"
The active agency of water is strongly maintained by many geologists,
and certainly gains support from the vast clouds of steam given off by
volcanoes in eruption and the steady and quiet emission of steam from
many in a state of rest. The quantities of water in the liquid state,
to which is due the frequent enormous outflows of mud, leads to the
same conclusion. Many scientists, indeed, while admitting the agency of
water, look upon this as the aqueous material originally pent up
within the rocks. For instance Professor Shaler, dean of the Lawrence
Scientific School, says:
"Volcanic outbreaks are merely the explosion of steam under high
pressure, steam which is bound in rocks buried underneath the surface
of the earth and there subjected to such tremendous heat that when the
conditions are right its pent-up energy breaks forth and it shatters
its stone prison walls into dust. The process by which the water becomes
buried in this manner is a long one. Some contend that it leaks down
from the surface of the earth through fissures in the outer crust, but
this theory is not generally accepted. The common belief is that water
enters the rocks during the crystalization period, and that these rocks
through the natural action of rivers and streams become deposited in the
bottom of the ocean. Here they lie for many ages, becoming buried deeper
and deeper under masses of like sediment, which are constantly being
washed down upon them from above. This process is called the blanketing
process.
Pages:
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253