Mountain Rupture

“Rupture of a Mountain.—There is no doubt, but in the operations of nature, great effects are sometimes produced among mountains, by a small quantity of water finding its way to a reservoir in the crevices of the rocks far beneath. Suppose, in the interior of a mountain, there should be a space of ten yards square, and an inch deep, filled with water, and closed up on all sides; and suppose that, in the course of time, a small fissure, no more than an inch in diameter, should be openeing by the water, from the height of two hundred feet above, down to this little reservoir. The consequence might be, that the side of the mountain would burst asunder, for the pressure, under the circumstances supposed, would be equal to the weight of five thousand tons.” —Comstock, 1850

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