Hawai`i and Its Volcanoes
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Hawaii and Its Volcanoes by Charles H. Hitchcock, LL.D. of Dartmouth College EARTH SCIENCES LIBRARY, COPYRIGHT, 1909 BY THE HAWAIIAN GAZETTE Co., LTD PART 2: The History of the Exploration of Mauna Loa CONTENTS:
Mauna Loa The First Known Attempt to Ascend Mauna Loa Mokuaweoweo Between 1832 And 1843 The Wilkes Party Upon Mauna Loa The Eruption of 1852, described in verse by Titus Coan Eruption of March, 1852, by J. Fuller This term is applied to an immense dome seventy-four by fifty three miles in its two diameters as measured at the sea level, and 13,650 feet in altitude. Its mass extends downwards more than 16,000 feet farther to the level of the submarine plain at the bottom of the sea upon which the whole Hawaiian Archipelago is situated. That would be a cone 30,000 feet in height and as much as a hundred miles wide within which are one or more conduits leading to the reservoir of lava which supplied the material for the various eruptions. It is probable that the cone may rest upon sediments of Tertiary age, like the sister island of Oahu. The first word is equivalent to Mount, and the second signifies great or long. Some authors prefer to say Mount Loa rather than Mauna Loa. The natives call the caldera at the summit Mokuaweoweo. The great dome, so far as can be judged, is composed of overlapping sheets of basalt, both aa and pahoehoe. Those at the surface are of known age, or certainly younger than those that are deep seated. There are no large canyons upon its surface produced by the erosion of streams, because the deposition of the sheets is so recent. Above 10,000 feet there is scarcely any vegetation. The expanse is entirely composed of basalt showing evidences of many interlacing streams of lava. The surface is nearly level for the extent of four or five square miles. Mr. Ellis who explored Hawaii in 1823 has nothing to say of Mokuaweoweo, while he writes fully of Kilauea. Pele is located definitely at Kilauea. I have not yet discovered any native traditions respecting eruptions from the larger volcano. It may be that the earlier explorers were not aware of the character of Mauna Loa. Ellis represents it as covered by snow throughout the year. It is uninhabitable, and therefore its eruptions would not usually be fraught with disaster to the inhabitants, and thus would be scarcely mentioned in the traditions. When Hawai`i shall have been studied carefully it will be possible to give the sequence of several pre-historic eruptions. One of these is Keamoku, an expanse on the north side of the mountain adjacent to and underlying the flow of 1843. The fact that it is distinguished upon the Government map indicates that the surveyors were impressed by its recency. It starts from the cone of Kokoolau 8,000 feet high, and terminates at the altitude of 3,000 feet at the hill whose name is now applied distinctively to the flow itself. Its area is very much the same with that of the well known eruption of 1843, extending down hill for twenty-one miles, the first third of the way proceeding due north, and then to the northwest. The area of 1843 laps over the edge of Keamoku. I find very nearly the same name applied to an aa flow on the opposite side of the mountain, along which the new Kau Volcano road runs for several miles. This is supposed to be connected with a broad stream starting just below Puu Ulaula seven miles east of Mokuaweoweo. Upon most of the maps this stream is represented to have the date of 1823, and to have been connected with the discharge from Kilauea of that date, described by Mr. Ellis. This gentleman, however, makes no allusion to the existence of any recent stream descending from Puu Ulaula in that year, nor does he have anything to say about eruptions from Mauna Loa. Back to Contents
Early Historic Eruptions The first considerable knowledge of the Hawaiian Islands was acquired by Captain Cook in 1778-9. From the narrative illustrative of this expedition I find the following description of the features of a part of Hawaii, which all who are familiar with the island will recognize as truthful. "The 13 coasts of Kaoo present a prospect of the most horrid and dreary kind, the whole country appearing to have undergone a total change from the effects of some dreadful convulsion. The ground is everywhere covered with cinders, and intersected in many places with black streaks, which seem to mark the course of a lava that has flowed, not many ages back, from the mountain Roa to the shore. The southern promontory looks like the mere dregs of a volcano. The projecting headland is composed of broken and craggy rocks, piled irregularly on one another and terminating in sharp points." Back to Contents The First Known Attempt to Ascend Mauna Loa John Ledyard, the famous traveler, was one of the seamen of Captain Cook's party in 1779 when they were anchored off Kealakekua. I will quote the greater part of his narrative from A Journal of Captain Cook's last voyage to the Pacific Ocean and in quest of a northwest passage between Asia and America. Printed and sold by Nathaniel Patton, Hartford, Conn., 1783, On the 26th of January I sent a billet on board to Cook, desiring his permission to make an excursion into the interior parts of the country, proposing, if practicable, to reach the famous peak that terminated the height of the island. My proposal was not only granted, but promoted by Cook, who very much wanted some information respecting that part of the island, particularly the peak, the tip of which is generally covered with snow and had excited great curiosity. He desired the gunner of the Resolution, the botanist sent out by Mr. Banks and Mr. Simeon Woodruff, to be of the party. He also procured us some attendants among the natives to assist us in carrying our baggage and directing us through the woods. It required some prudence to make a good equipment for this tour, for though we had the full heat of a tropical sun near the margin of the island, we knew we should experience a different temperament in the air the higher we advanced towards the peak, and that the transition would be sudden, if not extreme. We therefore took each of us a woolen blanket, and in general made some alteration in our dress, and we each took a bottle of brandy. Among the natives who were to attend us was a young chief whose name was O'Crany and two youths from among the commonalty. Our course lay eastward and northward from the town, and about two o'clock in the afternoon we set out. When we had got without the town, we met an old acquaintance of mine (who ought indeed to have been mentioned before). He was a middle aged man, and belonged to the order of their Mida or priesthood, his name was Kunneava. We saluted each other, and the old man asked with much impatient curiosity where we were going; when we had informed him he disapproved of our intention, told us that we could not go as far as we had proposed, and would have persuaded us to return; but finding we were determined in our resolves, he turned and accompanied us; about two miles without the town the land was level, and continued of one plain of little enclosures separated from each other by low broad walls. Whether this circumstance denoted separate property, or was done only to dispense with the lava that overspread the surface of the country, and of which the walls were composed, I cannot say, but probably it denotes a distinct possession. Some of these fields were planted, and others by their appearance were left fallow. In some we saw the natives collecting the coarse grass that had grown upon it during the time it had lain unimproved, and burning it in detached heaps. The sweet potatoes are mostly raised here, and indeed are the principal object of their agriculture, but it requires an infinite deal of toil on account of the quantity of lava that remains on the land, notwithstanding what is used about the walls to come at the soil, and besides they have no implements of husbandry that we could make use of had the ground been free from the lava. If anything can recompense their labor it must be an exuberant soil, and a beneficent climate. We saw a few patches of sugar cane interspersed in moist places, which were but small. But the cane was the largest and as sweet as any we had ever seen; we also passed several groups of plantain trees. These enclosed plantations extended about three miles from the town, near the back of which they commenced and were succeeded by what we called the open plantations. Here the land began to rise with a gentle ascent that continued about one mile, when it became abruptly steep. These were the plantations that contained the breadfruit trees. After leaving the breadfruit forests we continued up the ascent to the distance of a mile and a half further, and found the land there covered with wild fern, among which our botanist found a new species. It was now near sundown, and being upon the skirts of these woods that so remarkably surrounded this island at a uniform distance of four or five miles from the shore, we concluded to halt, especially as there was a hut hard by that would afford us a better retreat during the night than what we might expect if we proceeded. When we reached the hut we found it inhabited by an elderly man, his wife and daughter, the emblem of innocent uninstructed beauty. They were somewhat discomposed at our appearance and equipment, and would have left their house through fear had not the Indians (natives) who accompanied us persuaded them otherwise, and at last reconciled them to us. We sat down together before the door, and from the height of the situation we had a complete retrospective view of our route, of the town, of part of the bay and one of our ships, besides an extensive prospect on the ocean, and a distant view of three of the neighboring islands. It was exquisitely entertaining. Nature had bestowed her graces with her usual negligent sublimity. The town of Kireekakooa and our ship in the bay created the contrast of art as well as the cultivated ground below, and as every object was partly a novelty it transported as well as convinced. As we had proposed remaining at this hut the night, and being willing to preserve what provisions we had ready dressed, we purchased a little pig and had him dressed by our host who rinding his account in his visitants bestirred himself and soon had it ready. After supper we had some of our brandy diluted with the mountain water, and we had so long been confined to the poor brackish water at the bay below that it was a kind of nectar to us. As soon as the sun set we found a considerable difference in the state of the air. At night a heavy dew fell and we felt it very chilly and had recourse to our blankets notwithstanding we were in the hut. The next morning when we came to enter the woods we found there had been a heavy rain though none of it had approached us notwithstanding we were within 200 yards of the skirts of the forest. And it seemed to be a matter of fact both from the information of the natives and our own observations that neither the rains or the dews descended lower than where the woods terminated, unless at the equinoxes or some periodical conjuncture, by which means the space between the woods and the shores were rendered warm and fit for the purposes of culture, and the sublimated vegetation of tropical productions. We traversed these woods by a compass keeping a direct course for the peak, and was so happy the first day as to find a foot-path that trended nearly our due course by which means we traveled by estimation about 15 miles, and though it was no extraordinary march had circumstances been different, yet as we found them, we thought it a very great one for it was not only exceedingly miry and rough but the way was mostly an ascent, and we had been unused to walking, and especially to carrying such loads as we had. Our Indian companions were much more fatigued than we were, though they had nothing to carry, and what displeased us very much would not carry anything. The occasional delays of our botanical researches delayed us something. The sun had not set when we halted yet meeting with a situation that pleased us, and not being limited as to time we spent the remaining part of the day as humour dictated, some botanizing and those who had fowling pieces with them in shooting; for my part I could not but think the present appearance of our encampment claimed a part of our attention, and therefore set about some alterations and amendments. It was the trunk of a tree that had fell by the side of the path and lay with one end transversely over another tree that had fallen before in an opposite direction, and as it measured 22 feet in circumference and lay 4 feet from, the ground, it afforded very good shelter except at the sides which defect I supplied by large pieces of bark and a good quantity of boughs which rendered it very commodious, and we slept the night under it much better than we had done the preceding, notwithstanding there was a heavy dew and the air cold; the next morning we set out in good spirits hoping that day to reach the snowy peak, but we had not gone a mile forward before the path that had hitherto so much facilitated our progress began not only to take a direction southward of west but had been so little frequented as to be almost effaced. In this situation we consulted our Indian convoy, but to no purpose. We then advised among ourselves and at length concluded to proceed by the nearest rout without any beaten track, and went in this manner about 4 miles further finding the way even more steep and rough than we had yet experienced, but above all impeded by such impenetrable thickets as would render it impossible for us to proceed any further. We therefore abandoned our design and returning in our own track reached the retreat we had improved the last night, having been the whole day in walking about 10 miles, and had been very assiduous too. We found the country here as well as at the seashore universally overspread with lava, and also saw several subterranean excavations that had every appearance of past eruption and fire. The next day about two o'clock in the afternoon we cleared the woods by our old rout, and by six o'clock reached the tents, having penetrated about 24 miles and we supposed within II of the peak. Our Indians were extremely fatigued though they had no baggage, and we were well convinced that though like the stag and the lion they appear fit for expedition and toil, yet like those animals they are fit for neither, while the humbly mule will persevere in both. According to an attitude of the quadrant, the Peak of Owyhee is 35 miles distant from the surface of the water, and its perpendicular elevation nearly 2 miles. The island is exactly 90 leagues in circumference, is very nearly of a circular form, and rises on all sides in a moderate and pretty uniform ascent from the water to the Peak, which is sharp and caped, as I have before observed, with snow, which seems to be a new circumstance, and among us not altogether accounted for. As a truth and a phenomenon in natural philosophy I leave it to the world. Owyhee has every appearance in nature to suppose it once to have been a volcano. Its height, magnitude, shape and perhaps its situation indicate not only that, but that its original formation was effected by such a cause. The eastern side of the island is one continued bed of lava from the summit to the sea, and under the sea is 50 fathoms water some distance from the shore; and this side of the island utterly barren and devoid of even a single shrub. But there is no tradition among the inhabitants of any such circumstance. Back to ContentsVancouver's Exploration The next English expedition to the Hawaiian Islands after the death of Captain Cook was that commanded by George Vancouver in the year 1793-4, published in 1798. Vancouver had visited the islands before, having been connected with the staff of Captain Cook. King George the Third commissioned him to explore distant lands for a term of four years and to aid, so far as possible, in the improvement of the early nationalities. Thus he was the agent of the importation of domestic cattle into Hawaii. The Hawaiian King placed a kapu upon them for ten years, which proved effectual for their continuance. At the present date it is possible to obtain descendants of these early cattle just as lions and elephants may be hunted in Africa. Sheep were also turned loose in the forests by Vancouver, but they did not survive long because they were hunted down by dogs. Other domestic animals that have reverted to the wild state are swine, horses, dogs, poultry and turkeys. Upon the eleventh of January, 1794, Vancouver observed columns of smoke arising from Kilauea, which were recognized as volcanic exhalations. After reaching the anchorage of Karakakooa parties were organized to explore the interior, under the direction of Archibald Menzies, the distinguished botanist. They first ascended Hualalai, or Worroway, which they found to be a volcano over 8,000 feet high, with several small well defined craters upon its summit, which were figured in the narrative. A second trip penetrated the forest between Hualalai and Mauna Loa for a distance of sixteen miles. Finally the successful attempt was made to ascend Mauna Loa. Vancouver did not present the results of this trip in his narrative, for some unexplained reason. Being fully persuaded that the manuscript account of this exploration must be in existence, I authorized Dr. Henry Woodward, the well known English geologist, to search for it in London, and through his efforts have come into possession of a copy. Because of its great value as a record of the first attempt to climb this mountain by Europeans, and of the condition of the volcano at that time, it is herewith presented in full. Back to Contents Archibald Menzies' Journal
Other Statements The natives of Captain Wilkes' party in 1841 stated that there had been an eruption from the north Pohaku o Hanalei sixty years earlier, or about 1780. This accords with the specific statement of Keaweehu the bird catcher and guide who said there had been an eruption upon the mountain shortly after the death of Captain Cook. John Turnbull in his narrative of a voyage around the world from 1800 to 1804, says that as he was leaving Karakakooa, January 21, 1803, he had a full view of some eruptions from the volcanic center of the island of Owhyhee. This must have been upon the west or north side of Mokuaweoweo. He adds that "many parts of the surface of the island are covered with lava, calcined stones, black dust and ashes emitted by former eruptions." An indefinite statement was made by G. Poulett Scrope in his classic work upon volcanoes published in 1825. Upon his map he colors the Hawaiian Archipelago as volcanic: he says nothing of the observations of Ellis which were the only testimony from observations made on the island before that date; but remarks that navigators in the Pacific Ocean had seen lava flowing down the sides of Mauna Loa. Whether he made reference to the two instances quoted cannot be proved. It is very probable that Mokuaweoweo showed less activity after 1780 and before 1832 than in the decades since. Back to Contents Mokuaweoweo Between 1832 And 1843 Rev. Joseph Goodrich is authority for the statement that lava flowed from several vents about the summit on June 20, 1832. Light was observed from Lahaina on Maui, a hundred miles to the northwest. Lava was seen coming out of the sides of the mountain in different places. Discharges of red hot lava were seen on every side of the mountain. This would seem to indicate that these flows were like all the later ones, not from the summit, but from some weak spot lower down. The reflection of fire upon the clouds at the first was probably regarded as evidence of a flow from the summit. Earthquakes were noted on Hawaii during the summer and quite an important display of activity was manifested at Kilauea, probably a few months earlier (Jan. 12). The impression prevails that these eruptions from Mokuaweoweo and Kilauea were simultaneous; and to reach this conclusion we must believe that the writing Jan. was a printer's error for June, in the account of Kilauea. The records are meagre with respect to the location of this flow. The Government map shows a small area upon the south side of the caldera, and close to it, with the label of 1832. I have questioned everybody as to the authority for this representation, and no one connected with the Survey can give the information. Our doubt respecting this reference comes from the unusual position immediately adjacent to Mokuaweoweo. None of the eruptions on record later are so situated; they are lower down. Mr. Green refers its altitude to 13,000 feet in a table, but makes no remark concerning it in his text. The light was seen at Lahaina by Mr. Goodrich. That might have been the illumination always seen at the beginning of every flow. If the discharge was upon the south side it would not be very conspicuous from Maui. Mr. E. D. Baldwin suggests that there is a flow of recent lava, judging from its appearance, just inside o the great prehistoric Keamuku flow, arising near the beginning of the 1852 stream, which would have been visible from Lahaina, and might possibly have been erupted at this time. Keamoku is also well situated to answer the conditions even better, should the flow have been sufficiently recent. In 1834 the summit was visited by Dr. David Douglas, an exploring naturalist. Some of his statements have been discredited because of apparent exaggeration of the terrific activity of Mokuaweoweo. He used instruments for the determination of altitudes and areas. He represented that there were great chasms in the pit that he could not fathom, even with a good glass when the air was clear. Upon the east side he used a line and plummet, and obtained the figure of 1,270 feet for the height of the precipice. The southern part of the crater presented an old looking lava. He heard hissing sounds apparently connected with internal fire. The greatest portion of this huge dome was said to be a gigantic mass of slag, scoriae and ashes. Dr. Douglas lost his life shortly after his return from Mokuaweoweo. As his remains were found in a pit where wild cattle were entrapped it was supposed at first that he had accidentally fallen into it and was gored to death; but recently it has been ascertained that he had been thrown into this pit Jan. 27, 1834, by a bullock hunter named Ned Gurney, an Australian convict. This statement comes from Bolabola, an Hawaiian who was ten years old at the time of the homicide. He and his parents were intimidated by Gurney, so that fifty or sixty years passed before he was willing to testify to the nature of the transaction. S. E. Bishop says of this locality: In March, 1836, I looked into the pit where David Douglas perished. It was close to the inland trail from Waimea to Laupahoehoe, on the N. N. E. side of Mauna Kea, ten or fifteen miles northwest of Laupahoehoe and in the woods. Back to ContentsThe Wilkes Party Upon Mauna Loa The most elaborate attempt to take observations upon Mauna Loa was that of the United States exploring expedition in 1840-41. Captain Wilkes, the officer in command of the expedition, wished to apply the best apparatus of his time for the determination of geodetic positions and altitudes besides observing the volcanic phenomena and mapping the country. His ship anchored at Hilo. The party started December 14, 1840, and the last of them returned to Hilo, Jan. 23, 1841, making an absence of fortytwo days. Twenty-eight days were spent upon Mauna Loa; six days were required to make the ascent and two for the descent to Kilauea. At the beginning the company was to be compared to a caravan. It consisted of two hundred bearers of burdens, forty hogs, a bullock and bullock hunter, fifty bearers of poi, twentyfive with calabashes of different shapes and sizes, from six inches to two feet in diameter. Some of the bearers carried the scientific apparatus, others parts of the house to be erected on the summit, tents, knapsacks and culinary utensils. There were lame horses and as many hangers on as there were laborers. The natives moved under the direction of Dr. G. P. Judd, without whose help the expedition would have been a failure. After the start thirty more natives were added to the company so as to equalize the burdens. After passing Kilauea the number of the party was somewhat reduced, but there were still three hundred persons in all to be provided with food and water. Sickness and accidents led to the establishment of the Recruiting Station or hospital at the altitude of 9,745 feet. All the party experienced more or less of mountain sickness. The final encampment was on the edge of the pit of Mokuaweoweo, and the party suffered much from the inclement weather. There were a dozen separate tents and houses, all surrounded by a high stone wall. These are shown in Plate16A. Fifty men were detailed from the vessel to complete the undertaking. The serviceable natives returned down the mountain after the necessary articles had been brought up, and came back after the termination of the observations in order to transport this valuable apparatus back to the ship.
The following facts were stated about the mountain: Its whole area was of lava, chiefly of very ancient date, rough and seemingly indestructible, made up of streams that had flowed from the central vents for many ages. Both pahoehoe and clinkers (aa) abounded. Wilkes concluded that the clinkers were formed in the great pit where they were broken and afterwards ejected with the more fluid material. Their progress would have continued till the increased bulk and attendant friction arrested the stream. Pahoehoe seemed to have flowed from the clinker masses that had been stranded. The crater was likened to an immense caldron, boiling over the rim, and discharging the molten mass and scoria which had floated on its top.
From the plan of Mokuaweoweo as given by Wilkes, Plate I7A, the following points may be made. The central part is the deepest, seven hundred and eighty-four feet by the west bank and four hundred and seventy feet by the east. This part is 9,000 feet in diameter nearly circular. The bottom is flat, with ridges from ten to fifty feet high, alternating with deep chasms and pahoehoe. Skirting this pit on both the north and south sides are lunate platforms apparently two-thirds as high as the summit rim, both together having an area perhaps half that of the main depression, and their outer rims coincide with the outline of the whole caldera. Just outside of both are smaller pits, the northern one two hundred feet and the southern nearly three hundred feet in diameter. The last has the name of Pohaku o Hanalei from Wilkes, showing seventy layers of basalt in the walls, and a cooled stream of lava that came from the larger crater. A smaller pit-crater is mapped to the south. There are many deep fissures about these pits and the lava has a very fresh appearance, being suggestive of obsidian. From the Pohaku o Hanalei a great steam crack points southerly. The highest point in the rim is opposite the encampment, with the altitude of 13,780 feet, three hundred and forty feet higher than at the station, which had the name of Pendulum Peak. Mauna Kea proved to be one hundred and ninety-three feet higher than Mauna Loa. Water boiled at 187° F. at Pendulum Peak. For some reason the main axis of Mokuaweoweo was placed at N. and S. instead of N. 26 E. It differed from Kilauea in the absence of a black ledge and a boiling lake and the evidences of heat were scant. There was one cinder cone at least upon the floor. Sodium and calcium sulphates, magnesium and calcium carbonates, ammonium sulphates and sulphurous gases were met with in the pit. The clinkers were compared to the scoriae from a foundry, in size from one to ten feet square, armed on all sides with sharp points. The fragments are loose with a considerable quantity of the vitreous lava mixed with them. As to origin, both the smooth and rough varieties are conceived to have been ejected in a fluid state from the terminal (summit) crater. The "clinkers" are seldom found in heaps, but lie extended in beds for miles in length, sometimes a mile wide, and occasionally raised from ten to twenty feet above the general slope of the mountain. The "clinkers" were formed in the crater itself, broken up by contending forces, ejected with the more fluid lava, which carried it down the mountain slope until arrested by the accumulating weight or by the excessive friction. They were streams of lava: and this opinion was fortified by the observation that pahoehoe came out from underneath the masses of clinkers wherever they had stopped. The crater was an immense caldron boiling over the rim. No facts are presented in favor of this view, and the idea was evidently borrowed from the conception of what a volcano should be. There had been no signal eruption previous to 1840 when the characteristic stream flows of this mountain had been developed. Back to ContentsEruption of 1843 According to Dr. Andrews, smoke was first seen from Hilo above the summit, January 9th. The next night a brilliant light appeared above the summit like a beacon fire. By day great volumes of smoke were poured forth, and for a week there was a fire by night. The summit fire was then transferred to a point near the ridge leading towards Hilo about 11,000 feet high. The lava flowed from two craters toward Mauna Kea, according to Mr. Coan, who ascended to the source of the flow. It was supposed at first that the eruption was an overflow from' the summit: this was before the behavior of the flows from very high up the mountain was understood. The lava spread out broadly from about the altitude of 11,000 feet to the base of the dome, and then rolled in a northwesterly direction towards Kawaihae more than sixteen miles. The lowest point of the stream in the saddle between Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea was near Kalaieha or the Humuula sheep station. Though so stated by Mr. Coan, the map does not indicate that a branch of the stream was directed toward Hilo. The greatest width of the stream was four and a half miles. The beginning of the outflow was less than a mile and a half from Pohaku Hanalei. It trespassed slightly upon the Keamoku flow, which started from Kokoolau at an unknown period and moved twenty miles to the Trig, station Keamoku, from 7,800 to 3,300 feet altitude. After the refrigeration of the surface of the lava, the melted material continued to flow under cover for more than six weeks. The angle of descent for the whole distance is six degrees, but occasionally there were steep pitches of twenty-five degrees. Large stones thrown upon the surface did not sink but were rapidly transported downwards and lost to sight. Mounds, ridges and cones were thrown up, from which steam, gases and hot stones were thrown. On March 6th snow was found upon the summit. During this eruption there was no sign of sympathy with it at Kilauea. From a native newspaper, Ka Hae Hawaii (The Hawaiian Banner), Rev. W. D. Westervelt has made the following translation of an account of the eruption of 1843, m tne Paradise of the Pacific, November, 1908. The eruption of January 10, 1843, was described by Mr. Coan. In the morning while it was still entirely dark a small flame of Pele fire was seen on the summit of Mauna Loa, on the northeastern shoulder of the mountain. Soon afterward the fire opened another door and the lava rushed down the side directly opposite Mauna Kea. Two 'branches were pouring forth lava, filling the place between the two mountains, covering it with fire like the spreading out of an ocean. One branch went toward the foothills of Hualalai and the other toward Mauna Kea until the flow came to the foot of the mountain, when it divided, one part going toward Waimea and one toward Hilo. Four weeks this eruption continued without cessation. The fires could not come to the sea coast, but filled up the low places of the mountain and spread out all over the different plains. Then it was imprisoned. Brilliant fires were noted at the summit in May, 1849, after the unusual activity in Kilauea. These lasted for two or three weeks, but there was no evidence of accompanying earthquakes or discharge of lava. Back to ContentsMokuaweoweo in 1851 There was a small flow on the west side of the summit commencing August 8, 1851. The smoke and fire were visible at Hilo. From Kona the light was gorgeous and glorious. Detonations were heard during the eruption, like the explosion of gases or rending of rocks. According to Professor Brigham, who visited the site in 1864, the starting point was 1,000 feet below the summit or two hundred feet below the floor of the caldera. The stream was ten miles long and less than a mile in width. Most of the lava was pahoehoe, with some aa, and seemed to have cooled rapidly. The course was westward, following very closely an earlier prehistoric flow reaching down to Kealakeakua. The eruption continued but three or four days. Back to Contents Eruption of 1852 The preceding eruption was really the opening scene of a fine exhibition six months later which started on the north side of the mountain, February i7th. On February 2Oth, the chief flow had shifted to another place about 10,000 feet above the sea level. The escaping lava rose at first in a lofty fountain, and then flowed easterly twenty miles. I quote quite extensively from Mr. Coan; Amer. Jour. Science, 1852. "At half past three on the morning of the I7th ultimo, a small beacon light was discovered on the summit of Mauna Loa. At first it appeared like a solitary star resting on the apex of the mountain. In a few moments its light increased and shone like a rising moon. Seamen keeping watch on deck in our port exclaimed: 'What is that? The moon is rising in the West!' In fifteen minutes the problem was solved. A flood of fire burst out of the mountain and soon began to flow in a brilliant current down its northern slope. It was from the same point, and it flowed in the same line as the great eruption which I visited in March, 1843. In a short time immense columns of burning lava shot up heavenward to the height of three or four hundred feet, flooding the summit of the mountain with light and gilding the firmament with its radiance. Streams of light came pouring down the mountain, flashing through our windows and lighting up our apartments so that we could see to read large print. When we first awoke, so dazzling was the glare on our windows that we supposed some building near us must be on fire; but as the light shone directly upon our couch and into our faces we soon perceived its cause. In two hours the molten stream had rolled, as we judged, about fifteen miles down the side of the mountain. This eruption was one of terrible activity and surpassing splendor, but it was short. In about twenty-four hours all traces of it seemed to be extinguished. "At daybreak on the 2Oth of February, we were again startled by a rapid eruption bursting out laterally on the side of the mountain facing Hilo, and about midway from the base to the summit of the mountain. This lateral crater was equally active with the one on the summit, and in a short time we perceived the molten river flowing from its orifice direct towards Hilo. The action became more and more fierce from hour to hour. Floods of lava poured out of the mountain's side, and the glowing river soon reached the woods at the base of the mountain, a distance of twenty miles. "Clouds of smoke ascended and hung like a vast canopy over the mountain, or rolled off upon the wings of the wind. These clouds assumed various hues murky, blue, white, purple or scarlet as they were more or less illuminated from the fiery abyss below. Sometimes they resembled an inverted burning mountain with its apex pointing to the awful orifice over which it hung. Sometimes the glowing pillar would shoot up vertically for several degrees, and then describing a graceful curve, sweep off horizontally, like the tail of a comet, further than the eye could reach. The sable atmosphere of Hilo assumed a lurid appearance, and the sun's rays fell upon us with a yellow, sickly light. Clouds of smoke careered over the ocean, carrying with them ashes, cinders, charred leaves, etc., which fell in showers upon the decks of ships approaching our coast. The light was seen more than a hundred miles at sea, and at times the purple tinge was so widely diffused as to appear like the whole firmament on fire. Ashes and capillary vitrifactions called Tele's hair' fell thick in our streets and upon the roofs of our houses. And this state of things still continues, for even now (March 5th) while I write, the atmosphere is in the same yellow and dingy condition; every object looks pale, and sickly showers of vitreous filaments are falling around us, and our children are gathering them. "As soon as the second eruption broke out I determined to visit it. Dr. Wetmore agreeing to accompany me, we procured four natives to carry our baggage, one of them, Kekai, acting as guide. On Monday, the 23d of February, we all set off and slept in the outskirts of the great forest which separates Hilo from the mountains. Our track was not the one I took in 1843, namely, the bed of a river; we attempted to penetrate the thicket at another point, our general course bearing southwest." Without specifying matters relating to the party and circumstances, I quote the text farther on: "At half past three P. M. I reached the awful crater and stood alone in the light of its fires. It was a moment of unutterable interest. I seemed to be standing in the presence and before the throne of the eternal God, and while all other voices were hushed His alone spoke. I was 10,000 feet above the sea, in a vast solitude untrodden by the foot of man or beast; amidst a silence unbroken by any living voice, and surrounded by scenes of terrific desolation. Here I stood almost blinded by the insufferable brightness; almost deafened with the startling clangor; almost petrified with the awful scene. The heat was so intense that the crater could not be approached within forty or fifty yards on the windward side, and probably not within two miles on the leeward. The eruption, as before stated, commenced on the very summit of the mountain, but it would seem that the lateral pressure of the embowelled lava was so great as to force itself out at a weaker point in the side of the mountain, at the same time cracking and rending the mountain all the way down from the summit to the place of ejection. The mountain seemed to be siphunculated; the fountain of fusion being elevated some two or three thousand feet above the lateral crater, and being pressed down an inclined subterranean tube, escaped through this valve with a force which threw its burning masses to the height of four or five hundred feet. The eruption first issued from a depression in the mountain, but a rim of scoriae two hundred feet in elevation had already been formed around the orifice in the form of a hollow truncated cone. This cone was about half a mile in circumference at its base, and the orifice at the top may be three hundred feet in diameter. I approached as near as I could bear the heat, and stood amidst the ashes, cinders, scoriae, slag and pumice, which were scattered wide and wildly around. From the horrid throat of this cone vast and continuous jets of red-hot and sometimes white-hot lava were being ejected with a noise that was almost deafening, and a force which threatened to rend the rocky ribs of the mountain and to shiver its adamantine pillars. At times the sound seemed subterranean, deep and infernal. First, a rumbling, a muttering, a hissing or deep premonitory surging; then followed an awful explosion, like the roar of broadsides in a naval battle, or the quick discharge of pack after pack of artillery on the field of carnage. Sometimes the sound resembled that of 10,000 furnaces in full blast. Again it was like the rattling of a regiment of musketry; sometimes it was like the roar of the ocean along a rock-bound shore; and sometimes like the booming of distant thunder. The detonations were heard along the shores of Hilo. The eruptions were not intermittent, but continuous. Volumes of the fusion were constantly ascending and descending like a jet d'eau. The force which expelled these igneous columns from the orifice shivered them into millions of fragments of unequal size, some of which would be rising, some falling, some shooting off laterally, others describing graceful curves; some moving in tangents, and some falling back in vertical lines into the mouth of the crater. Every particle shone with the brilliancy of Sirius, and all kinds of geometrical figures were being formed and broken up. No tongue, no pen, no pencil can portray the beauty, the grandeur, the terrible sublimity of the scene. To be appreciated it must be felt. During the night the scene surpassed all power of description. Vast columns of lava at a white heat shot up continuously in the ever varying forms of pillars, pyramids, cones, towers, turrets, spires, minarets, etc., while the descending showers poured in one incessant cataract of fire upon the rim of the crater down its burning throat and over the surrounding area; each falling avalanche containing matter enough to sink the proudest ship. A large fissure opening through the lower rim of the crater gave vent to the molten flood which constantly poured out of the orifice, and rolled down the mountain in a deep, broad river, at the rate probably of ten miles an hour. This fiery stream we could trace all the way down the mountain until it was hidden from the eye by its windings in the forest, a distance of some thirty miles. The stream shone with great brilliancy in the night, and a long horizontal drapery of light hung over its whole course. But the great furnace on the mountain was the all absorbing object." May 6. "The great furnace on the mountain is still in terrible blast. No decrease of activity, but rather an increase." In July Mr. Coan again visited the flow. The fires had ceased. A kind of pumice was very plentiful, beginning ten miles from the cone. It grew more and more abundant till the source of the flow was reached where it covered everything to the depth of five to ten feet. Messrs. H. Kinney and Fuller visited the source of this flow in March. Mr. Kinney described jets rising, from four hundred to eight hundred feet and represented the existence of a deep unearthly, roar, comparable to that of Niagara, heard a long distance away. The heat also created terrific whirlwinds. The two gentlemen agreed that the diameter of the crater from which the fountain rose was about 1,000 feet; the height of the crater from one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet; height of the fountain two hundred to seven hundred feet, rarely below three hundred; and the diameter of the fountain from two hundred to three hundred feet. The jet sometimes became a Gothic spire of two hundred feet, then after subsiding stood at three hundred feet with points comparable to architectural ornaments. Rev. D. B. Lyman of Hilo confirmed these estimates. The lava streams sometimes seem to have been two hundred to three hundred feet thick. Rev. E. P. Baker of Hilo visited the scene of this overflow in 1889 and found a single red cone in the midst of much pumice. There seemed to have been only one outlet. The lower part of the stream consisted of aa changing to pahoehoe higher up. Back to ContentsThe Eruption of 1852, described in verse by Titus Coan, and published in the Friend
Eruption of March, 1852, by J. Fuller in the Friend, May, 1852 On reaching the seat of activity, he writes thus: "Imagine yourself, then, just ascended to the top of the above mentioned eminence. Before you at a distance of two miles, rises the new formed crater in the midst of fields of black, smoking lava, while from its centre there jets a column of red hot lava to an immense height, threatening instant annihilation to any presumptuous mortal who shall come within the reach of its scathing influence. The crater may be 1,000 feet in diameter and from one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet high. The column of liquid lava which is constantly sustained in the air, is from two hundred to five hundred feet high, and perhaps the highest jets may reach as high as seven hundred feet ! There is a constant and rapid succession of jets one within another, the masses falling outside and cooling as they fall, form a sort of dark veil, through which the new jets darting up with every degree of force and every variety of form render this grand fire fountain one of the most magnificent objects that human imagination can conceive of." The finer products, ashes and pumice, fall in constant showers for some miles around the vent. Besides several craters formed from earlier eruptions there is a small one still steaming, which seems to have been the first outbreak. Below it are several fountains constantly pouring out an immense quantity of molten lava, which flows in a glowing stream down the mountain slope. This flow came within seven miles of Hilo, says the Editor. Back to Contents Eruption of 1855 This commenced August 11th and continued for sixteen months. The amount of lava ejected was the greatest of any of the flows seen by modern observers. The only witnesses of the scene on record were Titus Coan, S. E. Bishop and F. A. Weld. It started from a point 12,000 feet high and nearer the summit than the preceding flow. The first thing seen was a small point of light much like Sirius; it threw off coruscations of light and soon resembled a full orbed sun. As the stream continued to flow directly towards Hilo, the inhabitants grew more and more anxious and made frequent trips to determine its progress. Mr. Coan went up early in October. In three days he reached the place where it was three miles wide. Usually it was broader, sometimes reaching a width of eight miles. "Early on Saturday the 6th," he says, "we were ascending our rugged pathway amidst steam, smoke and heat which almost blinded and scathed us. At ten we came to open orifices down which we looked into the fiery river which rushed furiously beneath our feet. We had seen in the night many lights like street lamps, glowing along the slope of the mountain at considerable distances from each other, while the stream made its way in a subterranean channel, traced only by these vents. From 10 A. M. and onward these fiery vents were frequent, some of them measuring ten, twenty, fifty or one hundred feet in diameter. In one place only, we saw the river uncovered for thirty rods and making down a declivity of from ten to twenty-five degrees. The scene was awful, the momentum incredible, the fusion perfect (a white heat), and the velocity forty miles an hour. The banks on each side of the stream were red-hot, jagged and overhanging, adorned with burning stalactites and festooned with immense quantities of filamentose or capillary glass, called Pele's hair. From this point to the summit crater all was inexpressibly interesting. Valve after valve opened as we went up, out of which issued fire, smoke and brimstone, and down which we looked as into the caverns of Pluto. The gases were so pungent that we had to use the greatest caution, approaching a stream or an orificeon the windward side, and watching every change or gyration of the breeze. Sometimes whirlwinds would sweep along, loaded with deadly gases and threatening the unwary traveller. After a hot and weary struggle over smoking masses of jagged scoriae and slag, thrown in wild confusion into hills, cones and ridges, and spread out over vast fields, we came at one P. M. to the terminal or summit crater (not Mokuaweoweo) . "This we found to be a low elongated cone, or rather a series of cones, standing over a great fissure in the mountain. Mounting to the crest of the highest cone, we expected to look down into a great sea of raging lavas, but instead of this the throat of the crater, at the depth of one hundred feet, was clogged with scoriae, cinders and ashes through which the smoke and gases rushed up furiously from seams and holes. One orifice within this cone was about twenty feet in diameter, and was constantly sending up a dense column of blue and white smoke which rolled off in masses and spread over all that part of the mountain, darkening the sun and obscuring every object a few rods distant. The summit cone which we ascended was about one hundred feet high, five hundred long and three hundred broad at the base. Several other cones below us were of the same form and general character, presenting the appearance of smoking tumuli along the upper slope of the mountain. “The molten stream first appears some ten miles below the fountain crater." The principal stream with all its windings was thought to be sixty miles long, lying between the flows of 1843 and 1852. From his various trips Mr. Coan had ascertained that a line of fissures extended from Mokuaweoweo for five miles down to the place of this outbreak, along which there were cones of scoriae and sand that had been thrown up at various times. The progress of the front of the stream, owing to the obstructions of trees, depressions and irregularities, was very slow, not more than a mile per week. When there were obstructions the edge of the flow would become crusted, the lava behind would accumulate until the pressure became too great to be withstood, and then the liquid would burst through in a spurt and continue downwards till another set of obstructions caused an accumulation and another break allowed a discharge. Hence as one ascends any of the flows he seems to pass over a series of rough terraces. Such a stream will also become widened by lateral discharge into a number of channels. After a free flowing for a while there may be much hardening of the crust and several days of inactivity. "At length, immense areas of the solidified lava, four, five or six miles above the extremity, are again in motion; cones are uncapped, domes crack, hills and ridges of scoriae move, and great slabs of lava are raised vertically or tilted in every direction." October 22, seventy-two days after the commencement of the eruption, the fountain still continued to flow. Mr. Coan made another trip this time to the lower end of the stream. A river of water below had become discolored with the pyroligneous acid distilled from the burning trees and the water turned black. He attempted several times to cross the stream. "The hardened surface of the stream was swelling and heaving at innumerable points by the accumulating masses and the upraised pressure of the lava below; and valves were continually opening, out of which the molten flood gushed and flowed in little streams on every side of us. Not a square rod could be found on all this wide expanse, where the glowing fusion could not be seen under our feet through holes and cracks in the superincumbent stratum on which we were walking. The open pits and pools and streams we avoided by zigzag course; but as we advanced these became more numerous and intensely active, and the heat becoming unendurable we again beat a retreat after having proceeded some thirty rods upon the stream. It may seem strange to many that one should venture on such a fiery stream at all, but you will understand that the greater part of the surface of the stream was hardened to the depth of from six inches to two or three feet; that the incandescent stream flowed nearly under this crust like water under ice, but showing up through ten thousand fissures and breaking up in countless pools. On the hardened parts we could walk, though the heat was almost scorching, and the smoke and gases suffocating. We could even tread on a fresh stream of lava only one hour after it had poured from a boiling caldron, so soon does the lava harden in contact with air." Both Mr. Coan and Professor Dana are on record as saying that there must have been fissures far down the mountain from which lava issued, as well as from the source 12,000 feet high. The latter, however, does not speak of them in his latest description of this flow, so that it may be inferred that he had ceased to entertain that view. March 6, 1856, Mr. Coan writes: "The great fire-fountain is still in eruption and the terminus of the stream is only five miles from the shore. The lava moves slowly along on the surface of the ground, and at points where the quantity of lava is small, we dip it up with an iron spoon held in the hand. During the last three weeks the stream has made no progress towards Hilo, and we begin to hope that the supply at the summit-fountain has diminished. There is, however, still much smoke at the terminal crater." This hope became fact. The stream stopped at a point about five miles above Hilo. Mr. Coan visited this flow eight times during its history. On the 22nd of October, 1856, he writes more fully about the supposed fissures: "A fracture or fractures occurred near the summit of the mountain which extends in an irregular line from the terminal point, say five miles down the northeast slope of the mountain. From this serrated and yawning fissure, from two to thirty yards wide, the molten flood rushed out and spread laterally for four or five miles, filling the ravines, flowing over the plains, and covering all those high regions, from ten to one or two hundred feet deep. Along this extended fissure, elongated cones were formed at the points of the greatest activity. These cones, appear as if split through their larger diameter, the inner sides; being perpendicular or overhanging, jagged and hung with stalactites, draped with filamentous vitrifications, and encrusted with sulphur, sulphate of lime and other salts. "The outsides of these cones are inclined planes, on an angle of forty or sixty degrees, and composed of pumice, cinder, volcanic sand, tufa, etc. You will not, however, understand that these semi-cones were once entire and that they have been rent: they are simply masses of ridges of cinder and dross deposited on each side of the fractures where the action is greatest. It is all a new deposit. After you leave the region of open fissures, near the summit of the mountain, all below appears to be on the surface" Back to ContentsAppendix Earthquakes in Hawaii Hawaii is regarded as a land where earthquakes are frequent and powerful. Since the invention of apparatus fitted to record the presence of these shocks, and the attention paid to their study in Japan, and under the auspices of the British Association For the Advancement of Science, so great has been the advance in our knowledge of these phenomena, that it is just to speak of the "New Seismology": whatever had been written more than years ago is of slight consequence in the comparison. At the direction of Professor Milne sixteen seismological sites have been equipped with seismographs at many important lies all over the world, and the reports from them studied and collated at the Isle of Wight in England. One of these instruments has been established at Sisal, near Ewa, on Oahu. Little has been reported from this station to the public, save that it served to allay apprehension at the time of the great earthquake in 1906 in San Francisco. There is a crying need for the establishment of a Seismological Observatory near Kilauea, similar to the analogous institution upon Vesuvius, where the phenomena connected with the volcano can be observed, as well as those relating to earthquakes generally. The director of the Vesuvian Observatory has been able to send out authoritative warnings of disaster, which have been utilized by the public like the storm predictions from the National Weather Bureau at Washington. The Hawaiian volcanoes are fortunately situated at a considerable distance from settlements, and people congregate to witness eruptions rather than flee from them; but there is no part of the United States where the study of volcanic and seismic phenomena can be better prosecuted. In the history of our volcanoes attention has been called to the occurrence of earthquakes, just as visitors happened to have noted them. A better record has been kept at Hilo by Mrs. Sarah J. Lyman, extracts from which have been published from time to time. Although ascribed to the Rev. D. B. Lyman, the first one of them is that published by Captain Wilkes in his Narrative, stating what the disturbances were between 1833 and 1841. After that time the same lady continued her record down to the end of 1885, when her life was ended. The family maintained the record several years longer. Three classes of seismic disturbances have been observed in Hawaii; first, those connected with the volcanoes; second, those that have been propagated by stresses in the earth away from the islands, sometimes called tectonic; third, the sea waves, where the jar has been communicated to the water of the ocean. Those of the second class are of less account locally than the others. It is important that they should be recorded by the seismographs and correlated with the same shocks in other lands. The inhabitants of the Territory need not be apprehensive of any seismic disaster, except those who live near the volcanoes of Mauna Loa and Kilauea, or in the path of the sea waves. Of the volcanic quakes, that of 1868, centering in Kau, is the most important. It is esteemed as one of the most forcible series of shocks connected with a volcano ever described. The statements respecting these disturbances given in our account of the eruption of Mauna Loa in 1868 will recall their terrible nature. All edifices, the trees ,animals and men were affected; and sea waves were started at the coast. Many lives were lost. No observers in that day attempted to determine the various elements of the quake; but its connection with an eruption from Mauna Loa is now universally conceded. As in the fable, it may be said that the mountain was groaning to be delivered, and the birth was the deluge of lava shot up high into the air and flowing to the sea. By this occurrence it was evident that some of the eruptions from Mauna Loa were not of the quiet sort. Nineteen years later another eruption from near by was preceded by earthquakes numerous and violent, and still a third in 1907. And attention has been called to many other similar eruptions coming from the bases of both Mauna Loa and Kilauea in prehistoric times, which may have been equally violent. When the records of the seismograph at Sisal are published, it will be possible to learn how important the tectonic quakes have been in our archipelago. So far as known, none of this class of shocks have been particularly severe. Quite a number of the sea waves have made themselves felt among the islands, and attention will be called to a few of them. Earthquake Waves On the 7th of November, 1837, there was an earthquake in Chile, and a sea wave started by it was felt at the Hawaiian Islands; also at Tutuila in the Samoan group. The phenomena observed at Hilo are thus described by Rev. Titus Coan: At about 7 P.M. the sea at Hilo was observed to retire far below its usual low-water mark. In a few moments afterwards the water returned in a gigantic wave, rushing to the shore with great velocity, and breaking upon the beach with a noise like a peal of thunder. All the low grounds in the neighborhood of the beach were instantly submerged, and a large number of houses were swept away. So sudden and unexpected was the catastrophe, that many of the inhabitants were engulphed in the flood, and compelled to struggle for their lives. The sea remained upon the land about fifteen minutes, when it retired beyond the line of low water, and after a short interval returned again, but with less violence. It afterwards continued to vibrate for a time, gradually decreasing at each oscillation, until it attained its usual level. The scene of distress which this phenomenon produced was great. Hundreds of natives were at a meeting near the seashore, when the wave rushed upon them and left them struggling amidst the wreck of their worldly effects. Some of them were carried to sea, while others were dashed upon the shore, surrounded by the fragments of their houses, which had been broken to pieces, together with the timbers, frames, calabashes, etc. Cries of distress came from all sides, as well from those who were struggling for life, as those who had come down to their relief. Parents were rushing to and fro, looking for their children, husbands for their wives, children for their parents, each inquiring for the other, with wailings and hallooings. The whole, combined with the roar of the sea, rendered the scene one of thrilling interest. Fortunately an English whaler, the Admiral Cockburn, of which James Lawrence was commander, was lying in the bay at the time. He in a most praiseworthy manner lowered his boats, and kept them cruising about the bay, in search of the natives, many of whom were picked up, wearied and exhausted, and by this timely aid their lives were preserved. Not a canoe was left on the shore to assist in this work. Mr. Lawrence affirms that the water ran past his ship at the rate of eight knots an hour, and that the soundings were reduced from five to three and a half fathoms, which left a great part of the bay dry. Earthquake Wave of 1868 On the I3th of August, 1868, at 5:05 P.M. an earthquake was started off the coast of Arica, Peru, said to have had a duration of ten minutes. At 5:32 P.M. the first of a series of waves from fifty to sixty feet high rushed in upon the land, penetrating a considerable distance. J. E. Hilgard published an account of these waves in the report of the Coast Survey for 1869; and his conclusions were accepted and published by the highest authorities. The wave was reported at Coquimbo, eight hundred miles away, in three hours, Hawaii (Hilo) in fourteen hours and ten minutes, in Japan upon the following day. The same wave had been reported earlier at San Diego, San Francisco, Cal., and Kodiak, Alaska, with the times respectively of ten hours and fifty-five minutes, twelve hours and fifty-six minutes and twenty-two hours, at the average of three hundred and sixty-nine, three hundred and forty-eight and two hundred and eighty-two miles per hour, and distances of 4,030, 4.480 and 6,200 miles. To reach Lyttleton, N.Z., and Sydney, Australia, 6,120 and 7,440 miles, the time required was nineteen hours and one minute and twenty-three hours and forty-one minutes at the rates of 322 and 314 miles per hour. In 1880 I saw a placard upon a cocoanut tree in Hilo, situated as much as fifteen feet above the sea level, stating the fact that an earthquake wave was noted at that altitude upon the date mentioned. The velocity of a sea wave depends both upon the wave-length and the depth of the water. Knowing the wave length and therefore what ought to be their free velocity, and knowing their actual velocity by observation, the difference gives the retardation by dragging; and from the retardation may be calculated the mean depth of the ocean traversed. The results stated were a depth of 12,000 feet between Japan and San Francisco, and 18,500 between Peru and Honolulu. By a study of the facts as they were related to Hawaii it is apparent that erroneous observations were relied upon. To reach Hilo, 5,460 miles, the waves moved at the rate of three hundred and eighty-five miles per hour; to reach Honolulu, 5,580 miles, the rate was four hundred and fifty-four miles. Now the path of the wave from Arica was the same to both Hilo and Honolulu; and there is a manifest incongruity in saying that the rate to Hilo was three hundred and eighty-five and to Honolulu four hundred and fifty-four miles per hour. The wave reached; Honolulu in twelve hours and eighteen minutes, the greater distance by the same route, and Hilo in fourteen hours and ten minutes, the less distance. I addressed an inquiry to O. H. Tittman, the Superintendent of the Coast and Geodetic Survey, and received the following reply: "In reply to your inquiry of the 1 5th instant, concerning the discrepancy in the times of the arrival of the earthquake wave from Arica, Peru, at Hilo and Honolulu, I have to state that because the disturbance reached the Hawaiian Islands near midnight and because the time is given to whole hours only, it seems probable that no accurate observations were there made upon this phenomenon. In Petermann's "Mittheilungen," Vol. 15, 1869, pages 222-226, Prof. Hochstetter has given the same values in his collection of times at places where the earthquake wave was felt. He notices discrepancy of the Hawaiian Islands values and uses a mean between the two." It is, of course, impracticable at this late date to discover what the original records for Honolulu should have been, so as to be able to give correct figures. It will be observed that the rates per hour for all the localities except Honolulu fall below four hundred. Hence the table as published by Professor Hilgard may be esteemed as correct with only one exception. I think it better to eliminate the Honolulu observation altogether, and with it the estimate of the greater depth of the ocean between Hawaii. and Peru as compared with that upon the side towards Australia. From the Advertiser published shortly after the event, it is learned that between Aug. 7 and 18, 1868, this same wave arose to the height of twelve feet upon the windward side of Maui. There are better observations derived from the transmission of waves in later years from which to draw conclusions. One such may have been the one passing Hilo May 10, 1877, which originated in South America. The damage done by it is graphically set forth in the following letter from Mr. Severance: The account is in the form of an official report of Sheriff Severance, addressed to Marshal W. C. Parke:
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PART 3: The History of the Exploration of Kilauea |
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