Show NEED CAUSE LITTLE ALARM eruption of miniature volcanoes aas ily accounted for recently reports were printed in va rious california newspapers to the ef feet that a volcano had burst forth in one of the canyons of the santa mon lea mo near los angeles the point at which the pseudo volcano broke rut is about yards from the pacific ocean and 12 miles from the city of los angeles here sulphurous smoke rises from a little mound of ml ocene shale and a few inches below the surface the ground is red hot char ring or even setting fire to stick thrust into it the scientific american says of the phenomenon throughout this region oil bearing are found near the surface and the soil is soaked with petroleum the shale may have ignited spontaneously 1 or a fire set by campers may have started the combustion in any case the phenomenon js accounted for aas ly aitho it decou se to the theo ry of a volcanic eruption reports of s milar incidents in this region have been traced to fires in oil bearing strata no serious 1 arm has resulted from the flies as tie nearest oil pro wells are at least ten miles away recently the e accounts acco ints in some french papers of an eruption in an abandoned mine shaft and some years ago it was stated that there was an active crater on the top of an al p ne peak the burning shaft pro deuced a highly creditable imitation of an acthen loacano great heavy clouds of black smoke rising from it and a fine warm dust falling on the sur founding houses and fields followed by flames and stone rained on the dwell the inhabitants in terror took flight but an investigation proved that the pseudo volcanic eruption had been caused by an explosion of firedamp in the shaft the basis for the story of an active volcano on the alpine peak was a fire on a lower moun tain |