The Elements of economic geology

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 1773832379

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-172798

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Gregory, John W. http://d-nb.info/gnd/11683014X

Title:: The Elements of economic geology

Place of publication:: London

Publisher:: Methuen

Year of publication:: 1928

Scope:: XIV, 312 S.; graph. Darst.

Digitisation:: 2021

Collection:: Economics Books

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Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Part IV. Engineering geology

Collection:: Economics Books

WATER SUPPLY 221 is discharged by hot springs and volcanic eruptions, which give forth vast clouds of steam that falls as torrential rain, According to Fouquet, Etna in 1865 discharged in about three months sufficient water to fill a reservoir a square mile in area and 26 feet deep. The view that such water is all derived from rain was supported by the claim of Ehrenberg that lavas contain the shells of diatoms, and by such reports as that Cotapaxi erupted fish; but the diatoms which Ehrenberg found in lava probably reached it during the dusting of his laboratory, and the arguments from sub- terranean fish are equally invalid. Much volcanic steam is probably of plutonic origin and is added to the surface water. Mining experience shows that water is constantly arising from the interior; thus below the zone containing meteoric water there is often a thick dry belt, in which are found, as at Bendigo, the Comstock Lode, and the St. Gothard Tunnel, springs of hot deep-seated alkaline water. The chemical composition of the water from many hot springs shows that it cannot be derived from the local rocks. The objections to the existence of plutonic water were abandoned after the experience at the Simplon Tunnel. Many workmen were scalded to death by irruptions of water far hotter than was expected from the depth. Some of this water was free from sodium chloride, which is universally present in meteoric water. Sir F. Fox (Proc. Inst. Civ. Eng. clxviii, 1907, p. 77) remarked of one spring, which discharged 3036 gallons per minute of water at 114-6° F. and contained 106 grains per gallon of mineral matter, that ‘ the complete absence of chlorine is believed to be unique, and seems to indicate that the water was possibly entirely plutonic, having never been on the surface of the globe.” There is no single abso- lute chemical test to distinguish between meteoric and plu- tonic waters; water is probably plutonic if it has no or but little chlorine, or contains boric acid where there are no local borates from former volcanic eruptions, or its constituents are not those that would be derived from the adjacent rocks. The deep-seated origin of the hot springs of Carlsbad in Bohemia was suggested by Geethe and proved by Suess. These springs have been flowing for at least seven centuries, for the Emperor Carl IV was cured at them of wounds re- ceived from English archers at the battle of Crecy (1346).

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