Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
While artists expressed an immediate sense of wonder at
the violence and beauty of volcanoes, scientists climbed up them
to take measurements. The young Michael Faraday (1791-1867)
wrote excitedly about climbing Vesuvius with his teacher Sir
Humphry Davy in May 1814. At the summit Faraday found that
the volume of smoke and flame appeared immense, and the
scene was fearfully grand . . . at times we could see the flames
breaking out from a large orifice with extraordinary force,
and the smoke and vapour ascending in enormous clouds;
and when silence was made the roaring of the flames came
fearfully over the ear . . . I incautiously remained to collect
some of the substances, and was then obliged to run over
the lava, to the great danger of my legs.¹9
On a return visit in March 1815 Faraday was even more
reckless as the mountain shivered and shook:
I heard the roar of the fire and at moments felt the agitation
and shakings of the mountain but . . . [we] went forward
and we descended some rocks of lava and proceeded onwards
towards the very edge of the crater leaping from one point to
another being careful not to slip not only to avoid the general
inconveniences of a fall but the being burnt also for at the
bottom of the cavity the heat was in general very great . . .
The ground was in continual motion and the explosions
were continual . . . then might be seen rising high in the
air numbers of redhot stones and pieces of lava which at
times came so near as to threaten us with a blow.²0
The courage of these early scientists was extraordinary and
unnerving. So cool were they that this party fried eggs on a piece
of lava, ate a hearty lunch and sang 'God Save the King' as
earthquakes made the mountain shake like jelly.
The scientist and writer Mary Somerville (1780-1872) got as
close to Vesuvius in fact and in artistic expression as any artist of
her generation. She had been lulled into a sense of false security
