Observations on Mount Vesuvius, Mount Etna, and other volcanos: in a series of letters, addressed to the Royal Society / from the Honourable Sir W. Hamilton ... To which are added, explanatory notes by the author, hitherto unpublished.

  • William Hamilton
Date:
1772
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on Mount Vesuvius, Mount Etna, and other volcanos: in a series of letters, addressed to the Royal Society / from the Honourable Sir W. Hamilton ... To which are added, explanatory notes by the author, hitherto unpublished. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    in the letter I fent you laft year upon the fubject of that magnificent Volcano [i]. Ulloa likewife mentions this circumftance of water attending the eruptions of Vol- canos in America. “Whenever therefore I find a tufa compofed exactly like that which “immediately covers Herculaneum, and undoubtedly proceeded ftom Vefuvius, I conclude fuch a tufa to have been pro- duced by water mixing with the erupted matter at the time of an explofion occa- fioned by fubterraneous fire; and this ob- fervation, I believe, will be of more ufe than any other, in pointing out thofe parts of the prefent terra firma, that have been formed by explofion. I am convinced, it has often happened that fubterraneous fires. and exhalations, after having been pent up and confined for fome time, and been the caufe of earthquakes, have forced. their paffage, and. im venting ‘themfelves formed mountains of the matter that’con- fined them, as you will {ee was the “cafe [7] Lefter IV. near
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