Prophecies of Destruction
By L. A. S.
INTEREST in the subject of volcanic activity, its phenomena and causes, has been greatly stimulated by the recent catastrophe on Martinique, which ranks as one of the greatest and most tragic disasters ever wrought by the outburst of the earth’s internal fires. Regarding the origin of these fiery upheavals, science affords us no positive information. No man has been able to interview nature on this subject. In the volcano man beholds the working of forces beside which his own boasted powers sink into utter oblivion, and before whose terrors his wisdom can suggest only precipitate flight. His study of these stupendous phenomena must be conducted at a safe distance, and has resulted thus far only in speculation and theory. It is no longer believed, as it was once, that the earth is a vast molten mass covered with a hardened crust a few miles in thickness, through which in places the internal fires find vent. While it is known that there is heat stored in the interior of the earth, it is not thought that this is sufficient to account for such an excessive temperature as that in the interior of an active crater, where rocks and metals lie in a fluid state, to be ejected in the form of molten, flowing lava. It is regarded as quite certain that the explosive force within the volcano is steam,—not merely the vapor of water heated to the boiling point, but steam generated under the pressure of miles of overlying rock and earth strata, where it is heated to a temperature of several thousand degrees. Water unconfined boils at a temperature of 212° Fahrenheit, and becomes steam; but under the tremendous pressure of a mile or more of earth crust it is believed there might be red-hot or even white-hot water, prevented by such great pressure from expanding into a gaseous form. When, however, this pressure is from some cause partially removed, or the pent-up subterranean forces are sufficiently augmented to burst the barrier, the laws governing the action of heated water suddenly assert themselves, the superheated water becomes superheated steam, of such tremendous explosive force as to pulverize the rocks about it and produce the tremendous and awe-inspiring phenomena characteristic of volcanic eruptions. Whether the high temperature which generates this superheated steam is caused by internal friction from the weight and shrinking of the earth’s crust, or by chemical action, or by some other agency unknown, are questions concerning which scientists are yet speculating. Three classes of volcanoes are recognized,—the active, the quiescent, and the extinct. It is to be noted, however, that this classification is based rather on supposition than on actual knowledge. “Extinct” volcanoes have sometimes awakened to sudden and tremendous activity. The celebrated Mt. Vesuvius was an “extinct” volcano prior to the overthrow of Pompeii in A. D. 79. In the same chain of mountains to which Vesuvius belongs are volcanoes which, after the destruction of Pompeii, remained quiet for seventeen centuries, and then broke out again into sudden activity. Some volcanoes seem to be subject to a law of periodical activity, eruptions coming at somewhat regular intervals. Cotopaxi, in Mexico, is an example of this class. Stromboli, on the other hand, which is sometimes called “the lighthouse of the Mediterranean,” has been in continuous eruption since the beginning of human recollection. The greatest volcano in the world is in the territory of the United States. It is the vast crater of Kilauea, in the Hawaiian Islands. Ten times within the last century this volcano has been in eruption, and it is always more or less active. The crater is more than three miles in diameter, and within it is a literal lake of fire and brimstone, a vast, seething mass of lava, from the surface of which balls of liquid fire are continually rising and bursting in the air. In 1855 this great crater poured out 38,000,000,000 cubic feet of molten lava, and again in 1859 a stream of lava flowed for a distance of fifty miles from the crater, covering this distance in eight days. The amount of matter thrown out from the interior of the earth in a great volcanic eruption is almost inconceivably vast. In 1783 Skaptar Jokull, one of the principal volcanoes in Iceland, vomited forth an amount of lava estimated to be greater in volume than Mount Blanc. Cosiguina, a volcano in Nicaragua, in 1835 buried a district nearly fifty miles wide under eight feet of ashes and volcanic dust. The present eruption on St. Vincent is estimated by Governor Hodgson, of Barbados, to have cast two million tons of dust across the sea and on to the latter island. Here we have examples of vast changes in the earth’s strata taking place almost in a day, instead of occupying the eons of time which some geologists assert must elapse before any extensive alteration in the earth layers can be accomplished. The explosives manufactured in these subterranean laboratories of nature possess a power beside which all man’s boasted achievements with powder and dynamite are cast completely into the shade. The largest gun in the world is capable, theoretically, of hurling a5projectile weighing less than one ton, a distance of twenty-one miles. Some authorities assert that its range will be but little over half this distance. But Cotopaxi, in one of its periodic eruptions, shot out a mass of stone weighing two hundred tons, which landed nine miles away from the crater’s mouth. Smaller stones have been hurled a distance of thirty-five miles. The greatest eruption within recent times, and probably the greatest ever recorded, was that of Krakatau, a small mountain only about three thousand feet high, situated on an island between Java and Sumatra. This was one of the “extinct” volcanoes, there being no record of any previous eruption during the three centuries it has been known to Europeans. On Aug. 29, 1883, it became the center of an earth convulsion which was felt almost around the world. Terrific explosions followed one another every few minutes, the sound of which was heard thousands of miles away. A huge tidal wave was sent rolling across the Pacific, inundating the shores of Java and Sumatra, and drowning thirty thousand people. So great was the violence of the ejecting force, that it pulverized the matter it sent up from the crater, hurling it many miles into the air, in which the finer dust remained suspended until it had drifted around the globe, producing the red sunsets which were a phenomenon of that year in this country. A large part of the Indian Ocean was showered with lava dust to a depth of several inches. Besides such materials as lava, ashes, mud, steam, and sulphur, a volcanic eruption usually sends out poisonous gases and vapors, which are almost instantly fatal to animal life. There is every reason to believe that it was from such poisonous fumes that most of the people of St. Pierre came to their sudden death. Modern exploration has brought to our knowledge more than five hundred volcanoes, scattered from the arctic to the antarctic regions, but especially numerous along the borders of the Pacific Ocean. The number of eruptions recorded within recent years points to the conclusion that the earth’s internal fires are increasing rather than diminishing, as indeed is to be expected in a world “reserved unto fire” at the end, to which it is now hastening. In the light of Bible prophecy these great catastrophes become typical of the coming “day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.”