VOLCANOES IN HAWAII

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 822, 16 November 1929, Page 27

VOLCANOES IN HAWAII

; RESIDENTS TROUBLED BY ACTIVITY L ! SERIES OF EARTHQUAKES L ! • there is some uneasiness on the island I of Hawaii regarding volcanic activity. 1 j says a San Francisco exchange. s ! Eruptions at the lire pit of Halemau- ! man, and even occasional lava flows, ■ j have been greeted formerly with joy. ! rather than alarm, because they have I seldom done damage and have, stimuI la ted tourist interest, in the islands, j N\ it liin the last few months, how- ; over, a part of the island seldom touched by the earthquakes that pre- ! cede, volcanic activity, has been rocked | by almost continuous ’quakes, whose I origin seemed to be not in tin- so- | called “volcano region,*’ but in the j slopes of lliialalai, dormant since ISOI. | Dr. Thomas A. Jagger, jnr.. Govern-

ment volcanologist, at flrst thoush j Dial any activity would center iu tin Mauna Loa regions, where the las i flow was recorded in 1926. Eat or the ! 'quakes pointed toward lava activity ' at Hualalai. A flow in the Maun? i Loa region would probably do little ! damage because of the sparse popula ; tion. The older Hualalai flows disinte . i grated to form fertile ground on which I ' are heavily wooded regions, rich graz , tng lands, and. nearer the ocean, valu . ! flblc coffee lands. The district on . * the western slopes of Hualalai, known , I as Kona, is dotted at the 1.500 ft cle- . j vation with a series of small towns. j while at sea-level are the new Kona . ! Inn, a popular tourist hotel, and such | historic places at Kealakekua Bay, - where Captain Cook was killed, and Kailua, first, station of the Christian - missionaries. 1 The first earthquakes were felt i lit night in North Kona, and were of - such intensity that Senator Robert ' Hind prepared to move his household goods and stock from his extensive Fuuwaawaa ranch if an eruption

o should occur. Fuuwaawaa is oil the e slopes of Hualalai. and Kohala dis- . ;t trie!, where later earthquakes were j e felt, is still farther from the summit i y ] crater on Mauna Loa. a j The fact that the quakes have been 1 e • distinctly of local origin is proved,, i- by the difference ir. reports from vari- I j ous places. Few of them have been : 1 '* !LL aT oleano City, a settlement on ! 1 h the brink of Kilauoa crater, or in Hilo, f ] z- | the main city of the Island of Hawaii! ! * l- j For a week “almost incessant" 1 u earthquakes wore reported from Kona, j • ll An average of two quakes everv five i * j minutes was felt in Kona for a time I* I one morning. Between S am. and « ‘ a : i oon. Kona reside h j of 5.x tremors. j i •, ! The more distrit tof K«> - 1 j b.ala felt, to earthquake the follow j 1 n I ing night between 11 r.n ...ml 250 ! o’clock. " .S f i Although few more wo -e felt at the \ i • V oleano House, the official observatovy ? t seismograph recorded a total of 57 l 1 I quak. s for the. 2 1 hours ending at mid ; 3 ! night on the first day and quakes . I 3 I for the next 24-hour period. c

To add to the excitement in th Kona and Kohala districts. heav winds and rains. accompanied h thunder and lightning. swept th country. The usual lava flow on Hawaii ha broken out far above the inhabitei regions, and has been a slow-movini river of huge boulders of lava, a rive; whose progress is uot so much a flow ing of molten lava as a tumbling o the hot lava rocks over one a not he as they roll down the mountain slope *■’ going a great distance. Others ha\» i >i tinued ft r weeks—even month - until they reached the sea. Few ha\* caused property damage, and in* since recorded history has one «akct human life. From Kona and Kohala. other parts «v ihe Island of Hawaii feel no alarm, an*, in Honolulu, on the Island of Oahu ■ po ibilitii s of a Hip to the “B . Island'* should a spectacular lava flow