Volcanic Islands by Charles Darwin
page 78 of 196 (39%)
page 78 of 196 (39%)
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crevice in their centres. They stand either separately, or are united two
or three or many together into irregular groups, or more commonly into layers, parallel to the stratification of the mass. This union in many cases is so perfect, that the two sides of the layer thus formed, are quite even; and these layers, as they become less brown and opaque, cannot be distinguished from the alternating layers of the pale-coloured feldspathic stone. The sphaerulites, when not united, are generally compressed in the plane of the lamination of the mass; and in this same plane, they are often marked internally, by zones of different shades of colour, and externally by small ridges and furrows. In the upper part of Figure 6, the sphaerulites with the parallel ridges and furrows are represented on an enlarged scale, but they are not well executed; and in the lower part, their usual manner of grouping is shown. In another specimen, a thin layer formed of the brown sphaerulites closely united together, intersects, as represented in Figure 7, a layer of similar composition; and after running for a short space in a slightly curved line, again intersects it, and likewise a second layer lying a little way beneath that first intersected. The small nodules also of obsidian are sometimes externally marked with ridges and furrows, parallel to the lamination of the mass, but always less plainly than the sphaerulites. These obsidian nodules are generally angular, with their edges blunted: they are often impressed with the form of the adjoining sphaerulites, than which they are always larger; the separate nodules seldom appear to have drawn each other out by exerting a mutually attractive force. Had I not found in some cases, a distinct centre of attraction in these nodules of obsidian, I should have been led to have considered them as residuary matter, left during the formation of the pearlstone, in which they are embedded, and of the sphaerulitic globules. The sphaerulites and the little nodules of obsidian in these rocks so closely resemble, in general form and structure, concretions in sedimentary |
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