Word: basalt
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...underground conditions responsible for Paricutin. It lies in the "Michoacan volcanic province," dotted with old, dead craters. The whole region may be resting on a "batholith," an enormous mass of "magma" or hot, plastic rock. More likely, Paricutin gets its lava from a smaller "local chamber" of molten basalt which gnawed its way toward the surface until it finally broke through. If the underground lava supply is large enough and active enough, Paricutin may grow as tall as 17,876-ft. Popocatepetl, 200 miles to the east...
...daring, Alfred Wegener of Germany, proffered an alluring theory to explain it. According to Wegener, the interior of the earth is a thick, hot, plastic substance. The continents, in large part comparatively light granite, float on it like icebergs. Under the oceans, the earth's crust is largely basalt, which is heavier than granite and inclined to sink...
...main enclosure, 185 ft. long by 115 ft. wide, has thick walls up to 40-ft. high built of basalt columns laid crosswise, rather like the logs of a log cabin. Huge rough steps lead to a courtyard. Inside is another wall, and inside that a stone-roofed vault. The man-made islets are separated by shallow canals, some of them choked with tumbled blocks. The citadel itself is in fair condition, though so overgrown with jungle that few details are visible...
Nearest and most probable source of the stone (a "cyclopean" basalt naturally divided into columns as it cooled from molten lava) is 15 miles away by sea. The heavy masses must have been ferried across to Nanmatol on rafts or dugouts, and horsed into position by main force and primitive awkwardness...
...unselfconsciously in the brown waters. Since then he has visited the country almost every year, sketching the handsome tehuanas with their vivid costumes, necklaces of $20 gold pieces, and spectacular headloads of fruit and flowers. He has collected tribal jadeite masks and jaguar figurines, has painted the giant ancient basalt heads of La Venta, has written down the Italian-like speech of the formidable matriarchs of the market places. Result: an alluring book, rich with the Indian savor that is the best of Mexico...