VOLCANIC ROCKS
External Form, Structure, and Origin of Volcanic Mountains. — Cones and Craters. — Hypothesis of “Elevation Craters” considered. — Trap Rocks. — Name whence derived. — Minerals most abundant in Volcanic Rocks. — Table of the Analysis of Minerals in the Volcanic and Hypogene Rocks. — Similar Minerals in Meteorites. — Theory of Isomorphism. — Basaltic Rocks. — Trachytic Rocks. — Special Forms of Structure. — The columnar and globular Forms. — Trap Dikes and Veins. — Alteration of Rocks by volcanic Dikes. — Conversion of Chalk into Marble. — Intrusion of Trap between Strata. — Relation of trappean Rocks to the Products of active Volcanoes.
The aqueous or fossiliferous rocks having now been described, we have next to examine those which may be called volcanic, in the most extended sense of that term. In the diagram (Fig. 584) suppose a, a to represent the crystalline formations, such as the granitic and metamorphic; b, b the fossiliferous strata; and c, c the volcanic rocks. These last are sometimes found, as was explained in the first chapter, breaking through a and b, sometimes overlying both, and occasionally alternating with the strata b, b.
External Form, Structure, and Origin of Volcanic Mountains.—The origin of volcanic cones with crater-shaped summits has been explained in the “Principles of Geology” (Chapters 23 to 27), where Vesuvius, Etna, Santorin, and Barren Island are described. The more ancient portions of those mountains or islands, formed long before the times of history, exhibit the same external features and internal structure which belong to most of the extinct volcanoes of still higher antiquity; and these last have evidently been due to a complicated series of operations, varied in kind according to circumstances; as, for example, whether the accumulation took place above or below the level of the sea, whether the lava issued from one or several contiguous vents, and, lastly,
whether the rocks reduced to fusion in the subterranean regions happened to have contained more or less silica, potash, soda, lime, iron, and other ingredients. We are best acquainted with the effects of eruptions above water, or those called subÆrial or supramarine; yet the products even of these are arranged in so many ways that their interpretation has given rise to a variety of contradictory opinions, some of which will have to be considered in this chapter.
Cones and Craters.—In regions where the eruption of volcanic matter has taken place in the open air, and where the surface has never since been subjected to great aqueous denudation, cones and craters constitute the most striking peculiarity of this class of formations. Many hundreds of these cones are seen in central France, in the ancient provinces of Auvergne, Velay, and Vivarais, where they observe, for the most part, a linear arrangement, and form chains of hills. Although none of the eruptions have happened within the historical era, the streams of lava may still be traced distinctly descending from many of the craters, and following the lowest levels of the existing valleys. The origin of the cone and crater-shaped hill is well understood, the growth of many having been watched during volcanic eruptions. A chasm or fissure first opens in the earth, from which great volumes of steam are evolved. The explosions are so violent as to hurl up into the air fragments of broken stone, parts of which are shivered into minute atoms. At the same time melted stone or lava usually ascends through the chimney or vent by which the gases make their escape. Although extremely heavy, this lava is forced up by the expansive power of entangled gaseous fluids, chiefly steam or aqueous vapour, exactly in the same manner as water is made to boil over the edge of a vessel when steam has been generated at the bottom by heat. Large quantities of the lava are also shot up into the air, where it separates into fragments, and acquires a spongy texture by the sudden enlargement
of the included gases, and thus forms scoriæ, other portions being reduced to an impalpable powder or dust. The showering down of the various ejected materials round the orifice of eruption gives rise to a conical mound, in which the successive envelopes of sand and scoriæ form layers, dipping on all sides from a central axis. In the mean time a hollow, called a crater, has been kept open in the middle of the mound by the continued passage upward of steam and other gaseous fluids. The lava sometimes flows over the edge of the crater, and thus thickens and strengthens the sides of the cone; but sometimes it breaks down the cone on one side (see Fig. 585), and often it flows out from a fissure at the base of the hill, or at some distance from its base.
Some geologists had erroneously supposed, from observations made on recent cones of eruption, that lava which consolidates on steep slopes is always of a scoriaceous or vesicular structure, and never of that compact texture which we find in those rocks which are usually termed “trappean.” Misled by this theory, they have gone so far as to believe that if melted matter has originally descended a slope at an angle exceeding four or five degrees, it never, on cooling, acquires a stony compact texture. Consequently, whenever they found in a volcanic mountain sheets of stony materials inclined at angles of from 5° to 20° or even more than 30°, they thought themselves warranted in assuming that such rocks had been originally horizontal, or very slightly inclined, and had acquired their high inclination by subsequent upheaval. To such dome-shaped mountains with a cavity in the middle, and with the inclined beds having what was called a quâquâversal dip or a slope outward on all sides, they gave the name of “Elevation craters.”
As the late Leopold Von Buch, the author of this theory, had selected the Isle of Palma, one of the Canaries, as a typical illustration of this form of volcanic mountain, I visited that island in 1854, in company with my friend Mr. Hartung, and I satisfied myself that it owes its origin to a series of eruptions of the same nature as those which formed the minor cones, already alluded to. In some of the more ancient or Miocene volcanic mountains, such as Mont Dor and Cantal in central France, the mode of origin by upheaval as above described is attributed to those dome-shaped masses, whether they possess or not a great central cavity, as in Palma. Where this cavity is present, it has probably been due to one or more great explosions similar to that which destroyed a great part of ancient Vesuvius in the time of Pliny. Similar paroxysmal catastrophes have caused in historical times
the truncation on a grand scale of some large cones in Java and elsewhere.*
Among the objections which may be considered as fatal to Von Buch’s doctrine of upheaval in these cases, I may state that a series of volcanic formations extending over an area six or seven miles in its shortest diameter, as in Palma, could not be accumulated in the form of lavas, tuffs, and volcanic breccias or agglomerates without producing a mountain as lofty as that which they now constitute. But assuming that they were first horizontal, and then lifted up by a force acting most powerfully in the centre and tilting the beds on all sides, a central crater having been formed by explosion or by a chasm opening in the middle, where the continuity of the rocks was interrupted, we should have a right to expect that the chief ravines or valleys would open towards the central cavity, instead of which the rim of the great crater in Palma and other similar ancient volcanoes is entire for more than three parts of the whole circumference.
If dikes are seen in the precipices surrounding such craters or central cavities, they certainly imply rents which were filled up with liquid matter. But none of the dislocations producing such rents can have belonged to the supposed period of terminal and paroxysmal upheaval, for had a great central crater been already formed before they originated, or at the time when they took place, the melted matter, instead of filling the narrow vents, would have flowed down into the bottom of the cavity, and would have obliterated it to a certain extent. Making due allowance for the quantity of matter removed by subaërial denudation in volcanic mountains of high antiquity, and for the grand explosions which are known to have caused truncation in active volcanoes, there is no reason for calling in the violent hypothesis of elevation craters to explain the structure of such mountains as Teneriffe, the Grand Canary, Palma, or those of central France, Etna, or Vesuvius, all of which I have examined. With regard to Etna, I have shown, from observations made by me in 1857, that modern lavas, several of them of known date, have formed continuous beds of compact stone even on slopes of 15, 36, and 38 degrees, and, in the case of the lava of 1852, more than 40 degrees. The thickness of these tabular layers varies from 1½ foot to 26 feet. And their planes of stratification are parallel to those of the overlying and underlying scoriæ which form part of the same currents.†
Nomenclature of Trappean Rocks.—When geologists first began to examine attentively the structure of the northern
* Principles, vol. ii, pp. 56 and 145.
† Memoir on Mount Etna, Phil. Trans., 1858.
and western parts of Europe, they were almost entirely ignorant of the phenomena of existing volcanoes. They found certain rocks, for the most part without stratification, and of a peculiar mineral composition, to which they gave different names, such as basalt, greenstone, porphyry, trap tuff, and amygdaloid. All these, which were recognised as belonging to one family, were called “trap” by Bergmann, from trappa,Swedish for a flight of steps—a name since adopted very generally into the nomenclature of the science; for it was observed that many rocks of this class occurred in great tabular masses of unequal extent, so as to form a succession of terraces or steps. It was also felt that some general term was indispensable, because these rocks, although very diversified in form and composition, evidently belonged to one group, distinguishable from the Plutonic as well as from the non-volcanic fossiliferous rocks.
By degrees familiarity with the products of active volcanoes convinced geologists more and more that they were identical with the trappean rocks. In every stream of modern lava there is some variation in character and composition, and even where no important difference can be recognised in the proportions of silica, alumina, lime, potash, iron, and other elementary materials, the resulting materials are often not the same, for reasons which we are as yet unable to explain. The difference also of the lavas poured out from the same mountain at two distinct periods, especially in the quantity of silica which they contain, is often so great as to give rise to rocks which are regarded as forming distinct families, although there may be every intermediate gradation between the two extremes, and although some rocks, forming a transition from the one class to the other, may often be so abundant as to demand special names. These species might be multiplied indefinitely, and I can only afford space to name a few of the principal ones, about the composition and aspect of which there is the least discordance of opinion.
Minerals most abundant in Volcanic Rocks.—The minerals which form the chief constituents of these igneous rocks are few in number. Next to quartz, which is nearly pure silica or silicic acid, the most important are those silicates commonly classed under the several heads of feldspar, mica, hornblende or augite, and olivine. In Table 28.1, in drawing up which I have received the able assistance of Mr. David Forbes, the chemical analysis of these minerals and their varieties is shown, and he has added the specific gravity of the different mineral species, the geological application of which in determining the rocks formed by these minerals will be explained in the sequel (p.504).
| THE QUARTZ GROUP | ||||
| QUARTZ | 100·0 2·6 | Silica Specific gravity | ||
| TRIDYMITE | 100·0 2·3 | Silica Specific gravity | ||
| THE FELDSPAR GROUP | ||||
| ORTHOCLASE. —— Carisbad, in granite (bulk) | 65·23 16·26 0·27 nil trace nil 14·66 1·45 nil 2·55 | Silica Alumina Sesquioxide of Iron Protoxides of Iron and Manganese Lime Magnesia Potash Soda Other constituents Specific gravity | ||
| —— Sanadine, Drachenfels in trachyte (Rammelsberg) | 65·87 18·53 nil nil 0·95 0·30 10·32 3·49 W. 0·44 2·55 | Silica Alumina Sesquioxide of Iron Protoxides of Iron and Manganese Lime Magnesia Potash Soda Other constituents Specific gravity | ||
| ALBITE. —— Arendal, in granite (G. Rose) | 68·46 19·30 nil 0·28 0·68 nil nil 11·27 nil 2·61 | Silica Alumina Sesquioxide of Iron Protoxides of Iron and Manganese Lime Magnesia Potash Soda Other constituents Specific gravity | ||
| OLIGOCLASE. —— Ytterby, in granite (Berzelius) | 61·55 23·80 nil nil 3·18 0·80 0·38 9·67 nil 2·65 | Silica Alumina Sesquioxide of Iron Protoxides of Iron and Manganese Lime Magnesia Potash Soda Other constituents Specific gravity | ||
| —— Teneriffe, in trachyte (Deville) | 61·55 22·03 nil nil 2·81 0·47 3·44 7·74 nil 2·59 | Silica Alumina Sesquioxide of Iron Protoxides of Iron and Manganese Lime Magnesia Potash Soda Other constituents Specific gravity | ||
| LABRADORITE. —— Hitteroe, in Labrador-rock (Waage) | 51·39 29·42 2·90 nil 9·44 0·37 1·10 5·03 W. 0·71 2·72 | Silica Alumina Sesquioxide of Iron Protoxides of Iron and Manganese Lime Magnesia Potash Soda Other constituents Specific gravity | ||
| —— Iceland, in volcanic (Damour) | 52·17 29·22 1·90 nil 13·11 nil nil 3·40 nil 2·71 | Silica Alumina Sesquioxide of Iron Protoxides of Iron and Manganese Lime Magnesia Potash Soda Other constituents Specific gravity | ||
| ANORTHITE. —— Harzburg, in diorite (Streng) | 45·37 34·81 0·59 nil 16·52 0·83 0·40 1·45 W. 0·87 2·74 | Silica Alumina Sesquioxide of Iron Protoxides of Iron and Manganese Lime Magnesia Potash Soda Other constituents Specific gravity | ||
| —— Hecla, in volcanic (Waltershausen) | 45·14 32·10 2·03 0·78 18·32 nil 0·22 1·06 nil 2·74 | Silica Alumina Sesquioxide of Iron Protoxides of Iron and Manganese Lime Magnesia Potash Soda Other constituents Specific gravity | ||
| LEUCITE. —— Vesuvius, 1811, in lava (Rammelsberg) | 56·10 23·22 nil nil nil nil 20·59 0·57 nil 2·48 | Silica Alumina Sesquioxide of Iron Protoxides of Iron and Manganese Lime Magnesia Potash Soda Other constituents Specific gravity | ||
| NEPHELINE. —— Miask, in Miascite (Scheerer) | 44·30 33·25 0·82 nil 0·32 0·07 5·82 16·02 nil 2·59 | Silica Alumina Sesquioxide of Iron Protoxides of Iron and Manganese Lime Magnesia Potash Soda Other constituents Specific gravity | ||
| —— Vesuvius, in volcanic (Arfvedson) | 44·11 33·73 nil nil nil nil nil 20·46 W. 0·62 2·60 | Silica Alumina Sesquioxide of Iron Protoxides of Iron and Manganese Lime Magnesia Potash Soda Other constituents Specific gravity | ||
| THE MICA GROUP | ||||
| MUSCOVITE. —— Finland, in grante (Rose) | 46·36 36·80 4·53 nil nil nil 9·22 nil F. 0·67 W. 1·84 2·90 | Silica Alumina Sesquioxide of Iron Protoxides of Iron and Manganese Lime Magnesia Potash Soda Other constituents Specific gravity | ||
| LEPIDOLITE. —— Cornwall, in granite (Regnault) | 52·40 26·80 nil 1·50 nil nil 9·14 nil F. 4·18 Li. 4·85 2·90 | Silica Alumina Sesquioxide of Iron Protoxides of Iron and Manganese Lime Magnesia Potash Soda Other constituents Specific gravity | ||
| BIOTITE. —— Bodennais (V. Kobel> | 40·86 15·13 13·00 nil nil 22·00 8·83 nil W. 0·44 2·70 | Silica Alumina Sesquioxide of Iron Protoxides of Iron and Manganese Lime Magnesia Potash Soda Other constituents Specific gravity | ||
| —— Vesuvius, in volcanic (Chodnef) | 40·91 17·71 11·02 nil 0·30 19·04 9·96 nil nil 2·75 | Silica Alumina Sesquioxide of Iron Protoxides of Iron and Manganese Lime Magnesia Potash Soda Other constituents Specific gravity | ||
| PHLOGOPITE. —— New York, in metamorphic limestone (Rammelsberg) | 41·96 13·47 nil 2·67 0·34 27·12 9·37 nil F. 2·93 W. 0·60 2·81 | Silica Alumina Sesquioxide of Iron Protoxides of Iron and Manganese Lime Magnesia Potash Soda Other constituents Specific gravity | ||
| MARGARITE. —— Nexos (Smith) | 30·02 49·52 1·65 nil 10·82 0·48 1·25 W. 5·55 2·99 | Silica Alumina Sesquioxide of Iron Protoxides of Iron and Manganese Lime Magnesia =Potash =Soda Other constituents Specific gravity | ||
| RAPIDOLITE. —— Pyrenees (Delesse) | 32·10 18·50 nil 0·06 nil 36·70 nil nil W. 12·10 2·61 | Silica Alumina Sesquioxide of Iron Protoxides of Iron and Manganese Lime Magnesia Potash Soda Other constituents Specific gravity | ||
| TALC. —— Zillerthal (Delesse) | 63·00 nil nil trace nil 33·60 nil nil W. 3·10 2·78 | Silica Alumina Sesquioxide of Iron Protoxides of Iron and Manganese Lime Magnesia Potash Soda Other constituents Specific gravity | ||
| THE AMPHIBOLE AND PYROXENE GROUP | ||||
| TREMOLITE. —— St. Gothard (Rammelsbeg) | 58·55 nil nil nil 13·90 26·63 nil nil F.W. 0·34 2·93 | Silica Alumina Sesquioxide of Iron Protoxides of Iron and Manganese Lime Magnesia Potash Soda Other constituents Specific gravity | ||
| ACTINOLITE. —— Arendal, in granite (Rammelsberg) | 56·77 0·97 nil 5·88 13·56 21·48 nil nil W. 2·20 3·02 | Silica Alumina Sesquioxide of Iron Protoxides of Iron and Manganese Lime Magnesia Potash Soda Other constituents Specific gravity | ||
| HORNBLENDE. —— Faymont, in diorite (Deville) | 41·99 11·66 nil 22·22 9·55 12·59 nil 1·02 W. 1·47 3·20 | Silica Alumina Sesquioxide of Iron Protoxides of Iron and Manganese Lime Magnesia Potash Soda Other constituents Specific gravity | ||
| —— Etna, in volcanic (Waltershausen) | 40·91 13·68 nil 17·49 13·44 13·19 nil nil W. 0·85 3·01 | Silica Alumina Sesquioxide of Iron Protoxides of Iron and Manganese Lime Magnesia Potash Soda Other constituents Specific gravity | ||
| URALITE. —— Ural, (Rammelsberg) | 50·75 5·65 nil 17·27 11·59 12·28 nil nil W. 1·80 3·14 | Silica Alumina Sesquioxide of Iron Protoxides of Iron and Manganese Lime Magnesia Potash Soda Other constituents Specific gravity | ||
| AUGITE. —— Bohemia, in dolerite (Rammelsberg) | 51·12 3·38 0·95 8·08 23·54 12·82 nil nil nil 3·35 | Silica Alumina Sesquioxide of Iron Protoxides of Iron and Manganese Lime Magnesia Potash Soda Other constituents Specific gravity | ||
| —— Vesuvius, in lava of 1858 (Rammelsberg) | 49·61 4·42 nil 9·08 22·83 14·22 nil nil nil 3·25 | Silica Alumina Sesquioxide of Iron Protoxides of Iron and Manganese Lime Magnesia Potash Soda Other constituents Specific gravity | ||
| DIALLAGE. —— Harz, in Gabbro (Rammelsberg) | 52·00 3·10 nil 9·36 16·29 18·51 nil nil W. 1·10 3·23 | Silica Alumina Sesquioxide of Iron Protoxides of Iron and Manganese Lime Magnesia Potash Soda Other constituents Specific gravity | ||
| HYPERSTHENE. —— Labrador, in Labrador-Rock (Damour) | 51·36 0·37 nil 22·59 3·09 21·31 nil nil nil 3·39 | Silica Alumina Sesquioxide of Iron Protoxides of Iron and Manganese Lime Magnesia Potash Soda Other constituents Specific gravity | ||
| THE OLIVINE GROUP | ||||
| BRONZITE. —— Greenland (V. Kobell) | 58·00 1·33 11·14 nil nil 29·66 nil nil nil 3·20 | Silica Alumina Sesquioxide of Iron Protoxides of Iron and Manganese Lime Magnesia Potash Soda Other constituents Specific gravity | ||
| OLIVINE. —— Carlsbad, in basalt (Rammelsberg) | 39·34 nil nil 14·85 nil 45·81 nil nil nil 3·40 | Silica Alumina Sesquioxide of Iron Protoxides of Iron and Manganese Lime Magnesia Potash Soda Other constituents Specific gravity | ||
| —— Mount Somma, in volcanic (Walmstedt) | 10·08 0·18 nil 15·74 nil 44·22 nil nil nil 3·33 | Silica Alumina Sesquioxide of Iron Protoxides of Iron and Manganese Lime Magnesia Potash Soda Other constituents Specific gravity | ||
In the “Other constituents” the following signs are used: F=Fluorine, Li=Lithia, W=Loss on igniting the mineral, in most instances only Water.
From the table above it will be observed that many minerals are omitted which, even if they are of common occurrence, are more to be regarded as accessory than as essential components of the rocks in which they are found.* Such are, for example, Garnet, Epidote, Tourmaline, Idocrase, Andalusite, Scapolite, the various Zeolites, and several other silicates of somewhat rarer occurrence. Magnetite, Titanoferrite, and Iron-pyrites also occur as normal constituents of various igneous rocks, although in very small amount, as also Apatite, or phosphate of lime. The other salts of lime, including its carbonate or calcite, although often met with, are invariably products of secondary chemical action.
The Zeolites, above mentioned, so named from the manner in which they froth up under the blow-pipe and melt into a glass, differ in their chemical composition from all the other mineral constituents of volcanic rocks, since they are hydrated silicates containing from 10 to 25 per cent of water. They abound in some trappean rocks and ancient lavas, where they fill up vesicular cavities and interstices in the substance of the rocks, but are rarely found in any quantity in recent lavas; in most cases they are to be regarded as secondary products formed by the action of water on the other constituents of the rocks. Among them the species Analcime, Stilbite, Natrolite, and Chabazite may be mentioned as of most common occurrence.
Quartz Group.—The microscope has shown that pure quartz is oftener present in lavas than was formerly supposed. It had been argued that the quartz in granite having a specific gravity of 2·6, was not of purely igneous origin, because the silica resulting from fusion in the laboratory has only a specific gravity of 2·3. But Mr. David Forbes has ascertained that the free quartz in trachytes, which are known to have flowed as lava, has the same specific gravity as the ordinary quartz of granite; and the recent researches of Von Rath and others prove that the mineral Tridymite, which is crystallised silica of specific gravity 2·3 (see Table, p. 499), is of common occurrence in the volcanic rocks of Mexico, Auvergne, the Rhine, and elsewhere, although hitherto entirely overlooked.
Feldspar Group.—In the Feldspar group (Table, p. 499) the five mineral species most commonly met with as rock constituents are: 1. Orthoclase, often called common or potash-feldspar. 2. Albite, or soda-feldspar, a mineral which plays a more subordinate part than was formerly supposed, this name having been given to much which has since been proved to be Oligoclase. 3. Oligoclase, or soda-lime feldspar,
* For analyses of these minerals see the Mineralogies of Dana and Bristow.
in which soda is present in much larger proportion than lime, and of which mineral andesite are andesine, is considered to be a variety. 4. Labradorite, or lime-soda-feldspar, in which the proportions of lime and soda are the reverse to what they are in Oligoclase. 5. Anorthite or lime-feldspar. The two latter feldspars are rarely if ever found to enter into the composition of rocks containing quartz.
In employing such terms as potash-feldspar, etc., it must, however, always be borne in mind that it is only intended to direct attention to the predominant alkali or alkaline earth in the mineral, not to assert the absence of the others, which in most cases will be found to be present in minor quantity. Thus potash-feldspar (orthoclase) almost always contains a little soda, and often traces of lime or magnesia; and in like manner with the others. The terms “glassy” and “compact” feldspars only refer to structure, and not to species or composition; the student should be prepared to meet with any of the above feldspars in either of these conditions: the glassy state being apparently due to quick cooling, and the compact to conditions unfavourable to crystallisation; the so-called “compact feldspar” is also very commonly found to be an admixture of more than one feldspar species, and frequently also contains quartz and other extraneous mineral matter only to be detected by the microscope.
Feldspars when arranged according to their system of crystallisation are monoclinic, having one axis obliquely inclined; or triclinic, having the three axes all obliquely inclined to each other. If arranged with reference to their cleavage they are orthoclastic, the fracture taking place always at a right angle; orplagioclastic, in which the cleavages are oblique to one another. Orthoclase is orthoclastic and monoclinic; all the other feldspars are plagioclastic and triclinic.
Minerals in Meteorites.—That variety of the Feldspar Group which is called Anorthite has been shown by Rammelsberg to occur in a meteoric stone, and his analysis proves it to be almost identical in its chemical proportions to the same mineral in the lavas of modern volcanoes. So also Bronzite (Enstatite) and Olivine have been met with in meteorites shown by analysis to come remarkably near to these minerals in ordinary rocks.
Mica Group.—With regard to the micas, the four principal species (Table, p. 499) all contain potash in nearly the same proportion, but differ greatly in the proportion and nature of their other ingredients. Muscovite is often called common or potash mica; Lepidolite is characterised by containing lithia in addition; Biotite contains a large amount of
magnesia and oxide of iron; whilst Phlogopite contains still more of the former substance. In rocks containing quartz, muscovite or lepidolite are most common. The mica in recent volcanic rocks, gabbros, and diorites is usually Biotite, while that so common in metamorphic limestones is usually, if not always, Phlogopite.
Amphibole and Pyroxene Group.—The minerals included in the table under the Amphibole and Pyroxene Group differ somewhat in their crystallisation form, though they all belong to the monoclinic system. Amphibole is a general name for all the different varieties of Hornblende, Actinolite, Tremolite, etc., while Pyroxene includes Augite, Diallage, Malacolite, Sahlite, etc. The two divisions are so much allied in chemical composition and crystallographic characters, and blend so completely one into the other in Uralite (see page 499), that it is perhaps best to unite them in one group.
Theory of Isomorphism.—The history of the changes of opinion on this point is curious and instructive. Werner first distinguished augite from hornblende; and his proposal to separate them obtained afterwards the sanction of Haüy, Mohs, and other celebrated mineralogists. It was agreed that the form of the crystals of the two species was different, and also their structure, as shown by cleavage—that is to say, by breaking or cleaving the mineral with a chisel, or a blow of the hammer, in the direction in which it yields most readily. It was also found by analysis that augite usually contained more lime, less alumina, and no fluoric acid; which last, though not always found in hornblende, often enters into its composition in minute quantity. In addition to these characters, it was remarked as a geological fact, that augite and hornblende are very rarely associated together in the same rock. It was also remarked that in the crystalline slags of furnaces augitic forms were frequent, the hornblendic entirely absent; hence it was conjectured that hornblende might be the result of slow, and augite of rapid cooling. This view was confirmed by the fact that Mitscherlich and Berthier were able to make augite artificially, but could never succeed in forming hornblende. Lastly, Gustavus Rose fused a mass of hornblende in a porcelain furnace, and found that it did not, on cooling, assume its previous shape, but invariably took that of augite. The same mineralogist observed certain crystals called Uralite (see Table, p. 499) in rocks from Siberia, which possessed the cleavage and chemical composition of hornblende, while they had the external form of augite.
If, from these data, it is inferred that the same substance
may assume the crystalline forms of hornblende or augite indifferently, according to the more or less rapid cooling of the melted mass, it is nevertheless certain that the variety commonly called augite, and recognised by a peculiar crystalline form, has usually more lime in it, and less alumina, than that called hornblende, although the quantities of these elements do not seem to be always the same. Unquestionably the facts and experiments above mentioned show the very near affinity of hornblende and augite; but even the convertibility of one into the other, by melting and recrystallising, does not perhaps demonstrate their absolute identity. For there is often some portion of the materials in a crystal which are not in perfect chemical combination with the rest. Carbonate of lime, for example, sometimes carries with it a considerable quantity of silex into its own form of crystal, the silex being mechanically mixed as sand, and yet not preventing the carbonate of lime from assuming the form proper to it. This is an extreme case, but in many others some one or more of the ingredients in a crystal may be excluded from perfect chemical union; and after fusion, when the mass recrystallises, the same elements may combine perfectly or in new proportions, and thus a new mineral may be produced. Or some one of the gaseous elements of the atmosphere, the oxygen for example, may, when the melted matter reconsolidates, combine with some one of the component elements.
The different quantity of the impurities or the refuse above alluded to, which may occur in all but the most transparent and perfect crystals, may partly explain the discordant results at which experienced chemists have arrived in their analysis of the same mineral. For the reader will often find that crystals of a mineral determined to be the same by physical characters, crystalline form, and optical properties, have been declared by skilful analysers to be composed of distinct elements. This disagreement seemed at first subversive of the atomic theory, or the doctrine that there is a fixed and constant relation between the crystalline form and structure of a mineral and its chemical composition. The apparent anomaly, however, which threatened to throw the whole science of mineralogy into confusion, was reconciled to fixed principles by the discoveries of Professor Mitscherlich at Berlin, who ascertained that the composition of the minerals which had appeared so variable was governed by a general law, to which he gave the name of isomorphism (from isos, equal, and morphe, form). According to this law, the ingredients of a given species of mineral are not
absolutely fixed as to their kind and quality; but one ingredient may be replaced by an equivalent portion of some analogous ingredient. Thus, in augite, the lime may be in part replaced by portions of protoxide of iron, or of manganese, while the form of the crystal, and the angle of its cleavage planes, remain the same. These vicarious substitutions, however, of particular elements can not exceed certain defined limits.
Basaltic Rocks.—The two principal families of trappean or volcanic rocks are the basalts and the trachytes, which differ chiefly from each other in the quantity of silica which they contain. The basaltic rocks are comparatively poor in silica, containing less than 50 per cent of that mineral, and none in a pure state or as free quartz, apart from the rest of the matrix. They contain a larger proportion of lime and magnesia than the trachytes, so that they are heavier, independently of the frequent presence of the oxides of iron which in some cases forms more than a fourth part of the whole mass. Abich has, therefore, proposed that we should weigh these rocks, in order to appreciate their composition in cases where it is impossible to separate their component minerals. Thus, basalt from Staffa, containing 47·80 per cent of silica, has a specific gravity of 2·95; whereas trachyte, which has 66 per cent of silica, has a specific gravity of only 2·68; trachytic porphyry, containing 69 per cent of silica, a specific gravity of only 2·58. If we then take a rock of intermediate composition, such as that prevailing in the Peak of Teneriffe, which Abich calls Trachyte-dolerite, its proportion of silica being intermediate, or 58 per cent, it weighs 2·78, or more than trachyte, and less than basalt.*
Basalt.—The different varieties of this rock are distinguished by the names of basalts, anamezites, and dolerites, names which, however, only denote differences in texture without implying any difference in mineral or chemical composition: the term Basalt being used only when the rock is compact, amorphous, and often semi-vitreous in texture, and when it breaks with a perfect conchoidal fracture; when, however, it is uniformly crystalline in appearance, yet very close-grained, the name Anamesite (from anamesos,intermediate) is employed, but if the rock be so coarsely crystallised that its different mineral constituents can be easily recognised by the eye, it is called Dolerite (from doleros, deceitful), in allusion to the difficulty of distinguishing it from some of the rocks known as Plutonic.
Melaphyre is often quite undistinguishable in external
* Dr. Daubeny on Volcanoes, 2nd ed., pp. 14, 15.
appearance from basalt, for although rarely so heavy, dark-coloured, or compact, it may present at times all these varieties of texture. Both these rocks are composed of triclinic feldspar and augite with more or less olivine, magnetic or titaniferous oxide of iron, and usually a little nepheline, leucite, and apatite; basalt usually contains considerably more olivine than melaphyre, but chemically they are closely allied, although the melaphyres usually contain more silica and alumina, with less oxides of iron, lime, and magnesia, than the basalts. The Rowley Hills in Staffordshire, commonly known as Rowley Ragstone, are melaphyre.
Greenstone.—This name has usually been extended to all granular mixtures, whether of hornblende and feldspar, or of augite and feldspar. The term diorite has been applied exclusively to compounds of hornblende and triclinic feldspar. Labrador-rock is a term used for a compound of labradorite or labrador-feldspar and hypersthene; when the hypersthene predominates it is sometimes known under the name of Hypersthene-rock. Gabbro and Diabase are rocks mainly composed of triclinic feldspars and diallage. All these rocks become sometimes very crystalline, and help to connect the volcanic with the Plutonic formations, which will be treated of in Chapter XXXI.
Trachytic Rocks.—The name trachyte (from trachus, rough) was originally given to a coarse granular feldspathic rock which was rough and gritty to the touch. The term was subsequently made to include other rocks, such as clinkstone and obsidian, which have the same mineral composition, but to which, owing to their different texture, the word in its original meaning would not apply. The feldspars which occur in Trachytic rocks are invariably those which contain the largest proportion of silica, or from 60 to 70 per cent of that mineral. Through the base are usually disseminated crystals of glassy feldspar, mica, and sometimes hornblende. Although quartz is not a necessary ingredient in the composition of this rock, it is very frequently present, and the quartz trachytes are very largely developed in many volcanic districts. In this respect the trachytes differ entirely from the members of the Basaltic family, and are more nearly allied to the granites.
Obsidian.—Obsidian, Pitchstone, and Pearlstone are only different forms of a volcanic glass produced by the fusion of trachytic rocks. The distinction between them is caused by different rates of cooling from the melted state, as has been proved by experiment. Obsidian is of a black or ash-grey colour, and though opaque in mass is transparent in thin edges.
Clinkstone or Phonolite.—Among the rocks of the trachytic family, or those in which the feldspars are rich in silica, that termed Clinkstone or Phonolite is conspicuous by its fissile structure, and its tendency to lamination, which is such as sometimes to render it useful as roofing-slate. It rings when struck with the hammer, whence its name; is compact, and usually of a greyish blue or brownish colour; is variable in composition, but almost entirely composed of feldspar. When it contains disseminated crystals of feldspar, it is called Clinkstone porphyry.
Volcanic Rocks distinguished by special Forms of Structure.—Many volcanic rocks are commonly spoken of under names denoting structure alone, which must not be taken to imply that they are distinct rocks, i.e., that they differ from one another either in mineral or chemical composition. Thus the terms Trachytic porphyry, Trachytic tuff, etc., merely refer to the same rock under different conditions of mechanical aggregation or crystalline development which would be more correctly expressed by the use of the adjective, as porphyritic trachyte, etc., but as these terms are so commonly employed it is considered advisable to direct the student’s attention to them.
Porphyry is one of this class, and very characteristic of the volcanic formations. When distinct crystals of one or more minerals are scattered through an earthy or compact base, the rock is termed a porphyry (see Fig. 586). Thus trachyte is usually porphyritic; for in it, as in many modern lavas, there are crystals of feldspar; but in some porphyries the crystals are of augite, olivine, or other minerals. If the base be greenstone, basalt, or pitchstone, the rock may be denominated greenstone-porphyry, pitchstone-porphyry, and so forth. The old classical type of this form of rock is the red porphyry of Egypt, or the well-known “Rosso antico.” It consists, according to Delesse, of a red feldspathic base in which are disseminated rose-coloured crystals of the feldspar called oligoclase, with some plates of blackish hornblende and grains of oxide of iron (iron-glance). Red quartziferous porphyry is a much more siliceous rock, containing about 70 or 80 per cent of silex, while that of Egypt has only 62 per cent.
Amygdaloid.—This is also another form of igneous rock, admitting of every variety of composition. It comprehends any rock in which round or almond-shaped nodules of some mineral, such as agate, chalcedony, calcareous spar, or zeolite, are scattered through a base of wacke, basalt, greenstone, or other kind of trap. It derives its name from the Greek word amygdalon, an almond. The origin of this structure can not be doubted, for we may trace the process of its formation in modern lavas. Small pores or cells are caused by bubbles of steam and gas confined in the melted matter. After or during consolidation, these empty spaces are gradually filled up by matter separating from the mass, or infiltered by water permeating the rock. As these bubbles have been sometimes lengthened by the flow of the lava before it finally cooled, the contents of such cavities have the form of almonds. In some of the amygdaloidal traps of Scotland, where the nodules have decomposed, the empty cells are seen to have a glazed or vitreous coating, and in this respect exactly resemble scoriaceous lavas, or the slags of furnaces.
Fig. 587 represents a fragment of stone taken from the upper part of a sheet of basaltic lava in Auvergne. One-half is scoriaceous, the pores being perfectly empty; the other part is amygdaloidal, the pores or cells being mostly filled up with carbonate of lime, forming white kernels.
Lava.—This term has a somewhat vague signification, having been applied to all melted matter observed to flow in streams from volcanic vents. When this matter consolidates in the open air, the upper part is usually scoriaceous, and the mass becomes more and more stony as we descend, or in proportion as it has consolidated more slowly and under greater pressure. At the bottom, however, of a stream of lava, a small portion of scoriaceous rock very frequently occurs, formed by the first thin sheet of liquid matter, which often precedes the main current, and solidifies under slight pressure.
The more compact lavas are often porphyritic, but even the scoriaceous part sometimes contains imperfect crystals, which have been derived from some older rocks, in which
the crystals pre-existed, but were not melted, as being more infusible in their nature. Although melted matter rising in a crater, and even that which enters a rent on the side of a crater, is called lava, yet this term belongs more properly to that which has flowed either in the open air or on the bed of a lake or sea. If the same fluid has not reached the surface, but has been merely injected into fissures below ground, it is called trap. There is every variety of composition in lavas; some are trachytic, as in the Peak of Teneriffe; a great number are basaltic, as in Vesuvius and Auvergne; others are andesitic, as those of Chili; some of the most modern in Vesuvius consist of green augite, and many of those of Etna of augite and labrador-feldspar.*
Scoriæ and Pumice may next be mentioned, as porous rocks produced by the action of gases on materials melted by volcanic heat. Scoriæ are usually of a reddish-brown and black colour, and are the cinders and slags of basaltic or augitic lavas. Pumice is a light, spongy, fibrous substance, produced by the action of gases on trachytic and other lavas; the relation, however, of its origin to the composition of lava is not yet well understood. Von Buch says that it never occurs where only labrador-feldspar is present.
Volcanic Ash or Tuff, Trap Tuff.—Small angular fragments of the scoriæ and pumice, above-mentioned, and the dust of the same, produced by volcanic explosions, form the tuffs which abound in all regions of active volcanoes, where showers of these materials, together with small pieces of other rocks ejected from the crater, and more or less burnt, fall down upon the land or into the sea. Here they often become mingled with shells, and are stratified. Such tuffs are sometimes bound together by a calcareous cement, and form a stone susceptible of a beautiful polish. But even when little or no lime is present, there is a great tendency in the materials of ordinary tuffs to cohere together. The term volcanic ash has been much used for rocks of all ages supposed to have been derived from matter ejected in a melted state from volcanic orifices. We meet occasionally with extremely compact beds of volcanic materials, interstratified with fossiliferous rocks. These may sometimes be tuffs, although their density or compactness is such as the cause them to resemble many of those kinds of trap which are found in ordinary dikes.
Wacke is a name given to a decomposed state of various trap rocks of the basaltic family, or those which are poor in silica. It resembles clay of a yellowish or brown colour, and
* G. Hose, Ann. des Mines, tome viii, p. 32.
passes gradually from the soft state to the hard dolerite, greenstone, or other trap rock from which it has been derived.
Agglomerate.—In the neighbourhood of volcanic vents, we frequently observe accumulations of angular fragments of rocks formed during eruptions by the explosive action of steam, which shatters the subjacent stony formations, and hurls them up into the air. They then fall in showers around the cone or crater, or may be spread for some distance over the surrounding country. The fragments consist usually of different varieties of scoriaceous and compact lavas; but other kinds of rock, such as granite or even fossiliferous limestones, may be intermixed; in short, any substance through which the expansive gases have forced their way. The dispersion of such materials may be aided by the wind, as it varies in direction or intensity, and by the slope of the cone down which they roll, or by floods of rain, which often accompany eruptions. But if the power of running water, or of the waves and currents of the sea, be sufficient to carry the fragments to a distance, it can scarcely fail to wear off their angles, and the formation then becomes aconglomerate. If occasionally globular pieces of scoriæ abound in an agglomerate, they may not owe their round form to attrition. When all the angular fragments are of volcanic rocks the mass is usually termed a volcanic breccia.
Laterite is a red or brick-like rock composed of silicate of alumina and oxide of iron. The red layers called “ochre beds,” dividing the lavas of the Giant’s Causeway, are laterites. These were found by Delesse to be trap impregnated with the red oxide of iron, and in part reduced to kaolin. When still more decomposed, they were found to be clay coloured by red ochre. As two of the lavas of the Giant’s Causeway are parted by a bed of lignite, it is not improbable that the layers of laterite seen in the Antrim cliffs resulted from atmospheric decomposition. In Madeira and the Canary Islands streams of lava of subaërial origin are often divided by red bands of laterite, probably ancient soils formed by the decomposition of the surfaces of lava-currents, many of these soils having been coloured red in the atmosphere by oxide of iron, others burnt into a red brick by the overflowing of heated lavas. These red bands are sometimes prismatic, the small prisms being at right angles to the sheets of lava. Red clay or red marl, formed as above stated by the disintegration of lava, scoriæ, or tuff, has often accumulated to a great thickness in the valleys of Madeira, being washed into them by alluvial action; and some of the thick beds of
laterite in India may have had a similar origin. In India, however, especially in the Deccan, the term “laterite” seems to have been used too vaguely to answer the above definition. The vegetable soil in the gardens of the suburbs of Catania which was overflowed by the lava of 1669 was turned or burnt into a layer of red brick-coloured stone, or in other words, into laterite, which may now be seen supporting the old lava-current.
Columnar and Globular Structure.—One of the characteristic forms of volcanic rocks, especially of basalt, is the columnar, where large masses are divided into regular prisms, sometimes easily separable, but in other cases adhering firmly together. The columns vary, in the number of angles, from three to twelve; but they have most commonly from five to seven sides. They are often divided transversely, at nearly equal distances, like the joints in a vertebral column, as in the Giant’s Causeway, in Ireland. They vary exceedingly in respect to length and diameter. Dr. MacCulloch mentions some in Skye which are about 400 feet long; others, in Morven, not exceeding an inch. In regard to diameter, those of Ailsa measure nine feet, and those of Morven an inch or less.* They are usually straight, but sometimes curved; and examples of both these occur in the island of Staffa. In a horizontal bed or sheet of trap the columns are vertical; in a vertical dike they are horizontal.
It being assumed that columnar trap has consolidated from a fluid state, the prisms are said to be always at right angles to the cooling surfaces. If these surfaces, therefore, instead of being either perpendicular or horizontal, are curved, the columns ought to be inclined at every angle to the horizon; and there is a beautiful exemplification of this phenomenon in one of the valleys of the Vivarais, a mountainous
* MacCulloch Sys. of Geol., vol. ii, p. 137.
district in the South of France, where, in the midst of a region of gneiss, a geologist encounters unexpectedly several volcanic cones of loose sand and scoriæ. From the crater of one of these cones, called La Coupe d’Ayzac, a stream of lava has descended and occupied the bottom of a narrow valley, except at those points where the river Volant, or the torrents which join it, have cut away portions of the solid lava. Fig. 588 represents the remnant of the lava at one of these points. It is clear that the lava once filled the whole valley up to the dotted line d a; but the river has gradually swept away all below that line, while the tributary torrent has laid open a transverse section; by which we perceive, in the first place, that the lava is composed, as usual in this country, of three parts: the uppermost, at a, being scoriaceous, the second b, presenting irregular prisms; and the third, c, with regular columns, which are vertical on the banks of the Volant, where they rest on a horizontal base of gneiss, but which are inclined at an angle of 45°, at g, and are nearly horizontal at f, their position having been everywhere determined, according to the law before mentioned, by the form of the original valley.
In Fig. 589, a view is given of some of the inclined and curved columns which present themselves on the sides of the valleys in the hilly region north of Vicenza, in Italy, and at the foot of the higher Alps.* Unlike those of the Vivarais, last mentioned, the basalt of this country was evidently submarine, and the present valleys have since been hollowed out by denudation.
The columnar structure is by no means peculiar to the trap rocks in which augite abounds; it is also observed in trachyte, and other feldspathic rocks of the igneous class, although in these it is rarely exhibited in such regular polygonal forms. It has been already stated that basaltic columns are often divided by cross-joints. Sometimes each segment, instead of an angular, assumes a spheroidal form, so that a pillar is made up of a pile of balls, usually flattened, as in the Cheese-grotto at Bertrich-Baden, in the Eifel, near the Moselle (Fig. 590). The basalt there is part of a small
* Fortis, Mém. sur l’Hist. Nat. de l’Italie, tome 1., p. 233, plate 7.
stream of lava, from 30 to 40 feet thick, which has proceeded from one of several volcanic craters, still extant, on the neighbouring heights.
In some masses of decomposing greenstone, basalt, and other trap rocks, the globular structure is so conspicuous that the rock has the appearance of a heap of large cannon balls. According to M. Delesse, the centre of each spheroid has been a centre of crystallisation, around which the different minerals of the rock arranged themselves symmetrically during the process of cooling. But it was also, he says, a centre of contraction, produced by the same cooling, the globular form, therefore, of such spheroids being the combined result of crystallisation and contraction.*
Mr. Scrope gives as an illustration of this structure a resinous trachyte or pitchstone-porphyry in one of the Ponza islands, which rise from the Mediterranean, off the coast of Terracina and Gaeta. The globes vary from a few inches to three feet in diameter, and are of an ellipsoidal form (see Fig. 591). The whole rock is in a state of decomposition, “and when the balls,” says Mr. Scrope, “have been exposed a short time to the weather, they scale off at a touch into numerous concentric coats, like those of a bulbous root, inclosing a compact nucleus. The laminæ
* Delesse, sur les Roches Globuleuses, Mém. de la Soc. Géol. de France, 2 sér., tome iv.
of this nucleus have not been so much loosened by decomposition; but the application of a ruder blow will produce a still further exfoliation.”*
Volcanic or Trap Dikes.—The leading varieties of the trappean rocks—basalt, greenstone, trachyte, and the rest—are found sometimes in dikes penetrating stratified and unstratified formations, sometimes in shapeless masses protruding through or overlying them, or in horizontal sheets intercalated between strata. Fissures have already been spoken of as occurring in all kinds of rocks, some a few feet, others many yards in width, and often filled up with earth or angular pieces of stone, or with sand and pebbles. Instead of such materials, suppose a quantity of melted stone to be driven or injected into an open rent, and there consolidated, we have then a tabular mass resembling a wall, and called a trap dike. It is not uncommon to find such dikes passing through strata of soft materials, such
as tuff, scoriæ, or shale, which, being more perishable than the trap, are often washed away by the sea, rivers, or rain, in which case the dike stands prominently out in the face of precipices, or on the level surface of a country (see Fig. 592).
In the islands of Arran and Skye, and in other parts of Scotland, where sandstone, conglomerate, and other hard rocks are traversed by dikes of trap, the converse of the above phenomenon is seen. The dike, having decomposed more rapidly than the containing rock, has once more left open the original fissure, often for a distance of many yards inland from the sea-coast. There is yet another case, by no means uncommon in Arran and other parts of Scotland, where the strata in contact with the dike, and for a certain distance from it, have been hardened, so as to resist the action of the weather more than the dike itself, or the surrounding rocks. When this happens, two parallel walls of indurated strata are seen protruding above the general level of the country and following the course of the dike. In Fig. 593, a ground plan is given of a ramifying dike of greenstone,
* Scrope, Geol. Trans., 2nd series, vol. ii, p. 205.
which I observed cutting through sandstone on the beach near Kildonan Castle, in Arran. The larger branch varies from five to seven feet in width, which will afford a scale of measurement for the whole.
In the Hebrides and other countries, the same masses of trap which occupy the surface of the country far and wide, concealing the subjacent stratified rocks, are seen also in the sea-cliffs, prolonged downward in veins or dikes, which probably unite with other masses of igneous rock at a greater depth. The largest of the dikes represented in Fig. 594, and which are seen in part of the coast of Skye, is no less than 100 feet in width.
Every variety of trap-rock is sometimes found in dikes, as basalt, greenstone, feldspar-porphyry, and trachyte. The amygdaloidal traps also occur, though more rarely, and even tuff and breccia, for the materials of these last may be washed down into open fissures at the bottom of the sea, or during eruption on the land may be showered into them from the air. Some dikes of trap may be followed for leagues uninterruptedly in nearly a straight direction, as in the north of England, showing that the fissures which they fill must have been of extraordinary length.
Rocks altered by Volcanic Dikes.—After these remarks on the form and composition of dikes themselves, I shall describe the alterations which they sometimes produce in the rocks in contact with them. The changes are usually such as the heat of melted matter and of the entangled steam and gases might be expected to cause.
Plas-Newydd: Dike cutting through Shale.—A striking example,
near Plas-Newydd, in Anglesea, has been described by Professor Henslow.* The dike is 134 feet wide, and consists of a rock which is a compound of feldspar and augite (dolerite of some authors). Strata of shale and argillaceous limestone, through which it cuts perpendicularly, are altered to a distance of 30, or even, in some places, of 35 feet from the edge of the dike. The shale, as it approaches the trap, becomes gradually more compact, and is most indurated where nearest the junction. Here it loses part of its schistose structure, but the separation into parallel layers is still discernible. In several places the shale is converted into hard porcelanous jasper. In the most hardened part of the mass the fossil shells, principally Producti, are nearly obliterated; yet even here their impressions may frequently be traced. The argillaceous limestone undergoes analogous mutations, losing its earthy texture as it approaches the dike, and becoming granular and crystalline. But the most extraordinary phenomenon is the appearance in the shale of numerous crystals of analcime and garnet, which are distinctly confined to those portions of the rock affected by the dike.† Some garnets contain as much as 20 per cent of lime, which they may have derived from the decomposition of the fossil shells or Producti. The same mineral has been observed, under very analogous circumstances, in High Teesdale, by Professor Sedgwick, where it also occurs in shale and limestone, altered by basalt.‡
Antrim: Dike cutting through Chalk.—In several parts of the county of Antrim, in the north of Ireland, chalk with flints is traversed by basaltic dikes. The chalk is there converted into granular marble near the basalt, the change sometimes extending eight or ten feet from the wall of the dike, being greatest near the point of contact, and thence gradually decreasing till it becomes evanescent. “The extreme effect,” says Dr. Berger, “presents a dark brown crystalline limestone, the crystals running in flakes as large as those of coarse primitive (metamorphic) limestone; the next state is saccharine, then fine grained and arenaceous; a compact variety, having a porcelanous aspect and a bluish-grey colour, succeeds: this, towards the outer edge, becomes yellowish-white, and insensibly graduates into the unaltered chalk. The flints in the altered chalk usually assume a grey yellowish colour.”§ All traces of organic remains are effaced in that part of the limestone which is most crystalline.
* Cambridge Transactions, vol. i, p. 402.
† Ibid., vol. i, p. 410.
‡ Ibid., vol. ii, p. 175.
§ Dr. Berger, Geol. Trans., 1st series, vol. iii, p. 172.
Fig. 595 represents three basaltic dikes traversing the chalk, all within the distance of 90 feet. The chalk contiguous to the two outer dikes is converted into a finely granular marble, m, m, as are the whole of the masses between the outer dikes and the central one. The entire contrast in the composition and colour of the intrusive and invaded rocks, in these cases, renders the phenomena peculiarly clear and interesting. Another of the dikes of the north-east of Ireland has converted a mass of red sandstone into hornstone. By another, the shale of the coal-measures has been indurated, assuming the character of flinty slate; and in another place the slate-clay of the lias has been changed into flinty slate, which still retains numerous impressions of ammonites.†
It might have been anticipated that beds of coal would, from their combustible nature, be affected in an extraordinary degree by the contact of melted rock. Accordingly, one of the greenstone dikes of Antrim, on passing through a bed of coal, reduces it to a cinder for the space of nine feet on each side. At Cockfield Fell, in the north of England, a similar change is observed. Specimens taken at the distance of about thirty yards from the trap are not distinguishable from ordinary pit-coal; those nearer the dike are like cinders, and have all the character of coke; while those close to it are converted into a substance resembling soot.‡
It is by no means uncommon to meet with the same rocks, even in the same districts, absolutely unchanged in the proximity of volcanic dikes. This great inequality in the effects of the igneous rocks may often arise from an original difference in their temperature, and in that of the entangled gases, such as is ascertained to prevail in different lavas, or in the same lava near its source and at a distance from it. The power also of the invaded rocks to conduct heat may vary,
* Geol. Trans., 1st series, vol. iii, p. 210 and plate 10.
† Ibid., vol. iii, p. 213; and Playfair, Illus. of Hutt. Theory, s. 253.
‡ Sedgwick, Camb. Trans., vol. ii, p. 37.)
according to their composition, structure, and the fractures which they may have experienced, and perhaps, also, according to the quantity of water (so capable of being heated) which they contain. It must happen in some cases that the component materials are mixed in such proportions as to prepare them readily to enter into chemical union, and form new minerals; while in other cases the mass may be more homogeneous, or the proportions less adapted for such union.
We must also take into consideration, that one fissure may be simply filled with lava, which may begin to cool from the first; whereas in other cases the fissure may give passage to a current of melted matter, which may ascend for days or months, feeding streams which are overflowing the country above, or being ejected in the shape of scoriæ from some crater. If the walls of a rent, moreover, are heated by hot vapour before the lava rises, as we know may happen on the flanks of a volcano, the additional heat supplied by the dike and its gases will act more powerfully.
Intrusion of Trap between Strata.—Masses of trap are not unfrequently met with intercalated between strata, and maintaining their parallelism to the planes of stratification throughout large areas. They must in some places have forced their way laterally between the divisions of the strata, a direction in which there would be the least resistance to an advancing fluid, if no vertical rents communicated with the surface, and a powerful hydrostatic pressure were caused by gases propelling the lava upward.
Relation of Trappean Rocks to the Products of active Volcanoes.—When we reflect on the changes above described in the strata near their contact with trap dikes, and consider how complete is the analogy or often identity in composition and structure of the rocks called trappean and the lavas of active volcanoes, it seems difficult at first to understand how so much doubt could have prevailed for half a century as to whether trap was of igneous or aqueous origin. To a certain extent, however, there was a real distinction between the trappean formations and those to which the term volcanic was almost exclusively confined. A large portion of the trappean rocks first studied in the north of Germany, and in Norway, France, Scotland, and other countries, were such as had been formed entirely under water, or had been injected into fissures and intruded between strata, and which had never flowed out in the air, or over the bottom of a shallow sea. When these products, therefore, of submarine or subterranean igneous action were contrasted with loose cones of scoriæ, tuff, and lava, or with narrow streams of lava in
great part scoriaceous and porous, such as were observed to have proceeded from Vesuvius and Etna, the resemblance seemed remote and equivocal. It was, in truth, like comparing the roots of a tree with its leaves and branches, which, although the belong to the same plant, differ in form, texture, colour, mode of growth, and position. The external cone, with its loose ashes and porous lava, may be likened to the light foliage and branches, and the rocks concealed far below, to the roots. But it is not enough to say of the volcano,
“Quantum vertice in auras Ætherias, tantum radice in Tartara tendit,”
for its roots do literally reach downward to Tartarus, or to the regions of subterranean fire; and what is concealed far below is probably always more important in volume and extent than what is visible above ground.
We have already stated how frequently dense masses of strata have been removed by denudation from wide areas (see Chapter VI); and this fact prepares us to expect a similar destruction of whatever may once have formed the uppermost part of ancient submarine or subaërial volcanoes, more especially as those superficial parts are always of the lightest and most perishable materials. The abrupt manner in which dikes of trap usually terminate at the surface (see Fig. 596), and the water-worn pebbles of trap in the alluvium which covers the dike, prove incontestably that whatever was uppermost in these formations has been swept away. It is easy, therefore, to conceive that what is gone in regions of trap may have corresponded to what is now visible in active volcanoes.
As to the absence of porosity in the trappean formations, the appearances are in a great degree deceptive, for all amygdaloids are, as already explained, porous rocks, into the cells of which mineral matter such as silex, carbonate of lime, and other ingredients, have been subsequently introduced (seep. 507); sometimes, perhaps, by secretion during the cooling and consolidation of lavas. In the Little Cumbray, one of the Western Islands, near Arran, the amygdaloid sometimes contains elongated cavities filled with brown spar; and when the nodules have been washed out, the
interior of the cavities is glazed with the vitreous varnish so characteristic of the pores of slaggy lavas. Even in some parts of this rock which are excluded from air and water, the cells are empty, and seem to have always remained in this state, and are therefore undistinguishable from some modern lavas.*
Dr. MacCulloch, after examining with great attention these and the other igneous rocks of Scotland, observes, “that it is a mere dispute about terms, to refuse to the ancient eruptions of trap the name of submarine volcanoes; for they are such in every essential point, although they no longer eject fire and smoke.” The same author also considers it not improbable that some of the volcanic rocks of the same country may have been poured out in the open air.†
It will be seen in the following chapters that in the earth’s crust there are volcanic tuffs of all ages, containing marine shells, which bear witness to eruptions at many successive geological periods. These tuffs, and the associated trappean rocks, must not be compared to lava and scoriæ which had cooled in the open air. Their counterparts must be sought in the products of modern submarine volcanic eruptions. If it be objected that we have no opportunity of studying these last, it may be answered, that subterranean movements have caused, almost everywhere in regions of active volcanoes, great changes in the relative level of land and sea, in times comparatively modern, so as to expose to view the effects of volcanic operations at the bottom of the sea.
No comments:
Post a Comment