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Alexander von Humboldt: „On the Volcanoes of Jorullo“, in: ders., Sämtliche Schriften digital, herausgegeben von Oliver Lubrich und Thomas Nehrlich, Universität Bern 2021. URL: <https://humboldt.unibe.ch/text/1809-Description_du_volcan-09-neu> [abgerufen am 20.04.2024].
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| Titel | On the Volcanoes of Jorullo | ||||||
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| Jahr | 1811 | ||||||
| Ort | London | ||||||
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Nachweis in: The New Annual Register, or General Repository of History, Politics, and Literature, for the year 1810 (1811), S. 224–227.
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| Sprache | Englisch | ||||||
| Typografischer Befund | Antiqua; Spaltensatz; Schmuck: Initialen. | ||||||
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|224|
|Spaltenumbruch|
“THE grand catastrophe inwhich this volcanic moun-tain issued from the earth, and bywhich the face of a considerableextent of ground was totally alter-ed, was perhaps one of the mostextensive physical changes, thatthe history of our globe exhibits.Geology points out spots in theocean, where, within the last twothousand years, volcanic islets havearisen above the surface of the sea,as near the Azores, in the Archi-pelago, and on the south of Ice-land: but it records no instance ofa mountain of scoriæ and ashes,517 met. [563 yards] above the oldlevel of the neighbouring plains,suddenly formed in the centre of athousand small burning cones, thir-ty-six leagues from the seashore,and forty-two leagues from anyother volcano. This phenomenonremained unknown to the miner-alogists and natural philosophers ofEurope, though it took place butfifty years ago, and within six daysjourney of the capital of Mexico.
“Descending from the central
|Spaltenumbruch|flat toward the coasts of the Pacificocean, a vast plain extends fromthe hills of Aguasarco to the vil-lages of Toipa, and Patatlan, equallycelebrated for their fine cotton plan-tations. Between the picachos delMortero and the cerras de las Cuevasand de Cuiche, this plain is onlyfrom 750 to 800 met. [820 to 880yards] above the level of the sea.Basaltic hills rise in the midst of acountry, in which porphyry withbase of green-stone predominates.Their summits are crowned withoaks always in verdure, and the fo-liage of laurels and olives inter-mingled with dwarf fan palms.This beautiful vegetation forms asingular contrast with the arid plain,which has been laid waste by vol-canic fire.
“To the middle of the eighteenthcentury fields of sugar-canes andindigo extended between two rivu-lets, called Cuitimba and San Pedro.They were skirted by basaltic moun-tains, the structure of which seemsto indicate, that all the country, inremote periods, has several times
|225||Spaltenumbruch|experienced the violent action ofvolcanoes. These fields, irrigatedby art, belonged to the estate ofSan Pedro de Jorullo (Xorullo, orJuvriso), one of the largest and mostvaluable in the country. In themonth of June, 1759, fearful rum-bling noises were accompanied withfrequent shocks of an earthquake,which succeeded each other at in-tervals for fifty or sixty days, andthrew the inhabitants of the estateinto the greatest consternation. Fromthe beginning of the month of Sep-tember, every thing seemed per-fectly quiet, when in the night ofthe 28th of that month a terriblesubterranean noise was heard anew.The frightened Indians fled to themountains of Aguasarco. A spaceof three or four square miles, knownby the name of Malpays, rose inthe shape of a bladder. The boun-daries of this rising are still distin-guishable in the ruptured strata.The Malpays towards the edge isonly 12 met. [13 yards] above theformer level of the plain, called lasplayas de Jorullo; but the con-vexity of the ground increases pro-gressively toward the centre, till itreaches the height of 160 met. [175yards].
“They who witnessed this grandcatastrophe from the top of Agua-sarco assert, that they saw flamesissue out of the ground for thespace of more than half a leaguesquare; that fragments of red hotrocks were thrown to a prodigiousheight; and that through a thickcloud of ashes, illumined by thevolcanic fire, and resembling astormy sea, the softened crust ofthe earth was seen to swell up. Therivers of Cuitimba and San Pedrothen precipitated themselves intothe burning crevices. The decom-position of the water contributed toreanimate the flames, which were
|Spaltenumbruch|perceptible at the city of Pascuoro,though standing on a very wideplain 1400 met. [1530 yards] abovethe level of the playas de Jorullo.Eruptions of mud, particularly ofthe strata of clay including decom-posed nodules of basaltes with con-centric layers, seem to prove, thatsubterranean waters had no smallpart in this extraordinary revolu-tion. Thousands of small cones,only two or three yards high, whichthe Indians call ovens, issued fromthe raised dome of the Malpays.Though the heat of these volcanicovens has diminished greatly withinthese fifteen years, according to thetestimony of the Indians, I foundthe thermometer rise to 95° [if cen-tig. 203° F.] in the crevices thatemitted an aqueous vapour. Eachlittle cone is a chimney, from whicha thick smoke rises to the height often or fifteen met. [11 or 16 yards.]In several a subterranean noise isheard like that of some fluid boilingat no great depth.
“Amid these ovens, in a fissure,the direction of which is fromN. N. E. to S. S. E, six large hum-mocks rise 400 or 500 met. [440 or550 yards] above the old level ofthe plain. This is the phenomenonof Monte Novo at Naples repeatedseveral times in a row of volcanichills. The loftiest of these hugehummocks, which reminded me ofthe country of Auvergne, is thelarge volcano of Jorullo. It is con-stantly burning, and has thrownout on the north side an immensequantity of scorified and basalticlava, including fragments of pri-mitive rocks. These grand erup-tions of the central volcano con-tinued till February 1760. In thesucceeding years they became gra-dually less frequent. The In-dians, alarmed by the horrible noiseof the new volcano, at first deserted
|220|the villages for seven or eight leaguesround the plain of Jorullo. In afew months they became familiarwith the alarming sight, returnedto their huts, and went down to themountains of Aguasarco and SantaInes, to admire the sheaves of firethrown out by an infinite numberof large and small volcanic open-ings. The ashes then covered thehouses of Queretoro, more than 48leagues [120 miles] in a right linefrom the place of the explosion.Though the subterranean fire ap-pears to be in no great activity atpresent, and the Malpays and thegreat volcano begin to be coveredwith vegetables, we found the airso heated by the little ovens, that inthe shade, and at a considerabledistance from the ground, the ther-mometer rose to 43° [109·4° F].This fact evinces, that there is noexaggeration in the report of someof the old Indians, who say, thatthe plains of Jorullo were unin-habitable for several years, and evento a considerable distance from theground raised up, on account of theexcessive heat.
“Near the cerro of Santa Inesthe traveller is still shown the riversof Cuitimba and San Pedro, thelimpid waters of which formerlyrefreshed the sugar-canes on theestate of Don Andrew Pimantel.These springs were lost in thenight of the 29th of September,1759: but 2000 met. [near 2200yards] to the westward, in the soilthat has been elevated, two rivuletsare seen to break out of the clayeydome of the furnaces, exhibit-ing themselves as thermal waters,in which the thermometer rises to52·7° [126·86° F.]. The Indiansstill give these the names of SanPedro and Cuitimba, because in se-veral parts of the Malpays largebodies of water are supposed to be
|Spaltenumbruch|heard running from east to west,from mountains of Santa Inesto the estate of the Presentation.Near this estate is a brook, thatemits the sulphuretted hidrogen gas:it is more than 7 met. [near 8 yards]wide, and is the most copious hidro-sulphurous spring I ever saw.
“In the opinion of the nativesthese extraordinary changes I havedescribed, the crust of earth raisedand cracked by volcanic fire, themountains of scoriæ and ashes heap-ed up, are the works of monks;the greatest, no doubt, they everproduced in either hemisphere. OurIndian host, at the hut we inhabitedin the plain of Jorullo, told us,that some missionary capuchinspreached at the estate of San Pedro,and, not meeting a favourable re-ception, uttered the most horri-ble and complicated imprecationsagainst this plain, then so beautifuland fertile. They prophesied, thatthe estate should first be swallowedup by flames issuing out of thebowels of the Earth; and that theair should afterward be cooled tosuch a degree, that the neighbour-ing mountains should remain forever covered with ice and snow.The first of these maledictions hav-ing been so fatally verified, thecommon people foresee in the gra-dual cooling of the volcano thepresage of a perpetual winter. Ihave thought it right to mentionthis vulgar tradition, worthy a placein the epic poem of the jesuit Lan-divar, because it exhibits a strikingfeature of the manners and preju-dices of these remote countries. Itshows the active industry of a classof men, who, too frequently abusingthe credulity of the people, and pre-tending to possess the power ofsuspending the immutable laws ofnature, know how to avail them-selves of every event for establish-
|227|ing their empire by the fear of phy-sical evil.
“The situation of the new vol-cano of Jorullo leads to a very cu-rious geological observation. It hasalready been observed in the thirdchapter, that there is in New Spaina line of great heights, or a narrowzone included between the latitudesof 18° 59′ and 19° 12′, in whichare all the summits of Anahuac thatrise above the region of perpetualsnow. These summits are eithervolcanoes still actually burning; ormountains, the form of which, aswell as the nature of their rocks,renders it extremely probable, thatthey formerly contained subter-ranean fire. Setting out from thecoast of the Gulf of Mexico, andprocceding westward, we find thepeak of Oribaza, the two volcanoesof la Puebla, the Nevado de Toluca,the peak of Tancitaro, and thevolcano of Colima. These greatheights, instead of forming the ridgeof the cordillera of Anahuac, andfollowing its direction, which isfrom S. E. to N. W., are on thecontrary in a line perpendicular tothe axis of the great chain of moun-tains. It is certainly worthy remark,that in the year 1759 the new vol-cano of Jorullo was formed in thecontinuation of this line, and on
|Spaltenumbruch|the same parallel as the ancientMexican volcanoes.
“A view of my plan of the en-virons of Jorullo will show, thatthe six large hummocks have risenout of the earth on a vein, thatcrosses the plain from the cerro oflas Cuevas to the pichaco del Mon-tero. The new mouths of Vesuviustoo are found ranged along a fissure.Do not these analogies give us rea-son to suppose, that there exists inthis part of Mexico, at a great depthwithin the Earth, a fissure stretch-ing from east to west through aspace of 137 leagues [343 miles],and through which the volcanic firehas made its way at different times,bursting the outer crust of porphy-ritic rocks, from the coasts of theGulf of Mexico to the South Sea?Is this fissure prolonged to that littlegroupe of islands, called by Colluet
the Archipelago of Regigedo, andround which, in the same parallelwith the Mexican volcanoes, pumicestone has been seen floating? Na-turalists who distinguish the factsoffered by descriptive mineralogyfrom theoretical reveries concerningthe primitive state of our planet willpardon me for having consignedthese observations to the generalMap of New Spain, contained inthe Mexican Atlas.”
On the Volcanoes of Jorullo. [From Humboldt’s Essay on New Spain.]