BİRİNCİ FEN · ÜÇÜNCÜ BÂB · ALTINCI FASIL · Dördüncü Madde
**Article Four**
Concerning the reasons for springs to burst forth from the earth and the nature of earthquakes, it relates them with a wise style.
O esteemed one! Know that scholars (people of wisdom) have said: The causes of water bubbling up from the earth and earthquakes are as follows; when vapor forms within the earth and becomes trapped and compressed there, it is directed towards a suitable place and, as it emerges, cools and turns into water. If its quantity is small, it mixes with vapor particles and remains (not bursting forth upwards). This is how well water behaves. If its quantity is large and cannot contain itself within the earth, then it cleaves through the thin layers of the earth’s crust and rises to the surface of the earth – such are spring waters.
One cause of the formation of springs and sources is also the rainwater and snowmelt that seeps into the mountains and flows underground. For when rain and snow fall sufficiently or abundantly, springs flow vigorously, source waters are plentiful; with their decrease, the source waters diminish. Therefore, the Exalted God has made the undersides of mountains storehouses for sweet waters which flow, giving life to the earth, the elixir of life for humans and all living beings. For rainwater and snowmelt gather beneath the mountains, in caves, within stones, and in various places underground, where they are preserved. Thereafter, they are released gradually through narrow fissures, flowing as springs and rivers sufficient for His servants.
Thus, in the following winter season, rain and snow waters are again sent down upon the peaks of the mountains, and the caves and stones are once again filled with the water from the rains, replacing what has passed. The source waters that seep gradually through the narrow fissures beneath those stones reach plants, animals, and humans. The excess flows into valleys as floods, reaching the seas with a great clamor.
Thus, this Exalted Creator turns the mountains, the rain and snow waters, like a mill, to give them to the earth in the form of springs and rivers. This mill turns perpetually, continuing until the Day of Judgment.
Waters formed from gases beneath the earth or collected from rainwater begin to appear when they cannot contain themselves and start to emerge through the soft layers of the earth; it is observed that if they rise through stones or a clean earthy place, the water is cold and sweet. If they come from barren places, the water is bitter and salty. If they emerge from sulfurous land or among mines, the water is hot.
For in winter, the coldness of the air is abundant, so the heat of the sun penetrates more deeply into the earth. For two opposites do not gather in one place. Therefore, the underside of the earth is warm in winter, and sulfurous lands and hot springs retain that heat according to their scarcity or abundance.
This is why the tastes, odors, temperatures, properties, and colors of the hot spring waters bubbling up in areas where mines are located do not resemble each other but have taken on the characteristics of the nearby mines.
If cold air strikes the water bubbling up from this sulfurous land or around these mines, it solidifies and becomes mercury or pitch, oil, asphalt, or salt.
There is a spring that bubbles up between Isfahan and Shiraz – its emergence is one of God’s wondrous arts. This water, known as "the cowherd's water," has the characteristic that if locusts invade any region and destroy all their crops, if someone goes and fills a bottle with it, without looking back and without setting the bottle down, they reach the region infested by locusts; it is narrated that countless herds of cattle then come after the water and eat the locusts.
If vapor forms underground and becomes so intensely compressed (and due to the effect of this intensity) that it is possible for it to cleave through the earth’s crust, or if the layer of the earth's crust is very thick preventing the vapor from escaping, and a mass of vapor, impatient to get out, seeks a place to emerge by straining and cracking the weak spot in the soil layer with force, then that place moves. This is what is called an earthquake.
The conditions of vapor, smoke, and wind beneath the earth are like the conditions of earth vapors and smokes which have been explained. Sometimes these formations appear very powerfully and cleave the earth with such speed that they emerge with a great clamor. At other times, they become compressed mixed with various oils (petroleum, natural gas, etc.), and by their nature – while emerging from the earth – flames ignite; as it bursts forth from its confined place along with the earth, a flame appears. If fire appears in a mine, it is said to burn for days or even months until it melts and consumes it.
“Only God knows the truth, for He is also the Creator of those causes (which form the basis for all these formations).”