Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 January 1885 — Strange Geological Formations. [ARTICLE]

Strange Geological Formations.

Capt €L E. Dutton, of tbe Washington Geological Survey, hg£ been studying some remarkable relics of ancient volcanic action in the northwestern portions,of New Mexico. They consist of a multitude of needle-like peaks rising out es the brood valley bottoms to altitudes varying from 1,000 to 2,000 feet. They are composed of black basaltic lava, having a beautiful columnar structure like the basalt of the Giant’s Causeway. They are remnants of lava which once rose up ont of the earth through the strata and congealed in the volcanio pipes or vents. In later periods the strata which inclosed them have been dissolved away and removed by the geueral erosion of the country, leaving these basaltio cores projecting many hundreds of feet in the air, as casts the yolcanic pipes or passages through which the anoient towers rose to the surface. York Sun.