Abstract
SINCE the appearance of the interesting memoirs of M. A. Brun, of Geneva, and the publication of his important monograph, no problem has appealed to vulcanologists with greater force than that concerned with the nature and origin of the gases which produce explosive action in volcanoes. That water-gas appears in enormous quantities during explosive eruptions cannot be doubted, for it is condensed in heavy rain-torrents; but it is by no means certain that these abundant watery vapours may not be due, wholly or in large part, to moisture derived originally from the atmosphere. M. Brun regards the long prevalent opinion among geologists-that the hydrochloric acid, sulphurous acid, nitrogen, and other gases, which are undoubtedly present, are quite subordinate to the water-gas—is an erroneous one; he, on the other hand, maintains that his observations prove (alike in the blasts of vapour from volcanic vents, in the distension of molten lava into pumice, and its dispersion as dust) that water plays but an insignificant part as compared with other gases.
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JUDD, J. Observations at the Bottom of the Crater of Vesuvius . Nature 92, 633–634 (1914). https://doi.org/10.1038/092633b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/092633b0