situated in a line, and all the volcanoes of tho world have this remarkable linear arrangement. It is as thougih they were situated on lines of weakness in the earth’s crust, where great fissures had allowed of the escape of pent-up forces from within. Another remarkable feature in connection with volcanoes is their proximity to tho great ocean basins. All tho Continental volcanoes lie along tho coast line, and tho island, ones are situated in water. This relation of volcanoes to tho sea is very suggestive when we remember that the explosive violence of a volcanic eruption is dmo to the escape of highly-heated steam; in fact, in a sense a volcanic eruptkm is like a steam boiler bursting. The popular conception that a volcano isr a burning hill is erroneous, for fires do not occur during an eruptive discharge, neither is there any smoke. What has been mistaken for flame is the glow- of tho molten lava and tho .dust mingled with the steam looks like smoko at a distance. A volcano need not he a hill ret all; it is essentially a fissuro through -which superheated steam, fragments of rock, and lava are discharged with .explosive violence.