Chaîne des Puys
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Chaîne des Puys | |
|---|---|
 View of the Chaîne des Puys from Puy-de-Dôme. |
|
| Elevation | max. 1,464 m (4,803 ft) at Puy-de-Dôme |
| Location | Auvergne, France |
| Range | Massif Central |
| Coordinates | |
| Type | cinder cones, lava domes, and maars |
| Age of rock | < 95,000 years |
| Last eruption | ca. 4040 BC |
The Chaîne des Puys is a north-south chain of cinder cones, lava domes, and maars in the Massif Central of France. The chain is about 40 km (25 mi) long, and the identified volcanic features include 48 cinder cones, 8 lava domes, and 15 maars and explosion craters. Its highest point is the lava dome of Puy-de-Dôme, located near the middle of the chain.
The chain is famous in the history of volcanology, as it was the subject of the pioneering research of English geologist George Julius Poulett Scrope starting in the 1820s. In 1827 he published his classic Memoir on the Geology of Central France, including the Volcanic formations of Auvergne, the Velay and the Vivarais, which was later re-published in a revised and somewhat more popular form in The Geology and extinct Volcanos of Central France in 1858. These books were the first widely published descriptions of the Chaîne des Puys, and the analysis therein laid the foundation for many of the basic principles of volcanology.
[edit] References
- Scrope, George Poulett (1858). The Geology and extinct Volcanos of Central France. J. Murray, London, 258 pp. ISBN 0405104596. (reprinted in 1978 by Arno Press)
- Scarth, Alwyn; Tanguy, Jean-Claude (2001). Volcanoes of Europe. Oxford University Press, 243 pp. ISBN 0-19-521754-3.
- Cattermole, Peter (2001). Auvergne (Classic Geology in Europe 2). Terra Publishing, 176 pp. ISBN 1-903544-05-X.
- Smithsonian Institution Global Volcanism Program: Chaîne des Puys
- Smithsonian Institution Global Volcanism Program: Chaîne des Puys list of subfeatures
