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Alexander von Humboldt: „Account of the Eruption of the Volcano of Jorullo in Mexico“, 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-11> [abgerufen am 28.03.2024].

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Titel Account of the Eruption of the Volcano of Jorullo in Mexico
Jahr 1826
Ort Edinburgh; London
Nachweis
in: The Edinburgh journal of science 4:7 (November–April 1826), S. 50–55, Tafel (Tafel 1, Figur 6).
Sprache Englisch
Typografischer Befund Antiqua; Auszeichnung: Kursivierung; Fußnoten mit Asterisken und Kreuzen; Schmuck: Initialen.
Identifikation
Textnummer Druckausgabe: II.71
Dateiname: 1809-Description_du_volcan-11
Statistiken
Seitenanzahl: 6
Zeichenanzahl: 11257

Weitere Fassungen
Description du volcan de Jorullo, tirée de l’Essai politique sur le Royaume du Mexique, formant la troisième partie des Voyages d’Alexandre de Humboldt et Aimé Bompland. Troisième livraison (Genf, 1809, Französisch)
Des eaux chargées d’acide muriatique (Paris, 1809, Französisch)
Des volcans de Jorullo (Paris, 1809, Französisch)
Sur l’Acide muriatique natif (Paris, 1809, Französisch)
Sur les Volcans de Jorullo (Paris, 1809, Französisch)
On the Volcanoes of Jorullo (London, 1810, Englisch)
On the volcanos of Jorullo (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1810, Englisch)
Des eaux chargées d’acide muriatique (Paris, 1810, Französisch)
On the Volcanoes of Jorullo (London, 1811, Englisch)
[Description du volcan de Jorullo, tirée de l’Essai politique sur le Royaume du Mexique, formant la troisième partie des Voyages d’Alexandre de Humboldt et Aimé Bompland. Troisième livraison] (Frankfurt am Main, 1814, Deutsch)
Account of the Eruption of the Volcano of Jorullo in Mexico (Edinburgh; London, 1826, Englisch)
Beschreibung eines Ausbruches des Vulkanes Jorullo in Mexico (Erfurt; Weimar; Leipzig, 1826, Deutsch)
|50|

Account of the Eruption of the Volcano of Jo-rullo in Mexico. * By Baron Alexander de Humboldt. With a Section of the Mountain.

To the east of the Pic de Tancitaro, the Volcan de Jorullo (Xorullo, or Juruyo) was formed in the night of the 29thSeptember 1759. M. Bonpland and myself reached its cra-
* We have given the above abridged account of this remarkable vol-cano, in reference to a new theory of its formation by Mr Scrope, whichforms the subject of the next Article. See Humboldt’s Essai Politiquesur la Nouvelle Espagne, his Essai Geognostique, p. 351, and his Rela-tion Historique.Ed.
|51| ter on the 19th September 1803. The great catastrophe inwhich this mountain rose from the earth, and by which a con-siderable extent of ground totally changed its appearance, is,perhaps, one of the most extraordinary physical revolutions inthe annals of the history of our planet. Geology gives us noexample of the formation, from the centre of a thousandsmall burning cones, of a mountain of scoria and ashes 517metres (1695 feet) in height, comparing it only with the levelof the old adjoining plains in the interior of a continent, 36leagues distant from the coast, and more than 42 leaguesfrom every other active volcano.
A vast plain extends from the hills of Aguasarco to nearthe villages of Teipa and Petatlan, both equally celebratedfor their fine plantations of cotton. This plain, between the Picachos del Mortero, the Cerros de las Cuevas, y de Cuiche, is only from 750 to 800 metres (from 2460 to 2624 feet)above the level of the sea. In the middle of a tract of groundin which porphyry, with a base of greenstone predominates,basaltic cones appear, the summits of which are crowned withevergreen oaks of a laurel and olive foliage, intermingled withsmall palm trees with flabelliform leaves. This beautiful ve-getation forms a singular contrast with the aridity of the plain,which was laid waste by volcanic fire. Till the middle of the 18th century, fields cultivated withsugar-cane and indigo occupied the extent of ground betweenthe two brooks called Cuitamba and San Pedro. They werebounded by basaltic mountains, of which the structure seemsto indicate that all this country, at a very remote period, hadbeen already several times convulsed by volcanoes. Thesefields, watered by artificial means, belonged to the plantation (hacienda) of San Pedro de Jorullo, one of the greatest andrichest of the country. In the month of June 1759, a sub-terraneous noise was heard. Hollow noises of a most alarmingnature (bramidos,) were accompanied by frequent earth-quakes, which succeeded one another for from 50 to 60 days,to the great consternation of the inhabitants of the hacienda. From the beginning of September every thing seemed to an-nounce the complete re-establishment of tranquillity, when, inthe night between the 28th and 29th, the horrible subterrane- |52| ous noise recommenced. The affrighted Indians fled to themountains of Aguasarco. A tract of ground from three to foursquare miles in extent, which goes by the name of Malpays, roseup in the shape of a bladder. The bounds of this convulsionare still distinguishable in the fractured strata. The Malpays near its edges is only 39 feet above the old level of the plaincalled the playas de Jorullo; but the convexity of the groundthus thrown up increases progressively towards the centre toan elevation of 524 feet. See Plate I. Fig. 6. Those who witnessed this great catastrophe from the topof Aguasarco assert that flames were seen to issue forth foran extent of more than half a square league, that fragmentsof burning rocks were thrown up to prodigious heights, andthat, through a thick cloud of ashes, illumined by the volcanicfire, the softened surface of the earth was seen to swell up likean agitated sea. The rivers of Cuitamba and San Pedro pre-cipitated themselves into the burning chasms. The decom-position of the water contributed to invigorate the flames,which were distinguishable at the city of Pascuaro, thoughsituated on a very extensive table land 1400 metres (4592 feet)elevated above the plains of las playas de Jorullo. Erup-tions of mud, and especially of strata of clay, enveloping ballsof decomposed basaltes in concentrical layers, appear to indi-cate, that subterraneous water had no small share in produc-ing this extraordinary revolution. Thousands of small cones,from two to three metres (from 6.5 feet to 9.8 feet) in height,called by the indigenes ovens (hornitos,) issued forth from the Malpays. Although within the last fifteen years, accordingto the testimony of the Indians, the heat of these volcanicovens has suffered a great diminution, I have seen the ther-mometer rise to 95° (202° of Fahrenheit) on being plunged in-to fissures which exhale an aqueous vapour. Each small coneis a fumarola, from which a thick vapour ascends to theheight of ten or fifteen metres. In many of them a subter-raneous noise is heard, which appears to announce the proxi-mity of a fluid in ebullition. In the midst of the ovens six large masses, elevated from4 to 500 metres (from 312 to 1640 feet) each above the oldlevel of the plains, sprung up from a chasm, of which the di- |53| rection is from the N.N.E. to the S.S.E. This is the phe-nomenon of the Montenovo of Naples, several times repeatedin a range of volcanic hills. The most elevated of these enor-mous masses, which bears some resemblance to the pays del’Auvergne, is the great Volcan de Jorullo. It is continuallyburning, and has thrown up from the north side an immensequantity of scorified and basaltic lavas, containing fragmentsof primitive rocks. These great eruptions of the central vol-cano continued till the month of 1760. In the followingyears they became gradually less frequent. The Indians,frightened at the horrible noises of the new volcano, abandon-ed, at first, all the villages situated within seven or eightleagues distance of the playas de Jorullo. They becamegradually, however, accustomed to this terrific spectacle; and,having returned to their cottages, they advanced towards themountains Aguasarco and Santa In̄es, to admire the streamsof fire discharged from an infinity of great and small volcanicapertures. The roofs of the houses of Queretaro were thencovered with ashes at a distance of more than 48 leagues in astraight line from the scene of the explosion. Although thesubterraneous fire now appears far from violent,* and theMalpays, and the great volcano, begin to be covered withvegetables, we, nevertheless, found the ambient air heated tosuch a degree by the action of the small ovens (hornitos,) thatthe thermometer, at a great distance from the surface, and inthe shade, rose as high as 48° (109° of Fahrenheit.) Thisfact appears to prove, that there is no exaggeration in the ac-counts of several old Indians, who affirm that, for manyyears after the first eruption, the plains of Jorullo, evenat a great distance from the scene of the explosion, wereuninhabitable, from the excessive heat which prevailed inthem. The traveller is still shown, near the Cerro de Santa In̄es,the rivers of Cuitamba and San Pedro, of which the limpid
* We found, in the bottom of the crater, the air at 116°, 130°, and139° of Fahrenheit. We passed over crevices which exhaled a sulphu-reous vapour, in which the thermometer rose to 185° Fahrenheit. The pas-sage over these crevices and heaps of scoria, which cover considerable hol-lows, render the descent into the crater very dangerous.
|54| waters formerly watered the sugar-cane plantation of Don André Pimentel. These streams disappeared in the night ofthe 29th September 1759; but, at a distance of 2000 metres(6561 feet) farther west, in the tract which was the theatreof the convulsion, two rivers are now seen bursting throughthe argillaceous vault of the hornitos, of the appearance ofmineral waters, in which the thermometer rises to 52°,7(126°,8 of Fahrenheit.) The Indians continue to give themthe names of San Pedro and Cuitamba, because, in severalparts of the Malpays, great masses of water are heard to runin the direction from east to west, from the mountains of San-ta In̄es towards l’Hacienda de la Presentacion. Near this ha-bitation there is a brook, which disengages itself from the sul-phureous hydrogen. It is more than nine yards in breadth,and is the most abundant hydro-sulphureous spring which Ihave ever seen.
The position of the new Volcana de Jorullo gives rise to avery curious geological observation. In New Spain there isa parallel of great elevations, or a narrow zone contain-ed between 18°, 59′ and 19°, 12′ of latitude, in which all thesummits of Anahuac which rise above the region of perpetualsnow are situated. These summits are either volcanoes whichstill continue to burn, or mountains which, from their form,as well as the nature of their rocks, have, in all probability,formerly contained subterraneous fire. As we recede fromthe coast of the Atlantic, we find, in a direction from east towest, the Pic d’Orizaba, the two volcanoes of la Puebla, theNevada de Toluca, the Pic de Tancitaro, and the Volcan deColima. These great elevations, in place of forming thecrest of the Cordillera of Anahuac, and following its direc-tion, which is from the south-east to the north-west, are, onthe contrary, placed on a line perpendicular to the axis of thegreat chain of mountains. It is undoubtedly worthy of ob-servation, that, in 1759, the new volcano of Jorullo was form-ed in the prolongation of that line, on the same parallel withthe ancient Mexican volcanoes! A single glance bestowed on my plan of the environs ofJorullo will prove that the six large masses rose out of theearth, in a line which runs through the plain from the Cerro |55| de las Cuevas to the Picacho del Mortero; and it is thus alsothat the bocche nove of Vesuvius are ranged along the pro-longation of a chasm. Do not these analogies entitle us tosuppose that there exists, in this part of Mexico, at a greatdepth in the interior of the earth, a chasm in a directionfrom east to west, for a length of 137 leagues, along whichthe volcanic fire, bursting through the interior crust of theporphyritical rocks, has made its appearance at differentepochas from the gulf of Mexico to the South Sea? Doesthis chasm extend to the small group of islands called by M. Collnet the archipelago of Revillagigedo, around which, inthe same parallel with the Mexican volcanoes, pumice-stonehas been seen floating? Those naturalists who make a dis-tinction between the facts which are offered us by descrip-tive geology and theoretical reveries on the primitive state ofour planet, will forgive us these general observations on thegeneral map of New Spain. Moreover, from the lake ofCuiseo, which is impregnated with muriate of soda, andwhich exhales sulphuretted hydrogen, as far as the city of Val-ladolid, for an extent of 48 square leagues, there are a greatquantity of hot wells, which generally contain only muriaticacid, without any vestiges of terreous sulphates or metallic salts.Such are the mineral waters of the Chucandiro, Cuinche, SanSebastian, and San Juan Tarraramco.

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