Abstract
SINCE writing on May 3 Vesuvius has continued to pour forth a continuous stream of lava. From the lowering of the general level of lava in the main chimney no reflection could be seen at its mouth, as is usually the case. This state of things continued till the 6th, when the vapour could only escape in intermittent puff in consequence of the accumulation of débris from the crumbling edges of the inner crater edge. As these puffs escaped, they resembled balls of dark grey smoke, from which fell a shower of fine ash, the result of the grinding up of the fine materials that had fallen in as above described, and partially blocked the upper outlet. The crater plain was scattered over with ash and rounded fragments of lava from which that had been ground off. Soon after a faint glimmer was visible, which gradually increased each night until it came to a stationary point, since which little change has taken place. The lava still continues to flow with more or less regularity, but from the small quantity it only gutters and collects on the slope of the great cone. The whole series of events since May 2 is identical with what occurred under similar circumstances in December, 1881, and January, 1882, which I have already described in these pages. The whole sequence of phenomena are easily explicable on the most simple mechanical principles, and do not require that vulcanological magic which, even at the present time, is too often employed in describing volcanoes or earthquakes.
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JOHNSTON-LAVIS, H. Vesuvius . Nature 32, 108 (1885). https://doi.org/10.1038/032108a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/032108a0