Geologie

1858 · 42300 — London Taylor and Francis 1858. 4to. No wrappers as extracted from "Philosophical Transactions" Vol. 148 - Part II pp. 703-786 and 3 lithographed plates. Map of Etna - Craters and Lava of 1852 & 1853 - Fossil leaves from Etna 23 textillustrations. <br/><br/><em>Firs printing of this importent investigation of the processes involved in the creation of volcanoes. Lyell had been convinced in his study of Madeira and the Canaries that the evidence on which Leopold von Buch had founded his his theory of craters of elevation 1825 was completely fallacious. Lyell "found that Etna had neither a linear axis nor a single center of upheaval. Instead he found two earlier centers of eruption in the Val del Bove. From each center the beds of lava sloped away in all directions but beds of lava arising from Etna's modern center of eruption had flowed over and buried those from the earlier centers. Lyell considered this to be decisive evidence against the crater-of-elevationn theory because "although one cone of eruption may envelope and bury another cone of eruption it is impossible for a cone of upheaval to mantle round and overwhelm another cone of upheaval so as to reduce the whole mass to one conical mountain.". He concluded that the conical form of Etna as of all volcanoes was entirely the result of the long-continued process of volcanic eruption."DSB.Charles Lyell 1797-1875 probably accomplished more in the advancement of geological knowledge than any other one man. The world-wide influence of his treatises and textbooks established the principle of uniformitarianism. </em> unknown