LYELL, CHARLES. - GEOLOGY OF ETNA.

On the Structure of Lavas which have consolidated on steep slopes; with Remarks on the Mode of the Origin of Mount Etna, and on the Theory of "Craters of Elevation". Received June 10, - Read June 10, 1858.

(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.

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.

Order-nr.: 42300