CHAîNE DES PUYS

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.

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References

References

★ The Geology and extinct Volcanos of Central France, , George Poulett, Scrope, J. Murray, London, , (reprinted in 1978 by Arno Press)

★ Volcanoes of Europe, , Alwyn, Scarth, Oxford University Press, ,

★ Auvergne (Classic Geology in Europe 2), , Peter, Cattermole, Terra Publishing, ,

★ Global Volcanism Program: Chaîne des Puys

★ Global Volcanism Program: List of volcanoes in the Chaîne des Puys