Abstract
DR. ALFRED WALLACE, in his letter to NATURE of May 2, calls attention to the significant fact that catastrophes caused by volcanoes “may be of greater magnitude now than in geologic times,” owing to the crust of the earth being thicker now than it was then. He, however, is mistaken in supposing that this consideration has been Overlooked by geologists. If he will kindly refer to “Geology,” vol. i. p. 449, he will find it there stated, speaking of the older fissure and explosive eruptions, that “there is nothing to show that this [the explosive] action was on the same scale of magnitude and permanence as those of late Tertiary and recent date. With the greater thickness of the earth's crust and the greater resistance presented by its rigidity, volcanic eruptions must with time, as suggested long ago by Elie de Beaumont, have altered with the alterations of those conditions, and may now be exhibited under a phase very different from those of the earlier periods.”
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PRESTWICH, J. Uniformitarianism in Geology. Nature 52, 28 (1895). https://doi.org/10.1038/052028b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/052028b0
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