o
CHRONOLOGICAL NARRATIVE

The 1959-60 Eruption

of Kilauea Volcano

Hawaii
Lava fountain, 900 feet high, and full lava lake during the eighth phase of the summit eruption in Kilauea Iki Crater. The 

tops of rising lava jets appear as bright-orange patches through a shroud of cooler, darker falling clots of pumice, and 

a brown cloud of still cooler pumice fragments and dust drifts downwind left of the fountain. Sulfurous bluish fume rises 

from a floating island of cinder and pumice detached from the cone during the third phase. View west from Byron Ledge 

overlook. The slope of Mauna Loa rises gradually to the right in the background.
l 

r' 

Chronological Narrative 

of the 1959-60 Eruption. of 

Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii 

By D. H. RICHTER, J.P. EATON, K. J. MURATA, W. U. AULT, 

and H. L. KRIVOY 

THE 1959--60 ERUPTION OF KILAUEA VOLCANO, HAW All 

G E 0 L 0 G I CAL SURVEY PROFESS I 0 N A L PAPER 53 7- E 

A detailed and pictorial account of an 

eruptive sequence consisting of a summit 

eruption, a flank eruption, and a summit 

collapse 

UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, WASHINGTON : 1970 
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

WALTER J. HICKEL; Secretary 

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 

William T. Pecora, Director 

Library of Congress catalog-card No. 72-607616 

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office 

Washington, D.C. 20402 
• 

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CONTENTS 

Abstract -------------------------------------------------------------------------

Introduction -----------------------------------------------------------

Geographic setting ---~------------------------------------------------­

Acknowledgments -------------------------------------------------- Brief history of Kilauea Volcano ______________________________ _ 

Summary of eruption-----------------------------"-------------------

Chronological narrative ---------------------------·---------------------------

Summit eruption ------------------------------------------------------------

First phase ----------------------------------------------------------

Second phase --------------------------------------------------

Third phase ---------------------------------------------------------

Fourth phase ----------------------------------------------------

Fifth phase ------------------------------------------------------------

Sixth phase -----------------------------------------------------

Seventh phase ----------------------------------------------------

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Chronological narrative-Continued 

Summit eruption-Continued 

Eighth phase _____ ----------------7-----------------------------------

Ninth phase ____________________________________________ _:_ ________ _ 

Tenth phase ----------------------------------------------------------

Eleventh phase ------------------------------------------------

Twelfth phase ----~-------------------------------------------------------­

ThirtE~enth phase ------------------------------------------------

Fourteenth phase -----------------------------------------------

Fifteenth phase ---------------------------------------------------------

Sixteenth phase -----------------------------------------------------

Seventeenth phase -------------------------------------------------

Flank eruption --------------------------------------------------------

Summit collapse --------------------------------------------------------

References cited -----------------------------------------------------------------

ILLUSTRATIONS 

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FRONTISPIECE. Photograph of lava fountain, 900 feet high, and full lava lake during the eighth phase of the summit eruption 

in Kilauea lki Crater. 

FIGURE L Map of the Island of Hawaii -----------------------------------------------------------------·------------------~--------------------------------------------------------

2. Graph showing volume of lava erupted into Kilauea lki -----------~----------------------------------------------~------~-------·---------------

3. Map of the Kilauea summit area ---------------------------------------------~-------------------------------.---------------------------------------------------------

4-42. Photographs: 

4. Aerial views of Kilauea Iki Crater before and after the 1959 summit eruption ~-----------------------------------

5. Start.of the 1959 summit eruption in Kilauea lki showing the wax and-wane of the curtain of fire 

6. Lava fountains ----------------------------------------------------·---------- . ________ -------· ---------------------------------~----------------

7. Lava fountain, braided lava cascades, main cascade, and lava lake --------------------------.----------------------~-----~-

8. Lava fountain, lava river, cascade, and lava lake ------------------------------------------------------------------"·------------------

9. Increased fountaining and higher river bed -------------------~----------------------------------------------~----------------------------

10. Development of lava fountain and rise of lake during the first phase -----------------------~----- -----------------------

11. Base of lava fountain and broad lava river ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------~--------:----

12. Fountain and cone ----------------------------------------------- _______ --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

13. Lava fountain and lake during last day of first phase --------------------------------~--------------------------------------------

14. Northward-jetting fountain blasting through lake _________ -------------------------------------------------------------------------

15. High third -phase fountain ----------------------------------------------------------- ___________ .. ----------------------------------------------------------

16. Small incandescent tongues of very fluid lava flowing into the west bay of the crater------------------------

17. Reduced fountain deflected northward by a collapse of the inner part of the cone------------------------------

18. Pumice blanket of the third phase -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------:-------------------------------

19. Pumice blanket in the Summer Camp area ______________ --------------------------------------------------------------~-------------------

20. Fourth-phase fountain and lava flQws ------------c·-----,-------------- _____ . ----~----------------~--------------------------------------------

21. High, exceptionally level lava lake of the fourth phase ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

22. Steady stream of lake lava flowing westward into small circular pond over vent -------------------------------

23 .. Low, broad fountain of the sixth phase ----------------------------------- .. -----------------.-'--------------------------------------------------

24. Three-foot, spatter-encrusted, cored lava bomb _______________ -----------------~--------~---------------------------------------------------

25. End of the seventh phase -----------------------------------------------~----------------------------------------"----------------------------------------

26. Lava lake after maximum subsidence following the. seventh phase --------------------------------------------------------

27. Views of area on the crater rim deluged by spatter during the eighth phase ----------------------------------------

28. Small fountain and high lava lake a few minutes before the end of the eighth phase --------------------------~-

29. Lava lake after the eighth phase -------~-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 30. Fountain and lake showing lava waves ___________ , ___________________ __. _____________________ c ____________________________________________________ _ 

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VI CONTENTS 

FIGURES 4-42. Photographs-Continued 

31. Subsidence of lake shortly after the end of the 11th phase --------------------------------------------------------

32. Wide stream of lava pours back into vent half an hour after the end of the 12th phase ------------------

33. Fountain of the 14th phase, 17 minutes before activity ceased ------------------------------------------------------

34. Development of 1,900-foot-high fountain during the 15th phase ----------------------------------------------------

3 5. The 1, 900-foot-high fountain -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

36. Cone and end of road west of Kilauea Iki immediately after the 1,900-foot-high fountain -----------------

3 7.. Backflow after the 16th phase ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

38. View from Byron Ledge overlook after all activity ceased -----------------------------------------------------------------

3 9. Closeup views of vent -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

40. House built directly over the Kapoho fault scarp -----------·---------------------------------------------------------------------

41. Subsidence of the graben in the Kapoho area ---------------------------------------------·---------------------------------------------

42. Initial outbreak of flank eruption ----------------~~--------------------------·-------------------------------------------------------------------

43. Map of eruption area at OPoom, January 14, 1960 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 44-48. Photographs: 

44. Steam and ash production from the early vents -------------··-----· ----··------------------------------------------------------------

45. Early lava flow pouring into the ocean behind a massive curtain of steam ---------------------------------------

46. Lava flow moving slowly through papaya orchard northeast of Kapoho ·----------------------------------------------

4 7. Early views of main vent area -------------------------------··-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

48. Aerial views of eruption area ----------------------------------------C----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

49. Map of eruption area at 08hoom, January 16, 1960 ____________________________ : ________________________________________________________________________ _ 

50. Photographs of effects of lava and pumice on papaya -----------------------------------------·---------------------------------------------------

51. Photograph of main lava fountain, 1,600 feet high ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------~----------

52. Map of eruption area at 09hoom, January 19, 1960 ------------------------------------ -------------------------·--------------------------------------- 53-55. Photographs: 

53. Main lava fountain and cinder-pumice cone ----------·------------------------------·------------------------------------------------------

54. Aa lava flow entering the ocean ------------------------------------------------------------------- -·-----------·---------------------------------------

55. Flows in the Koae village area ---·----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

56. Map of eruption area at 20hoom, January 23, 1960 --·----------------------~---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 57-59. Photographs: 

57. Aerial view of fountains and cone -------·-------------------------------···-------------------------------------------------------------------------

58. Massive, blocky a a flow -----------------------------------------------------------------------· ---------------·---------------------------------------------

59. Massive, blocky aa flow crossing Kapoho road --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

60. Map of eruption area at 12hoom, January 27, 1960 ---------------------------·-------~-----------------.-------------------------------------------------- 61-64. Photographs: · 

61. Renewed fountaining along the extended active rift ------------------··.-------------------------------------------------------------

62. Lava emerging from the base of Puu Kukii cone -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

63. Views of vent area _____ ------------------------------- ____________________________________________________________ --------------------------------------------

64. Lava oozing from the base of the cinder-pumice cone _______________ -------------------------------~--------------------------------

65. Map of eruption area at 02hoom, January 30, 1960 --------------------· --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 66-68. Photographs: 

66. Aerial view of flows ---------------------------------------------------· .. ----------------------------~----------------------------------------------------

67. Small fault blocks pushed upward and tilted --------------------------------------------------~-----------------~---------------------------

68. Fountains and cone -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

69. Map of eruption area at 14hoom, February 2, 1960 __________________________ -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

70. Map of eruption area at 23hoom, February 5, 1960 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 71-74. Photographs: 

71. Renewed outbreak west of the spatter cone __________ -------0-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

72. Gas-cinder jet shooting to 1,000 feet ------------------------·-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

73. Impact craters --------------------------------------------------------------~----------------·---------------------------------------------------------------- 74. Flow of February 18, 1960, that poured out over lip of spatter cone __________________ c:... _____________________________ _ 

75. Map and cross sections of the eruption area ---------------------------------------------------------·-------------------------------------------------------

7 6. Map and cross section of Halema uma u -------------------------------~---------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

77. Hypothetical sections through Halemaumau showing development of principal collapse features ---------------------

78-81. Photographs: 

78. Early collapse features of Halema uma u ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 79. View across Halemaumau showing saucer-shaped subsidence of floor and two collapse pits _______________ _ 

80. Steam rising from third collapse pit in floor of Halemaumau ------------------------------------------------------------------

81. Views of Halemaumau from the U.S. Geological ~urvey's Hawaiian Volcano Observatory ______________ _ 

TABLE 

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TABLE 1. Summit and flank eruptions and summit collapses of Kilauea Volcano since 1790 --------------------------------------------- E4 

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THE 1959-60 ERUPTION OF KILAUEA VOLCANO, .HAWAII 

CHRONOLOGICAL NARRATIVE OF THE 1959-60 

ERUPTION OF 

KILAUEA VOLCANO, HAW All 

By D. H. RICHTER, J. P. EATON, K. J. MURATA, W. U. AULT, and 

H. L. KRIVOY . 

ABSTRACT 

In the evening of November 14, 1959, Kilauea Volcano on 

the Island of Hawaii renewed activity with an eruption at its 

summit. This chapter is a detailed pictorial chronological narrative of that summit eruption and the interrelated flank 

eruption and summit collapse that followed. 

· The 1959 summit eruption occurred in Kilauea Iki, a collapse crater adjacent to the main summit caldera of Kilauea. · 

The eruption consisted of 17 separate eruptive phases, which 

ranged in duration from 1 week to 1%, hours. At the cessation 

of activity on December 20, 1959, Kilauea Iki Crater held 

50 million cubic yards of lava in a lake 335-feet deep. 

After the summit eruption shallow earthquakes migrated 

out Kilauea's east rift zone, and on January 14, 1960, a flank 

eruption began near the town of Kapoho. During the next 

37 days of virtually uninterrupted activity, 160 million cubic 

yards of lava, covering about 2,500 acres, was erupted. The 

small villages of Kapoho and and Koae, a United States Coast 

Guard station, and a number of residences along the coast 

were destroyed. 

Almost concurrent with the beginning of the flank eruption, 

the summit area of Kilaue·a rapidly deflated as magma moved 

from beneath the summit out the rift zone to the flank eruption area. Culmination of the summit subsidence occurred on 

February 7, 1960, when the floor of Halemaumau-a deep 

crater in Kilauea caldera-co!lapsed because of the withdrawal of the still fluid core of the 1952 lava lake. Two smaller 

collapses on March 9 and March 11 in Halemaumau marked 

the end of the 1959-60 eruption of Kilauea. 

INTRODUCTION 

At 8:08 p.m. on November 14, 1959, Kilauea, 

Hawaii's youngest volcano, renewed activity with 

an· eruption at its summit. Thus began the spectacular surface display of the most complete sequence 

of eruptive activity ever observed at Kilauea-a 

sequence which has been recorded in far greater 

detail than for any previous major eruption in 

Hawaii. 

Expansion of the staff and facilities of the U.S. 

Geological Survey's Hawaiian Volcano Observatory 

shortly before the eruption provided for on-the-spot 

petrological and geochemical studies and, in- keeping 

with experience gained during the last eruption in 

1955, a modified and substantially expanded geophysical program. Fortunately, both the summit and 

flank eruption a:r;-eas were easily accessible, so that 

problems of observation, measurement, and collection were reduced almost to those of a laboratory 

experiment, and the work was freed from many of 

the trials and tribulations that hamper the studies 

of a scientific expedition. 

Either through automatic recording or through 

observation, measurement, and collection at frequent 

intervals, virtually continuous records were kept of 

the _primary parameters of the eruption; namely, 

earthquakes, volcanic tremor, tilting of the ground, 

rate of lava extrusion, lava fountain height, and 

the temperature, chemistry, and petrography of the 

lava. Study of the variation and interplay of these 

parameters has yielded a far more detailed picture 

of the internal structure and eruptive mechanism 

of Kilauea than is available for any other volcano. 

This chapter is devoted to a detailed illustrated 

chronological account of field observations of the 

eruption. Other chapters of this professional paper 

treat particular facets of the eruption in greater 

detail. 

GEOGRAPHIC SETTING 

Kilauea, on the Island of Hawaii, is the southeasternmost volcano along the 1,500-mile-long midPacific Hawaiian Archipelago. The volcano rises to 

an altitude of slightly more than 4,000 feet on the 

southeast flank of Mauna Loa, its massive and lofty 

neighbor volcano (fig. 1). The broad summit of 

Kilauea is indented by a relatively flat floored 

caldera, 21/2 miles long and 2 miles wide, with walls 

as much as 400 feet high. In the southwest part of 

the caldera the deep nearly circular collapse pit of 

El 
E2 THE 1959-60 ERUPTION OF KILAUEA VOLCANO, HA WAil 

... Seismograph Station 

0 5 10 15 MILES 

CONTOUR INTERVAL 1000 FEET 

Topography by U.S. Geological Survey 

FIGURE 1.-Map of the Island of Hawaii showing summit and flank eruption areas on Kilauea and location of U.S. Geological 

Survey seismograph stations. 

.-., 

.(I 

• ... : 

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CHRONOLOGICAL NARRATIVE E3 

Halemaumau, or the "fire-pit" as it is commonly 

referred to, marks the site of most summit activity 

in historic time. Prior to the summit collapse in 

1960, Halemaumau was approximately 3,500 feet in 

diameter and 500 feet deep. Two rift zones, an east 

and a southwest, radiate from the summit area and 

extend down the slopes of Kilauea to far below sea 

level. All flank eruptions originate along these rift 

zones; the east rift zone, as shown by its strong 

topographic expression, dominates activity. 

Kilauea Iki, site of the 1959 summit eruption, is 

a collapse or pit crater approximately 1 mile long 

and half a mile wide. Before the eruption, this crater 

was as much as 700 feet deep. Although separated 

from Kilauea caldera by a low flat ridge, Kilauea Iki 

is within the peripheral fracture fault system that 

circumscribes the summit area of Kilauea. The last 

eruptive activity involving Kilauea Iki was in 1868 

when a small lake of lava 37 acres in extent filled 

the bottom of the crater. 

The 1960 flank eruption area was on the east rift 

zone of Kilauea near the small village of Kapoho 

29 miles from the summit (fig. 1). At the time of 

outbreak the eruptive vents were between 2 ·and 3 

miles from the ocean and between 90 and 150 feet 

above sea level. 

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 

The authors are indebted to the technical staff of 

the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory through whose 

excellent support and efforts this chapter has been 

made possible. Special thanks are also due the superintendent and his staff of Hawaii Volcanoes National 

Park for their interest in, and active support of, our 

studies and for the observational and photographic 

data they themselves contributed to the record. 

Other governmental agencies who~ through various means of support, facilitated our investigations 

and who deserve recognition and thanks are the 

Hawaii Air National Guard, Hawaii Police Department, Hawaii Civil- Defense Agency, and the United 

States Coast Guard. 

Also we would like to thank the many persons 

throughout the island who have contributed observational data. Although it is impossible to acknowledge 

all these contributors individually, our appreciation 

is no less sincere. 

BRIEF HISTORY OF KILAUEA VOLCANO 

Little is known of the eruptive activity of Kilauea 

before the beginning of the 19th century when the 

first missionaries from North America and Europe 

reached the Hawaiian Islands. Hawaiian stories and 

legends go back many centuries before this, but 

Kilauea was the home of gods, and the Hawaiian 

history of the volcano is a mixture of fact and 

folklore. Between 1823, when William Ellis, a British 

missionary, first viewed the caldera, and about 1880, 

visits to the summit were brief and sporadic, and 

accordingly many details of eruptive activity were 

never observed or recorded. In 1880 a hotel was 

built overlooking the caldera and visits were more 

frequent and observations more detailed. Realizing 

the need for a permanent observational facility to 

study the volcano, the publicly supported Hawaiian 

Volcano Research Association built and staffed the 

Hawaiian Volcano Observatory in 1912. Since that 

date ~ continual record of Kilauea activity has been 

kept and the observatory has undertaken many 

diverse investigations of volcanic processes.1 In 1919, 

the observatory came under the sponsorship of the 

U.S. Government. 

The known summit eruptions, flank eruptions, and 

summit collapses of Kilauea Volcano since 1790 are 

listed in chronologie order in table 1. Not included 

are the long periods of lava-lake activity in the . 

caldera or in Halemaumau; summit eruptions that 

are listed are those in which measurable amounts 

of lava have been added to either the caldera or 

Halemaumau. The data are arranged in an attempt 

to show the interdependence between the summit 

and rift zones, as was so clearly illustrated in the 

summit eruption, flank eruption, and summit collapse sequence of the 1959-60 eruption. However, 

the three events which appear to constitute a sequence or cycle of activity do not necessarily manifest themselves by recognizable physical activity at 

the surface; hence, one or more events of a postulated sequence may be missing from the record. 

Moreover, the record has suffered from lack of 

observational data, especially prior to 1912, and 

some of the early indicated sequences of activity 

may have little basis in fact. 

In 1823, and for almost the next 50 years, activity 

at the summit of Kilauea involved almost the entire 

caldera, and from the scattered reports of infrequent 

observers it appears that eruptive activity was virtually continuous. Evidently just prior to a visit by 

Missionary Ellis, a collapse involving most qf the 

1 The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, staffed and operated since 1947 by the 

U.S. Geological Survey, occupies two buildings perched on the northwest rim 

of Kilauea caldera. Three short-period vertical seismograph stations in the 

region of the Kilauea summit and southwest rift zone and one on the slopes of 

Mauna Loa (fig. 1) telemeter signals to the observatory where they~re visibly 

recorded. A fifth seismograph station at the observatory, referred to as Uwekahuna, houses a three-component long-period seismograph and a two-component 

short-period seismograph, both of which record optically. Elsewhere around 

the island, the observatory maintains .seismograph stations at Pahoa, Hilo, 

Kamuela, and Naalehu (fig. 1). A permanent short-base liquid tiltmeter is 

maintained in the Uwekahuna seismograph vault, and stable piers for longbase portable tiltmeters are established at seven locations in the summit area. 
E4 THE 1959-60 ERUPTION OF KIL;\UEA VOLCANO, HAWAII 

TABLE 1.-Summit and flank eruptions and summit collapses of Kilauea Volcano since 1790 

[Sources of information: Brigham ( 1909), Finch (1940), Jaggar ( 1938), Macdonald ( 1955), Macdonald and Eaton ( 1964), and Stearns and Macdonald ( 1946)] 

Beginning date 

1790 Nov.(?) 

1790? 

1815(?) 

1823 Feb.-July 

pre-Aug. 

1832 Jan.14 

July 

1840 May30 

June ( ?) 

1868 April2 

April2 (?) 

April 

1877 May4 

May 21(?) 

1885 March 

1886 March 17 

1891 March 7 

1894 March 21 

July 7 

July 11-12 

1916 ( ?) 

1918 Feb.23 

1919 Feb.7 

Nov. 

Dec. 21 

1921 March 18 

1922 May28 

May(?) 

1923 Aug. 

1924 April 

May10 

July 19 

1927 July 7 

1929 Feb. 20 

July 25 

1930 Nov.19 

1931 Dec. 23 

1934 Sept.6 

1938 May28 

1952 June 27 

1954 May31 

1955 Feb.28 

1959 Nov.14 

1960 Jan. 13 

Feb.7 

1 Violent phreatic explosions. 

Summit eruption 

Locality l 

I 

Volume 

(cu yd) 

------------------~------------- ------------------~-------------

Caldera ( ?) 

--------------------------------

-------------------------------

Caldera ( ?) 

--------------------------------

Flank eruption 

Locality 

East rift 

Southwest rift 

Volume 

(cu yd) 

3.8 X 107 

1.5 X 107 

Summit collapse 

Locality 

Caldera 

Caldera 

Volume 

(cu yd) 

1 Large 

-----------------1-------------- Caldera 6'9 X 107 

East rift 28.1 X107 

----------------- ------------- ------------------------------- Caldera 28.7X107 

I Kilauea Iki ( ?) 

--------------------------------

-------------------------------

Caldera 

Keanakakoi 

Caldera 

r----do __________ _ 

Caldera 

( ?) 

( ?) 

0.9 X107 

Southwest rift 0.03X10? ,_ _____________ _ 

------------------------------- Caldera 

------------- ---------------

24.7X 1.0~ 

1.1 X 107 

0.9X107 

1.3X 107 

1------------------1-------------- Upper east rift ( ?) 

----------------------------- __ ------------------------------- Halemaumau 2.8X107 

~----------------- ------------- , _________________ --------------

1 Halemaumau 0 . .03X107 

L---do____________ 0.3 X 107 

L ___ do____________ 0.2 X 107 

L ___ do____________ 0.4 X 107 

L ___ do____________ 0.8 X 107 

East rift 

___ do ___________ _ 

------------------------------- Halemaumau 1 26.4X 10 

------------- ---------------------------- ------------- ----------------------------

~---do____________ 1.0 X 107 -----------------

f == =~~============--~~~ -~-~~-~-- --upp;; ~;~t rift--

I Halemaumau 6.4 X w:r ----------------------------

East rift I

I Halemaumau- 0.9 X 1017 

caldera 

------------------1--------------

1 Kilauea lki 5.0 X 107 

!-=================~============= 

12.0 X107 

----------------------------

East rift 16.0 X lOr ----------------------------

------------------------------"",1 Halemaumau 2.9 X 107 

2 Many earthquakes, accompanied by faulting, along the east rift zone suggested that lava intruded the Tift zone, but none was erupted onto the surface. 
• 

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CHRONOLOGICAL NARRATIVE E5 

caldera floor had occurred ; this left a vast depression 

about 800 feet deep containing a very active lava 

lake and a number of lava fountains. By 1832 this 

large depression in the caldera had filled with new 

lava and in July of that year there occurred another 

collapse of the same magnitude as that in 1823. 

During the next 36 years, two more periods of slow 

caldera infilling were followed by rapid collapse of 

most of the caldera floor. The last of the great caldera 

collapses, in April 1868, apparently brought about 

a marked change in the volcanic vent system beneath 

the caldera. Since that time no collapse has involved 

a major part of the floor and the caldera has slowly 

filled to form the relatively flat plain seen today. 

Although eruptive activity during the first 30 years 

of observation took place over most of Kilauea's 

floor, the southwest part of the caldera was generally 

the sita of the largest and most active lava lake or 

strongest lava fountaining. In the caldera collapse 

of 1868, a new crater, about 200 feet deep, formed 

in the collapsed caldera floor, and this new crater, 

Halemaumau, emerged as a dominant physical feature. By 1886 Halemaumau and the caldera floor 

had filled again, and in the collapse of that year a 

triangular pit formed at the site of Halemaumau. 

During the next 8 years (1886-94) Halemaumau 

was almost continually active. In 1894, following a 

collapse in Halemaumau, activity abated, and between 1895-1907 Kilauea was active less than 60 

percent of the time. In 1907 summit activity increased, and with the exception of two 1-month 

periods in 1913 and 1922 an active lava lake filled 

Halemaumau for the next 17 years (1907-24). In 

1918, 1919, and 1921, Halemaumau filled and flows 

were, released across the caldera floor, and in 1916, 

1919, and 1922 Halemaumau suffered moderate collapses. In May 1924, after the lava lake suddenly 

withdrew, allowing groundwater to penetrate the 

volcanic conduit system, a paroxysmal phreatic explosion enlarged Halemaumau to nearly 3,500 feet 

in diameter and 1,300 feet in depth. 

In the following 11 years seven small eruptions 

of short duration began the process of refilling the 

enlarged crater. The last of these, in 1934, marked 

the beginning of a 17-year-long quiescent period, 

the longest period of inactivity in Kilauea's observational history. Activity at Kilauea summit resumed 

in 1952 with an eruption in Halemaumau. The 1952 

eruption was followed by another one in Halemaumau and on the caldera floor in 1954 and by the 

eruption in Kilauea Iki in 1959. 

Nine separate flank eruptions, six along the east 

rift zone and three along the southwest rift zone, 

have been recorded at Kilauea between 1790 and 

1960. Six of these flank eruptions, in 1790, 1823, 

1840, 1868, 1922, and 1960, immediately preceded 

collapses at the summit of the volcano. In addition 

at least two rift-zone seismic crises have occurred 

(in 1924 and 1938) that involved faulting and that 

evidently indicated that magma was moving into 

the rift zone. 

SUMMARY OF ERUPTION 

The 1959 summit eruption of Kilauea Volcano 

began at 8:08p.m. on November 14, 1959, in Kilauea 

Iki Crater after a 3-month period of rapid tumescence and increased seismicity. The eruption started 

from a single fissure halfway up the 600- to 650-foot 

south wall of the crater and rapidly extended in 

both directions to form a discontinuous curtain of 

fire half a mile long. Activity gradually ceased in 

the outermost vents and by the afternoon of N ovember 15 only one vent, in the west end of the crater, 

remained active. As the eruption continued, both 

the rate of lava extruded from this single vent and 

the size of the lava fountain increased. On November 

21, after the level of the lava in the crater reached 

the level of the vent, the eruption ceased, leaving 

a lake 335 feet deep containing 40 million cubic 

yards of lava. 

In the next 4 weeks, 16 additional eruptive phases 

ranging in duration from 321j2 hours (fourth phase) 

to !"3;4 hours (14th phase) occurred in Kilauea Iki. 

The last phase stopped during the morning of ·December 20, 1959, and marked the end of the summit 

eruption. All these later and shorter phases of the 

eruption appear to have been fed by the same ventconduit system that fed the week-long first phase 

and all ceased to erupt soon after lava reached the 

level of the vent. Backflow of lake lava down the 

vent, both during and following an eruptive phase, 

was exceptionally well recorded throughout the 

eruption. 

The volume of lava erupted into Kilauea Iki during 

'the 17 eruptive phases and the volume withdrawn 

by backflow is shown graphically in figure 2. A 

quantitative measure of the rate of extrusion and 

withdrawal is expressed by the slope of the lines 

in the graph. The lava lake attained its greatest 

depth (414 feet) and volume (58 million cubic yards) 

at the end of the eighth phase on December 11, 1959. 

At the end of the summit eruption, after the last 

recorded backflow on December 23, 1959, the lava 

lake contained slightly less than 50 million cubic 

yards and had a maximum depth. of about 365 feet. 

Rates of lava extrusion were generally much higher 

during the shorter and later er'uptive phases than 
E6 THE 1959-60 ERUPTION OF KILAUEA VOLCANO, HAWAII 

(/) 

0 

~ 40 >- , ___ • ______ )\ A _______ _ u '•--./ 

iii 

::::> 

u 

z 

0 

::::i 30 ...J 

~ 

~ 

LLJ 

~ 

3 20 

0 

> 

10 

0 Eruptive phases 

4 6 7 8 

14 16 26 28 2 4 6 8 10 12 

DECEMBER 1959 

FIGURE 2.-Volume of lava erupted into Kilauea lki during the 1959 summit eruption. Dashed line after the end of an 

eruptive phase represents backflow of lava down the vent. Each dot is a volume measurement. 

in the first phase. Maximum rate of extrusion during 

the first phase was 500,000 cubic yards per hour; 

during the 16th phase the extrusion rate was a 

phenomenal 1,600,000 cubic yards per hour. Similarly, backflow rates were higher following the 

shorter eruptive phases. ·Moreover, in all eruptive 

phases after the fourth there was little or no net 

volume gain in the lake. The increased tempo of 

activity during the shorter eruptive phases also was 

reflected in the height of the lava fountain. During 

the first phase a maximum height of 1,200 feet was 

measured; in the 15th phase the lava fountain 

roared to an unprecedented height of 1,900 feet. 

After the cessation of eruptive activity in Kilauea 

Iki on December 20, 1959, tilt measurements continued to show swelling of the summit area; this 

swelling strongly suggested that magma was still 

moving into the volcano and that the eruption was 

not over. Late in December, earthquakes along 

Kilauea's east rift zone, 25 miles from Kilauea Iki 

gave the first indication of magma moving out of 

the summit area. By mid-January the earthquake 

activity had migrated downrift to the vicinity of 

the villa~e.: of Kapoho, and on January 13, 1960, 

faults bounding an ol_d _gJ?.aben, which contained part 

of the village, were reactivated and the graben -began 

to subside. 

At 7 :30 that evening the. flank eruption began 

along a line of en echelon fissures that extended 

through the middle of the graben a few hundred 

yards north of the village. The main fountain area, 

2 miles from the sea coast, soon produced a steady 

stream of lava that slowly flowed down through the 

graben and reached the sea .on the night of January 

15. By the end of the first week of eruption the low 

graben was virtually _filled. Besides continuing to 

push slowly into the sea, flows began to spread 

laterally out of the ·graben. These flows gradually 

destroyed most of the village of Kapoho, the smaller 

community of Koae, the United States Coast Guard 

station at Cape Kumakahi, and a number of beach 

residences along the coast. Although the extrusion 

of lava had virtually ceased by February 6, 1960, 

the main vent continued to emit gas, pumice, cinders, 

"""' 
\)· 

.. 

CHRONOLOGICAL NARRATIVE E7 

and minor spatter until February 20 when the 

eruption ended. The flank activity produced approximately 160 million cubic yards of lava and covered 

about 2,500 acres, including about 500 acres of new 

land beyond the former coastline. 

On January 17, 1960, 4 days after the beginning 

of the flank eruption,· tilt measurements revealed 

that the summit was rapidly deflating, evidently 

because of a massive withdrawal of magma from 

the summit area. By· the end of January, a swarm. 

of strong shallow earthquakes was occurring under 

the caldera area, and new cracks and steaming areas 

had begun to develop on the floor of Halemaumau. 

Then, on February 7, a fissure apparently extended 

· up into the· still liquid core of the 1952 lava lake in 

Halemaumau, thus allowed lava to drain away and 

resulted in a rapid collapse of Halemaumau's floor. 

On February 9 and March 11 two smaller collapses 

occurred in the bottom of Halemaumau; the latter 

ended the summit collapse of the 1959-60 eruption 

sequence. Total volume of the three collapses in 

Halemaumau was approximately 29 million cubic 

yards. 

CHRONOLOGICAL NARRATIVE 

The 1959...,..~0 eruptive episode of Kilauea Volcano 

had its real beginning months before the first surface 

outbreak and miles beneath the Kilauea summit. 

Between November 1957 and February 1959 measurements from. newly installed sensitive tiltmeter 

bases around the summit indicated that the whole 

caldera region was tilting outward, apparently because magma was welling up from the mantle and 

accumulating in the reservoir several miles bene·ath 

the caldera. After several moderate earthquakes just 

southeast of the caldera on February 19, 1959, swelling stopped, and from May until August the volcano 

slowly deflated. Then between August 14 and 19, 

1959, a great swarm of earthquakes, accompanied by 

periods of spasmodic tremor from a source about 

35 miles deep just beyond the northeast corner of 

the caldera, was recorded by the seismograph net 

on Hawaii.· Evidently this activity again allowed 

magma to move into the ·conduits beneath the volcano, because shortly afterward rapid swelling of 

Kilauea resumed and continued up to the time of 

eruption. 

Little or no seismic activity accompanied the 

early swelling of the volcano. At most, occasional 

weak harmonic tremor, originating perhaps 3 to 10 

miles below the surface and lasting as much as 

half an hour, marked the upward migration of 

magma. Then in mid-September a sensitive seismograph ·at the northeast edge of Halemaumau began 

to record a series of very shallow tiny earthquakes. 

Although these quakes were small and barely recordable on seismographs only 1 mile away, their number 

was impressive, and by the first of November more 

than 1,000 per day were being recorded. Remeasurement of the tilt bases at this time also revealed a 

dramatic acceleration in the rate of swelling; it was 

at least 3 times faster than the rate of swelling 

measured during the previous months. 

SUMMIT ERUPTION 

FIRST PHASE 

NOVEMBER 14, 1959 

In midafternoon on November 14, earthquakes 

originating from below the caldera suddenly increased about tenfold in number and intensity. 

Throughout the late afternoon and early evening 

the entire summit region shook as earthqu~kes 

marked the opening of the eruptive fissure toward 

the surface. Then at about 20h08m a bright-orange 

fume cloud suddenly lit the night sky over Kilauea 

Iki Crater. The vigil of the "volcano watchers" outside the windows of the Volcano Observatory was 

over-the eruption had begun. 

At 20h30m, when observers first reached Byron 

Ledge overlook (fig. 3 and fig. 4), lava fountains up 

to 50 feet high were spurting from a line of discontinuous fissures (A, B, C, D, E, and west end of. F, 

fig. 5) halfway up t}:_le ~00- to 6.50-foot south wall 

of the crater. From the easternmost fissures (B, C, 

D, E, and F), lava.c~scaded down the steep forested 

slopes in braided ''fire falls" to the bQttom of the 

crater 300 feet below. Lava from rift A ponded in 

the higher western bay of the crater and thence 

flowed eastward through the narrow trough toward 

the main crater floor. Lava from rift E had reached 

the base of the crater wall and was feeding a small 

incandescent lava pad that was spreading over the 

36-acre floor of the main crater. Within a few 

minutes the lava stream flowing down from the west 

bay, fed principally by fissure A with minor contributions from B, C, and D, also reached the main 

floor and began to spread out in a second pad of 

lava. The two lava pads soon coalesced into a single 

flow unit that advanced slowly eastward across the 

crater floor. 

During the first hour and a half, the line of 

fountains extended rapidly in both directions along 

the crater wall. By 21 hQQm all the fissures ofF and G 

and the west end of the fissures at H were fountaining vigorously. Soon thereafter another fountain 

begain at I, relatively high on the crater wall above 

the lower part of the active fissure at A. By 21 h3Qm, 
E8 THE 1959-60 ERUPTION OF KILAUEA VOLCANO, HAWAII 

Lava of 1952 reextruded February 1960 

ERUPTION OF NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 1959 

Lava 

- -

flows Pumice-cinder-spatter cone 

Vents 

Pumice 

-

blanket Dot denotes main vent Slwwing 0.1-, 1-, and 10-foot 

isopachs; dashed where inferred 

ERUPTION OF MAY 1954 

~~ Lava flows 

Showing cinder-spatter cones at vent 

KILAUEA 

N £> 3557 

Q 

0 5000 FEET 

CONTOUR INTERVAL 100 FEET 

FIGURE 3.-Map of the Kilauea summit area showing principal 1959 eruptive f eatures in and around Kilauea Iki and the 

1960 collapse in Halemaumau. Location of outline and vents of the 1954 flow on the caldera floor is from Macdonald 

and Eaton (1957). 
CHRONOLOGICAL NARRATIVE E9 

fountaining had spread_ to the easternmost fissure 

at Hand was commencing at J, a very small fissure 

at the southwest end· of the crater. These last outbreaks marked the maximum lateral development 

of the erupting rift.; lava fountains, which were now 

playing along every fissure, formed a discontinuous 

curtain of fire 2,500 feet long (fig. 5, middle photograph) and up to 100 feet high. 

For the next half hour the entire rift remained 

active, and a swelling throng of spectators at Byron 

Ledge overlook kept a hushed watch over this awesome manifestation of Earth's beauty and might. 

Glow from the fountains, the "fire falls", the lava 

river, and the lava lake bathed the entire crater in 

a_ soft orange-red light. Small forest fires flared up 

sporadically on the crater walls, and burning treestheir bright yellow flames flashing like giant sparklers-were carried swiftly down the "fire falls" 

and lava river onto the lava lake where they floated 

slowly across the darkening surface until they 

burned out. . 

During this period of maximum fountaining, we 

attempted twice to look into the crater from the 

Kilauea Iki overlook, leeward and directly above 

the fountains at G and H, but strong sulfur dioxide 

fumes borne out of the crater by warm turbulent 

updrafts drove us back after a few seconds. 

The curtain of fire was short lived. By 22hOOm fountaining had visibly abated at the vents along H, and 

at 22h15m it had ceased there entirely. In rapid 

succession, fountaining ceased at G (22h40rn) and at 

J (23h15m). The fountains along I decreased to 

sporadic bursts of spatter by 23hOOm and continued 

in this manner until the early morning of the next 

day. As the fountains died in the outermost fissures, 

activity increased noticeably in the vents at A, B, C, 

and possibly D. 

NOVEMBER 15, 1959 

The curtain of fire continued to shrink through 

the night and the early morning hours of November 

15. The easternmost vents along E were dead by 

00h40m; the vent at F ceased fountaining at OPOOrn 

(fig. 5, bottom photograph), and by 03hOOm activity 

had abated at the remaining vents along E and at 

those along C and D. The fountain at A was confined by this time to one vent, approximately in 

the center of the fissure, and was consistently spurt-· 

ing to a height of 150 feet. The volume of lava 

issuing from this vent increased slowly as other 

fountains disappeared. At 03h10m all the vents along 

E were dead. The vents along C ceased fountaining 

at 04h10m; by 04h20m, I, the intermittently spattering 

vent, was also quiet. At about 04h30m the vents along 

D stopped erupting; only the vents at A and B were 

active. 

Shortly after midnight very fluid lava had covered 

the entire floor of the main crater. A few tens of 

feet from the base of the· lava rapids, now the only 

source feeding the lake, a dark crust formed rapidly 

on the glowing lava, and incandescence was restricted to the everchanging pattern of cracks that 

crisscrossed the surface. At 03h00m the first party 

(National Park Service) that went into the crater 

on the east side estimated that the lava lake was 

about 5 feet deep. 

Pale-blue flames, at times tinged with yellow, 

flickered above the vents along H, G, F, and E after 

fountaining ceased. These flames persisted for nearly 

2 hours as they gradually decreased in intensity. 

Fume, smoke, and oncoming daylight probably account for the fact that such flames were not observed 

along the western vents. 

Early in the morning the first U.S. Geological 

Survey party managed to get as far as the vents at 

I, where fountain noises were recorded on tape. At 

daybreak we made our second trip into the west 

end of the crater (fig. 6) in an attempt to collect 

gas and lava samples from the base of the main 

fountain at A. We were able to cross the vents along 

the west end of A and to approach within a few 

hundred feet of the fountain. The main flow of lava 

was directed away from us by a small spatter rampart, but occasionally a flow breached this wall and 

poured westward toward where we were working. 

Besides the disconcerting flows, which set vegetation 

afire as they advanced slowly toward us, we were 

continually broiled by radiant heat from the fountain 

and flows and were bathed in strong, at times 

choking, sulfur dioxide fumes from the dead vents 

upon which we were working. Moreover, incandescent blobs of gas-inflated spatter thrown 100 to 

150 feet high above our heads by the fountain posed 

a real danger. After remaining in the area for about 

half an hour to te~t various schemes for sampling 

the fluid lava, we climbed back up the crater wall. 

During the day, fountaining at J\.tincreased slowly 

(fig. 7). The other remaining fountain, in the B 

vent area, was very sporadic. During the morning 

it appeared to be dead, but early in the afternoon 

(14h25rn) it was reactivated, apparently at the time 

of an unusually large, but brief, surge of lava from 

the main vent. At 16h30m it was still emitting occasional bits of spatter and sending out a sluggish 

flow. By nightfall it was completely inactive; only 

the vent at A continued fountaining throughout the 

eruption. 
EIO THE 1959-60 ERUPTION OF KILAUEA VOLCANO, HAWAII 

FIGURE 4 (above and right) .-Aerial views of Kilauea Iki 

Crater before and after the 1959 summit eruption. The two 

principal overlooks into the crater, from which many of the 

pictures reproduced in this paper were taken, are labeled. 

Both photographs are approximately the same scale, but 

the one on the right shows considerable distortion. Above: 

U.S. Navy aerial photograph taken in 1948. The fiat, ellipWith all but one of the original vents dead, the 

pattern of the lava river in its course from the vent 

at A to the large deep eastern section of the crater 

was well established. The vent at A, at an altitude 

of about 3,460 feet, was on the steep south wall 

of the crater 60 feet above and slightly east of the 

small west pond (alt 3,400 ft) and 90 feet above 

the relatively narrow trough that connected the 

west pond with the floor of the main crater (alt 

3,130 ft). Extremely fluid lava emerging from the 

vent poured through a breach in the small spatter 

rampart at the base of the fountain and cascaded 

down (northward) to the channelway leading to 

the east pond (fig. 8, top photograph). Although 

the flow down the crater wall was deeply incised 

in the fountain rampart, occasional surges of lava, 

or blockages in the cascade channel, forced lava 

over the sides of the rampart. This formed a temporary braided pattern on the crater wall and sent 

some lava northwestward into the west pond. When 

tical floor of the main crater covers about 36 acres, and the 

very small, circular west bay floor, about 1 acre. Right: 

National Park Service photograph taken December 24, 1959, 

after cessation of activity. Fume rises from the main vent 

area. The surface of the new 370-foot-deep lava lake has 

an area of about 140 acres. 

the lava reached the bottom of the crater wall, it 

was confined in the narrow trough leading eastward 

from the elevated west pond to the main crater 

floor. Here it flowed in a sluggish stream averaging 

50 feet in width, for about 900 feet as it descended 

another 90 feet (5° to 10° grade) before spilling 

over the crest at the top of the lava rapids and falls 

leading down to the main lake (fig. 8, bottom photograph). As the lava flowed along the river its surface cooled to a thin dark crust which was continually stretched, cracked, and torn apart by the motion 

of the stream. At the top of the rapids the crust 

was further disrupted, much like ice breaking up 

above a waterfall; then it was rafted down the 

rapids by the Jeaping incandescent lava. Passing 

over the steep rapids, which were on a slope of about 

30°, the lava descended another 150 feet to the 

bottom of the crater. During the first night when 

the rapids were at their highest, pieces of crust 

were carried down the 290-foot length of the rapids 
., 

... 

CHRONOLOGICAL NARRATIVE Ell 

in about 10 seconds at an average speed of about 

20 miles per hour. 

Late in the afternoon two of us descended into 

the east end of the crater to sample the gases from 

the dead vents at H and to establish markers on 

the crater wall to measure the rise of the pond. The 

37-acre floor of the crater was covered to a depth 

of about 15 feet with lava that already had a relatively cool but very rough surface. The smooth 

pahoehoe surface on · the first flows that covered 

the floor had been broken and thrown into a jumble 

of crags by the push of later lava as it poured into 

the lake and spread fanwise at the foot of the lava 

rapids. Most of the lava now entering the crater, 

however, was flowing under the crust and beginning 

to form the molten lake that remained for a decade 

under the crust in Kilauea Iki. As the crust floating 

on the molten lake slowly rose and pulled away from 

the sloping crater walls, innumerable small pahoehoe 

flows oozed up from below to fill the gap between 

crust and crater wall around the entire periphery 

of the lake. 

NOVEMBER 16, 1959 

There was little change in activity through the 

night and morning hours of November 16; the 

fountain consistently played to heights of 150 to 

200 feet with a possible increase in the rate of lava 

extrusion, and the surface of the lake remained a 

craggy mass of broken slabs. 

At noon another party descended into the east 

end of the crater and walked across the frozen 

crust of the new lake to the foot of the lava rapidsa distance of about 1,000 feet. The lake by this time 

was 25 feet deep-10 feet had been added in the 

last 20 hours-but the rough crust was cool enough 

so that we could venture out upon it. At the lava 

rapids we could approach the turbulent naked 

stream no closer than 50 feet because of the intense 

heat it radiated. As it poured down the steep slope 

the lava was confined to a channel averaging about 

15 feet in width; in one place it raced through a narrow tube of its own making which occasionally was 

overrun when a heavy surge came down the channel. 

The fall was a bright orange, incandescent, twisting 
E12 THE 1959-60 ERUPTION OF KILAUEA VOLCANO, HAWAII 

ribbon that made a slurred gurgling sound as it 

glided past us. Along the narrow part of the channel, 

partly congealed lava stalactites, attached to the "' 

overhanging channel walls and hanging down to the 

level of the flowing stream, flapped back and forth 

as waves of lava struck them. At the bottom of 

the cascade a stationary wave of lava, similar in 

appearance to a standing water wave in rapids, 

crested 2 or 3 feet above the level of the stream ! -

just before it widened into a sluggish river and 

disappeared beneath the frozen crust of the lake. 

We remained by the rapids photographing the 

turbulent stream until increased fountaining at its 

source sent a veritable flood of lava over the crest 

above us; and, as automobile-sized blocks of semisolid incandescent lava began tumbling down the 

overflowing channel, we beat a hasty retreat across 

the swelling lake. 

This more copious outpouring from the fountain 

continued through the afternoon, and by 20h00in a 

thin surface flow covered the western third of the 

lake. At 21 hOOm the lava stream was again pouring 

beneath the lake crust and the surface flow had 

almost ceased. 

NOVEMBER 17, 1959 

Through the night activity gradually increased, 

and by early morning of November 17 the fountain 

was playing to heights of 200 to 250 feet. Cinder 

and spatter as well as pumice were now falling and 

accumulating rapidly on the rim of the crater leeward of the vent, where a new cinder cone was 

beginning to grow. Lava from the base of the 

fountain was largely directed northwestward into 

the shallow west end of the crater, whence it cascaded down over a broad slope into the lava river 

(fig. 9). 

At 10h45m the lava lake was an estimated 55 feet 

FIGURE 5 (left) .-Start of the 1959 summit eruption in 

Kilauea Iki showing the wax and wane of the curtain of 

fire as seen from Byron Ledge overlook. Top: November 14, 

1959, 20h35m, approximately half an hour after beginning 

of activity. Active fountain areas from right to left are 

A, B, C, D, E, and F. Fountains along A, B, and C are 

partially hidden by fume. Lava streams from E and from 

A, B, and C have reached the floor of the main crater. 

Middle: November 14, 1959, 21"30m. Maximum development 

of the eruptive rift and curtain of fire. Only area J, at the 

extreme right, is not shown. Small bright specks on flows 

are burning trees. Bottom: November 15, 1959, 01"15m. 

Vigorous fountaining is restricted to vents along A, B, C, 

D, and E, and intermittent spatter activity continues at I 

(extreme right). The orifice of one vent along F (extreme 

left) still glows, but fountaining has ceased. Volume of 

lava pouring down main cascade has increased. Photograph 

by National Park Service. 
CHRONOLOGICAL NARRATIVE El3 

FIGURE 6.-Two views of the fountains at A, B, and C looking 

eastward from Byron Ledge. Top: November 15, 1959, 

04hoom. Activity at A (right) is now restricted to one 

fountain, whereas two fountains continue to play from B. 

Slight activity at C can be seen just above the left fountain 

at vent B. Main lava river is flowing eastward through the 

trough from the higher west end of the crater into the lava 

lake, which is not visible in picture. Bottom: November 15, 

1959, 06hOom. Fountaining at C has ceased and has visibly 

abated at B. Horizon is east wall of Kilauea Iki Crater 

approximately 1 mile away. 

FIGURE 7.-November 15, 1959. View from Byron Ledge overlook showing the fountain at A, braided lava cascades down 

the crater wall to the lava river, the main cascade, and the 

lava lake. Fume rises from the activity at A and from the 

dead vents at C, D, and E. On the north wall of the crater 

a number of forest fires sweep up the slope. Photograph by 

National Park Service. 

deep-30 feet deeper than at noon the day before. 

Except for a small central area with remnants of 

the old rough blocky crust, its surface was now 

covered by smooth pahoehoe, which came partly 

from flows which had spread eastward over the 

lake from the base of the cascade and partly from 

fresh lake lava brought to the surface by widespread 

disruption and foundering of the crust. By late 

afternoon the last vestige of the old rough surface 

had disappeared, and the pond was exceptionally 

smooth and level over its entire extent. Around 

the margin of the lava lake and as much as 50 

feet from shore, torchlike jets of yellow flame 

marked the position of trees and ferns engulfed 

by the rising lava. Superheated gases from the 

rapid destructive distillation of this organic matter 

tore through the liquid surface with an explosive 

report, burned furiously for a few seconds, and 

then disappeared suddenly when lava shut off the 

temporary degassing conduits. 

The fountain continued to grow in size throughout 

the day and was reaching heights of 350 feet by 

late afternoon ( 18hOOm) ; at 21hOOm occasional bursts 

over 600 feet high were measured (fig. lOA, top left 

photograph). Tlre rate of lava outpouring also continued to increase. The narrow lava cascade characteristic of the three preceding days rapidly evolved 

into a broad turbulent fall that again discharged 
. E14 THE 1959-60 ERUPTION OF KILAUEA VOLCANO, HAWAII 

FIGURE 8.-Views from the west end of Kilauea lki overlook 

showing the main fountain, lava river, cascades, and lava 

lake. Top: November 16, 1959, 15h00"'. The main fountain, 

about 150 feet high, feeds the incised lava cascade that 

pours down the steep slope to the river. Note extreme turbulence at base of cascade. Bottom: November 16, 1959, 

15hoom. East end of the lava river and the rapids and falls 

along the main cascade feeding the lava lake. 

its load beneath the crust of the deepening lake. 

At night the everchanging pattern of incandescent 

fractures attested to the thinness of the lake's crust 

as the surface rose like that of water in a filling 

reservoir. 

With the increase in fountain height, pumice was 

wafted high into the air by the hot turbulently rising 

fume cloud, and cinder and spatter accumulated 

rapidly on the cone. Eight hundred feet southwest 

of the fountain, trees stripped of foliage and bathed 

in fountain light stood like glowing skeletons as 

incandescent pumice rained down upon them, and 

3,500 feet southwest of the fountain, pumice was 

beginning to form a thin blanket on the Crater Rim 

road. Large arcuate segments of the steep cone, 

perched precariously on the crater rim above the 

FIGURE 9.-November 17, 1959, 13hoom. Same view as figure 8 

(top photograph), showing incr eased fountaining and a 

higher river bed raised by numerous overflows along its 

banks. Note lava river disappearing in the crusted-over 

channel and reappearing farther downstream as an incandescent sheet. 

fountain, occasionally broke loose and slid and 

tumbled down into the vent. 

NOVEMBER 18, 1959 

During the night and early morning of November 

18 conditions remained virtually unchanged. The 

fountain continued shooting to heights of 600 feet 

and light pumice continued to shower the area leeward of the fountain; by 08hOOm, 1 to 11/2 inches 

of pumice had fallen on the Crater Rim road. 

Activity once more gradually increased during 

the morning, and by 13h50m the fountain was reaching heights of 750 to 800 feet. At 12h0Qm the lava 

lake was 112 feet deep and was rising at the impressive rate of nearly 3 feet per hour. 

Emission of hot gases, accompanied by subsurface 

detonations in the crater wall above the lava lake, 

was first noted during the midday trip into the east 

end of the crater to measure the lake depth. The 

gases, which contained abundant water vapor and 

probably methane and had a strong organic odor, 

were escaping from joints and fractures in the old 

rocks as much as 50 feet above the lake surface. 

Many of the emission areas were hot enough to 

char the surrounding vegetation, but no flames were 

visible. Most of the explosions occurred a few feet 

below the surface and were accompanied by a dull 

muffled report; some were close enough to the surface, however, to blast out small explosion craters. 

The gases were evidently derived from the destructive distillation of humic material and vegetation 
CHRONOLOGICAL NARRATIVE E15 

and from the vaporization of vadose water in the 

crater wall as it was covered by the rapidly rising 

lava. Explosions probably resulted from the ignition 

of mixtures of this gas and air, which accumulated 

in the permeable crater wall near the edge of the 

rising lake. 

Through the afternoon the fountain continued to 

grow in size, and at 19hOOm it reached a height of 

1,050 feet. The lava river was a 300-foot-wide band 

of uncrusted incandescent fluid pouring into the 

lake; there was only a slight break at the top of 

the rapidly vanishing cascade (fig. 10, middle and 

bottom left photographs). At 23h15m the depth of 

the lake reached 150 feet, an increase of 38 feet in 

11 hours. 

During a nighttime trip into the crater to measure 

the height of the lake, pale blue wispy flames were 

seen flickering over many of the steaming areas 

along the crater wall. The flames were very feeble 

and intermittent; even the slight disturbance of 

the air in the vicinity of a vent caused by a person 

walking past it commonly induced the flame to 

flash on or off. 

NOVEMBER 19, 1959 

At 00b25m, November 19, the lake reached the 

top of the main cascade ; its thin crust, still laced 

with a network of incandescent cracks and festooned 

with arcuate glowing overflows, .was continually 

foundering and reforming. 

Through the early morning the fountain remained 

virtually unchanged. It consistently reached heights 

of about 1,000 feet and occasional bursts reached 

1,150 feet. The output of lava and pumice was 

enormous and still appeared to be increasing. Slides 

from the inner face of the cone, or possibly some 

other constriction in the orifice of the vent, occasionally reduced the fountain height and at the 

some time deflected a part of the fountain northward 

across the lava river to form spectacular V-shaped 

jets (fig. 10, top right photograph). 

Pumice from the fountain continued to fall like 

black rain on the cone and the area far to the 

leeward. As the liquid lava burst from the vent 

and rose in a throbbing stream into the sky, larger 

clots of material continued to enlarge and. fragment 

as the gases dissolved in them boiled off far above 

the vent. The top of the cone had reached an 

altitude of about 3,830 feet above sea level, about 

160 feet above the ledge (alt 3,670 ft) on which it 

was building and 370 feet above the vent. 

At 11h50m the lake had attained a depth of 190 

feet and, in spite of its increasing area, was filling 

at a rate in excess of 3 feet per hour. With the main 1 

cascade buried, the impetus to flow under the crust 

and only slightly disturb the surface was removed. 

Where the broad river joined the lake, it now spread 

~ut across the width of the lake driving the rough 

blocky crust before it. In. response to this general 

thrust from the west on the crust, arcuate pressure 

ridges 5 to 10 feet high began to form around the 

eastern margin of the lake. 

Under the continued rain of pumice and 'cinder, 

the cone was growing rapidly, but it was also 

becoming very unstable. The top of the cone, as it 

was viewed from the Kilauea Iki overlook early in 

the afternoon, was about 100 feet above the level 

of the road. The vent side was nearly a vertical 

wall with a slight overhang at the top. By late 

afternoon, however, the entire top of the structure 

had collapsed, so that the apex of the cone was no 

longer visible above the level of the road. 

During the afternoon, the now rampant fountain 

for the first time threw heavy spatter onto the 

north crater wall, approximately 900 feet from the 

vent. The impact of this material on the thoroughly 

desiccated remains of plants and soil so long exposed 

to the intense radiant heat of the fountain generated 

an ominous boiling dark-brown cloud of dust that 

rose to join the swirling fume column ascending 

above the vent. 

At 21 h15m the lava lake was 225 feet deep and 

was rising at a rate of 4 feet per hour. As we observed the lake surface from the crater rim, it 

appeared that more and more lava was flowing 

across the top of the lake, and the breakout of 

small flows in front of the larger advancing fronts 

suggested considerable gradients (locally, at least) 

from west to east across the lake. The short river 

pouring out of the vent area at this time was more 

than 500 feet wide and only a few lava islands 

impeded its flow into the lake (fig. 11). 

NOVEMBER 20, 1959 

Fountaining and rate of lava output remained 

virtually unchanged throughout November 20. The 

cone continued to slump and widen its base (fig. 12), 

but its height increased very slowly. Much of the 

ejecta, now being hurled to the higher parts of the 

cone, consisted of very fluid spatter that accumulated in thin rootless flows and oozed downhill after 

landing. Because of slight variations in wind direction or a change in the inclination of a fountain jet, 

many of these very fluid masses were hurled beyond 

the area already covered by earlier ejecta, where 

they fell as cow-dung bombs, often setting the forest 

afire. Leeward of the cone, cooler pumice continued 
El6 THE 1959-60 ERUPTION OF KILAUEA VOLCANO, HAWAII 

( 
CHRONOLOGICAL NARRATIVE El7 

to fall in great quantities; at noon the maximum 

~hickness on the Crater Rim road was 8 inches. 

At 12h07m the lake was 270 feet deep, and the 

crests of some of the pressure ridges at the east 

end of the lake were 10 to 15 feet higher and still 

appeared to be pushing .slowly upward. 

By early evening the lake's surface had reached 

the v~nt, and it extended as a single flat sheet over 

the entire crater. The fountain was still playing to 

heights of 800 to 1,000 feet, and occasionally hot 

gas, without liquid lava, burst out with almost explosive violence between the cone and fountain. 

NOVEMBER 21, 1959 

An indication of a leveling off, or a possible decrease in activity, was first noted when the depth 

of the lake was measured at 09h30m, November 21. 

The lake was 320 feet deep, and the rate of filling 

during the last 20 hours had decreased to 21/2 feet 

per hour. By this time, also, the exceptionally level 

surface of the lake (fig. 13, bottom photograph) had 

risen above the level of the vent, and the fountain 

was blasting through several feet of very fluid lake 

lava before jetting skyward. This agitation in the 

lake at the base of the fountain generated large 

waves-much like a localized disturbance in a body 

of water-which traveled the short distance across 

the pond to the opposite shore where they broke 

like waves on a beach. (See fig. 30.) Spatter falling 

from heights as great as 800 feet also agitated the 

fluid lava lake around the fountain (fig. 13, top 

photograph). (Also see fig. 30.) Immediately after 

the impact of a mass of spatter, a narrow spout of 

lava leaped far above the surface and then fell back 

into the lake. Some of these impact rebounds rose 

at least 30 feet, and at times hundreds danced at 

once over the surface of the lake. 

Through the day the fountain continued to jet 

over the lake, and it appeared that the vent was 

being slowly built up by the accumulation of cinder 

and spatter along the ramparts that extended into 

the lake at a rate faster than the rise of the enFIGURE 10 (left) .-Development of lava fountain and rise of 

lava lake during the first phase of activity. Photographs 

are from Byron Ledge overlook. Top left: November 17, 

1959, 20"30m. 400-foot fountain with relatively small lava 

output. Lava lake is approximately 75 feet deep. Note 

nearly horizontal pumice plume wafting off top of fountain. 

Photograph by National Park Service. Middle left: November 18, 1959, 17"30m. 850-foot vertical fountain with greatly 

increased lava output. Lava lake is approximately 130 feet 

deep. Bottom left: November 18, 1959, 22"00m. V-shaped 

fountain with vertical jet about 650 feet high. Growing cone 

at left of fountain has just been deluged with a shower of 

FIGURE 11.-November 18, 1959, 22"00m. Base of lava fountain 

and broad lava river viewed from west end of Kilauea Iki 

overlook. Note the incandescent spatter of fountain discharge on the wall of the crater opposite the fountain. 

FIGURE 12.-November 20, 1959, early afternoon. Fountain 

and cone from the north end of Byron Ledge, showing 

prominent slump features along inner face of cone. 

incandescent spatter. Lava lake, approximately 150 feet 

deep, has almost reached top of main cascade. Top right: 

November 19, 1959, 05"00m. 800-foot, V-shaped fountain. 

Slightly larger cone is being bombarded by spatter. Lava 

lake, 170 f eet deep, is beginning to cover lava river. Middle 

right: November 19, 1959, 20"30m. 1,000-foot massive fountain and broad. lava river. Lake is approximately 220 feet 

deep. Bottom right: November 21, 1959, 06"oom. Lava lake, 

approximately 315 feet deep, has reached vent, and ejecta 

from the 750-foot fountain are falling directly on lake 

surface. 
E18 THE 1959-60 ERUPTIO OF KILAUEA VOLCANO, HAWAII 

. -

FIGURE 13.-Fountain and lake during the last day of the 

first phase, viewed from Kilauea lki overlook. Top : November 21, 1959, 12h30m. Relatively small fountain with ejecta 

falling directly upon the lake surface. Bottom: November 

21, 1959, 13hoom. Exceptionally level surface of the 330-

foot-deep lava lake. Lighter areas and bands are fluid lava 

oozing and squeezing up around foundering plates of the 

crust on the continually reworked surface. 

FIGURE 14.-November 21, 1959, 18hoom. Northward-jetting 

fountain is blasting through the lake lava and debris is 

falling on the lake surface. View is from Byron Ledge . 

croaching lava (fig. 14). However, at 19h25m, enough 

lake lava apparently found its way into the upper 

parts of the conduit to cap the vent effectively, and 

within 40 seconds the fountain decreased from a 

spurting giant 700 feet high to a few gas bubbles 

rising from the lava over the vent area. 

Such was the unexpected end of the first phase 

of the summit eruption. It lasted half an hour less 

than one week and filled Kilauea Iki Crater to a 

depth of 335 feet with approximately 40 million 

cubic yards of lava. 

NOVEMBER 22, 1959 

The first light of morning on November 22 revealed a yellowish-white cap on the strongly degassing cone. Later in the day, during a gas-sampling 

trip to the top of the new cone, we were subjected 

to very strong choking sulfur dioxide gas and found 

it necessary to breathe through dampened rags for 

brief forays into the gas-charged atmosphere or to 

use gas masks for a longer stay. The color on the 

cone was due to the alteration of pumice to a 
CHRONOLOGICAL NARRATIVE E19 

hygroscopic yellow material and to sublimates of 

white sulfates and yellow sulfur forming. on the 

pumice. 

After fountaining ceased, pahoehoe flows oozing 

up through. fractures in the crust and pouring up 

over the edges of foundering crustal plates continued 

to rework the surface of the lake (fig. 13, bottom 

photograph). At 15hOOm, observers on the north 

crater rim opposite the vent first noticed liquid lava 

moving toward the vent area. After dark this phenomenon was clearly discernible, and at 22h00m a 

15-foot-wide stream of lava moving at a speed of 

about 5 feet per second was observed flowing into 

the grotto at the orifice of the vent. The lake of 

lava was clearly draining into the source fissure. 

NOVEMBER 23, 1959 

In the morning of November 23 we climbed down 

into the crater to examine the vent. Except for a 

few small pinnacles, which acted as local degassing 

chimneys, and the elongate pressure ridge at its 

east end, the lake was virtually level. But it was 

about 7 feet below the maximum height attained 

by the lava at the cessation of fountaining on the 

night of November 21. A few small pahoehoe tongues 

were still flowing across the lake surface, but at 

the vent the lava was completely crusted over, and 

only a slight incandescence was visible in the deeper 

cracks. 

NOVEMBER 24, 1959 

Except for the cessation of local pahoehoe flows 

on the lake surface, conditions on November 24 

remained virtually unchanged from the previous 

day. 

No change. 

NOVEMBER 25, 1959 

SECOND PHASE 

NOVEMBER 26; 1959 

At 00h30m, November 26, the second phase of 

activity was heralded by boiling lava and mild spattering in the throat of the vent.· By 01 hOOm the sky 

over the crater area was brilliantly illuminated, 

and 15 minutes later, when we reached Byron Ledge 

overlook, the fountain was 50 feet high and had_ 

produced a thick circular flow which had ·reached 

the north side of the crater opposite the fountain. 

In the cone west of and slightly above the main 

·vent, a small vent was spurting small jets of lava 

in sympathy with the pulsations in the main vent. 

The fountain remained small and rarely exceeded 

100 feet in height during the next 2 hours. The lava 

it was erupting was relatively viscous; possibly it 

was degassed lava that had drained back after the 

first phase. By 03h15m the lava had increased in 

fluidity and the height of the fountain had increased; 

between 03h15m and 11h00m the fountain averaged 

200 to 300 feet in height, and occasional bursts 

reached 400 feet. 

On a sampling -trip into the west bay at 05h30m, 

it was found that the flows entering this part of 

the crater were being extruded from at least seven 

openings in the old lake crust and were not direct 

surface flows from the vent. The subcrustal tubes 

feeding these erupting cracks apparently extended 

back 200 to 300 feet to a source under the relatively 

high and very fluid lava pad around the vent. 

Through the rest of the morning and early afternoon, the fountain continued to grow in size, reaching a maximum height of 1,000 feet at 15h30m. The 

rate of lava extrusion also increased during the 

day, but the amount of pumice added to the cone 

was relatively small. By noon, when the surface 

flows reached the east end of the lake, the fountain 

rose as a sporadic V-shaped fan, throwing floods of 

liquid lava onto the ramparts of the cone, whence 

it cascaded in bright incandescent sheets down to 

the lake. 

At 16h35m the fountain, which had been spurting 

to heights of 800 feet, died almost instantaneously. 

Backflow into a small bubbling pond over the vent 

began almost immediately. At 16h40m the pond 

drained away and exposed a veritable river of lava 

pouring underground. After a minute or two the 

rapid inflow deluged the chasm. with lava, causing 

a surge that rose to splash over the 50-foot-high 

spatter rampart. The lake then closed in above the 

vent, and at 1711 00m it appeared from the crater 

rim that the backflow had stopped; but later evidence 

showed that the lake must have continued to drain 

through channels under the thin crust. On a trip 

into the east end of the crater at 19h40m, it was 

found that the level of the lake was approximately 

10 feet below the high lava mark and was still 

subsiding slowly. A forest of "lava trees," exposed 

by the withdrawal of the lava, stood at the edge 

of the lake; many were still emitting flames as the 

last remnants of organic matter within them burned 

away. 

The second phase of activity flooded the old lake 

surface with an additional 23 feet of lava, raising 

it 16 feet above the highest level of the first phase. 

The total depth of the lake when the fountain died 

was 351 feet. 
E20 THE 1959-60 ERUPTION OF KILAUEA VOLCANO, HAWAII 

NOVEMBER 27, 1959 

In the morning of November 27 it was evident 

that a tremendous withdrawal of lava from the 

lake had occurred during the night. The resulting 

collapse dropped the lake's thinly crusted surface 

35 to 45 feet in the west bay and 25 to 30 feet in 

the main body of the crater, leaving a black ledge 

25 to 75 feet wide completely encircling the crater. 

During the day the only indication of recent activity was the emanation of blue sulfurous gas fumes 

from the vent. At night, however, these fumes were 

illuminated by sluggish streams and oozes of lava 

still flowing from beneath the crust and into the 

open vent. 

NOVEMBER 28, 1959 

The vent continued to emit copious fume throughout November 28. Fume was also rising from a 

number of jagged, broken pinnacles protruding 

from the relatively flat surface of the collapsed part 

of the lake. Many of these fuming areas appeared 

to be remnants of the degassing chimneys observed 

after the first phase of activity, which were subsequently covered by the flood of second-phase lavas 

and were again exposed by the withdrawal (drainback) second-phase lava. 

THIRD PHASE 

NOVEMBER 28, 1959-CONTINUED 

The third phase of eruptive activity began at 

about 16h30m on November 28, when blobs of spatter 

were again observed shooting above the rampart 

around the vent. Within an hour a 300-foot fountain 

was surging in the vent; by 18h15m a broad fountain 

was raging to heights as great as 650 feet and was 

pitching washtub-size masses of spatter onto the 

Crater Rim road southeast of the vent. The fountain 

continued to grow rapidly in height and reached 

1,200 feet by 2POOm (fig. 15). 

Only minor lava flows that were restricted to the 

area at the base of the fountain were observed during the night (fig. 16). The fountain, however, 

poured tremendous quantities of pumice and heavier 

spatter onto the crater rim in the lee of the fountain. 

Most of this pyroclastic debris was falling east of 

the summit of the old cone, and at about 22bQQm 

a new cone began to develop rapidly on the east 

shoulder of the old one. The Crater Rim road, which 

FIGURE 15 (left) .-High third-phase fountain from Kilauea 

Iki overlook. Top: November 28, 1959, 22•oom. Twin vertical 

jets shoot to heights of 1,200 feet. Bottom: November 29, 

1959, 09"00m. Inclined jets shoot to 1,400 feet and pumice is 

being wafted even higher. Blobs of spatter litter road near 

the guardrail. 

( 
CHRONOLOGICAL NARRATIVE E2l 

FIGURE 16.-November 28, 1959, 21"00m. View from Byron 

Ledge showing small incandescent tongues of very fluid lava 

flowing into the west bay of the crater from the base of the 

fountain. 

had skirted the south and east sides of the cone and 

heavy fallout area, was soon covered by 20 feet of 

pumice and was impassable. 

The tremendous impact of the heavier pieces of 

cinder and spatter that plummeted down from the 

top of the fountain was clearly demonstrated during 

the night, when chunks up to 2 feet in diameter 

rained down upon the road and shattered the 4- by 

6-inch wooden guardrail (fig. 15, bottom photograph). Other pieces smashing onto the road punched 

shallow saucerlike depressions in the asphalt surface. 

One large spatter blob that fell on Byron Ledge, 

north of the fountain, measured about 1 X 2 X 4 feet. 

Its fluidity was indicated by the detailed cast of a 

delicate tree-fern branch imbedded on its underside. 

On impact, the blob plowed out a crater several 

inches deep, and rolled back the sod of the forest 

floor around its periphery. 

NOVEMBER 29, 1959 

Through the night and early morning of November 29 the fountain continued jetting to great 

heights, generally as a single narrow plume. At 

01 h5Qm the fountain reached 1,350 feet, and a few 

incandescent projectiles attained heights of 1,500 

feet before arcing downward. During this stage, 

incandescent pumice was wafted as high as 1,800 

feet in the hot turbulent draft above the jet, and 

cooler lighter pieces were carried much higher. 

The constantly changing patterns in the surging 

pumice plume that resulted from variations in wind 

direction and intensity were fascinating to watch. 

Often, glowing clouds of pumice swirled directly 

over our heads, only to be carried far beyond us 

into the forest before falling. Between 02hQQm and 

midmorning the fountain consistently played to a 

height of 1,400 feet (fig. 15, bottom photograph) 

and by 09hQQm, 70 to 80 feet of pumice covered the 

road, an increase of more than 50 feet in 11 hours. 

Although no appreciable flow of lava into the 

lake had yet been observed during the third phase, 

it was evident at daybreak that the lake was filling 

slowly, apparently by subcrustal ingress of lava 

from the vicinity of the vent. By midafternoon the 

old second-phase crust on the east end of the lake 

had been raised about 10 feet above its former level 

and lava was beginning to squeeze up around the 

entire margin of the floating crust. Moreover, unlike 

the previous phases when lava flooded over the 

surface and maintained a more or less liquid level, 

the lake surface now sloped gently upward toward 

the vent. 

Occasionally, during the day, large parts of the 

cone collapsed into the vent and reduced the fountain to heights as low as 200 feet and deflected the 

reduced jets of lava toward the north (fig. 17). 

Otherwise, the lava fountain sprayed majestically 

into the sky. At 12h38111 bursts reached 1,500 feet, 

although much pumice was carried up to 2,200 feet; 

at 12h53m a burst of 1,700 feet was recorded, and 

until 16bQQm, the fountain consistently spurted to 

1,400 feet. 

At 16h24m the fountain decreased rapidly in height, 

FIGURE 17.-November 29, 1959, 08"00m. View from trail leading down to Byron Ledge showing the r educed fountain 

deflected northward by a collapse of the inner part of the 

cone. Note the new cone developing on the left shoulder of 

the old main cone (immediately to the right of the fountain). 
E22 THE 1959-60 ERUPTION OF KILAUEA VOLCANO, HAWAII 

almost ceasing entirely, and great surges of lava 

in the vent accompanied by loud thumping noises 

sent waves of fluid lava over the lake. These were 

the first surface flows of appreciable volume since 

the third phase began. Slowly the fountain reestablished itself, only to founder again when a large 

part of the cone slid down into the vent. Once more 

the fountain regained its height; but at 16h37m it 

foundered again, sending out additional surges of 

lava across the pond. Early in the evening it became 

apparent that a large part of the east side of the 

cone, which had slumped onto the lake the night 

before, was being rafted slowly eastward by the 

strong flows pouring from the base of the fountain. 

By 20hQQm this island had floated 800 feet from 

the cone and a distinct series of concentric pressure 

ridges were forming around its "bow". 

The fountain never fully recovered after the 

foundering during the afternoon. After 17hQQm it 

averaged about 600 feet in height and produced 

only a minor amount of pumice, although large 

quantities of lava continued to burst from the vent. 

Evidently, degassed heavy lake lava was finding its 

way into the conduit and impeding the flow of new 

material. 

The end of the fountaining came suddenly at 

2P47m, and once more backflow began immediately. 

The third phase of activity added 20 feet of lava 

to the lake, but this was 10 feet short of the high 

lava mark of the second phase. 

Backflow into the gaping vent increased in rate 

until 22h2Qm, when the seemingly bottomless conduit 

filled. Lava still continued to drain into the vent, 

however, but at a much reduced rate and without 

the turbulence that accompanied the plunging lava 

fall into the open conduit. 

After the cessation of fountaining, large parts 

of the steep unstable inner face of the cone began 

. tumbling into the lake, and the cone's glowing 

interior was exposed. Most of the avalanche debris, 

including sections of the cone as much as 50 feet 

in diameter fell toward the vent; the part that did 

not plummet directly into the vent was immediately 

engulfed by the backflowing lava. 

NOVEMBER 30, 1959 

The backflow had practically ceased by the morning of November 30, and the resulting collapse of 

the lake surface was relatively minor, averaging 

about 12 feet over the entire central area. Moreover, 

there was no crustal foundering like that following 

the first two phases, primarily because the secondphase crust was not completely destroyed during 

the third phase. 

Despite its relatively short duration, the third 

phase produced far more spatter and pumice than 

any other phase of the entire summit eruption. 

Crater Rim road was blanketed by more than 10 

feet of pyroclastic debris for a distance of over 

2,000 feet, and the section nearest the vent was 

actually covered by the east shoulder of the new 

east cone (fig. 18). In the Summer Camp area, a 

campground 3,000 feet from the vent, 30 inches of 

pumice was added to a 10-inch pumice accumulation 

laid down by the first and second phases (fig. 19); 

pumice fragments were carried 10 miles southwest 

of the fountain by prevailing winds. 

Early in the evening a large section of the cone 

slid down onto the lake, and the exposed interior 

of the cone remained incandescent for about 3 

minutes. 

DECEMBER 1, 1959 

Slides continued raveling off the face of the cone 

on December 1, and deep arcuate cracks parallel 

to the crater rim-the surface expression of larger 

slip blocks-were beginning to develop along the 

crest of the two coalesced cones. 

DECEMBER 2, 1959 

No change. 

DECEMBER 3, 1959 

On December 3 a trip to the vent area on the 

lake disclosed no evidence of fluid lava movement. 

A large pile of cone debris with a steep blocky 

front inched forward from the west spatter rampart, 

FIGURE 18.-November 30, 1959. Third-phase pumice blanket, 

southwest of cone, on buried Crater Rim road (cleared area 

between denuded ohia trees) . Main cone, in center of picture, is about 2,000 feet away; small east cone is behind 

trees on the right. 

,_ 
CHRONOLOGICAL NARRATIVE E23 

FIGURE 19.-Pumice blanket in the Summer Camp area 3,000 

feet southwest of vent. Top: November 30, 1959. Small 

shelter after third phase of activity; 40 inches of pumice 

covers ground. Bottom: December 15, 1959. Same view after 

the 11th phase of activity; total pumice depth is about 55 

inches. ' 

and a constant trickle of rocks rained down the 

inner face of the cone. The small west bay of the 

pond had a very uneven surface, and a high central 

area about 15 feet below the high lava mark was 

surrounded by a 100-foot-wide moat 15 to 20 feet 

deep. 

FOURTH PHASE 

DECEMBER 4, 1959 

At about 01 hQQm, December 4, slight spattering 

was once more visible in the vent, and by 01 h45m 

a small fume cloud, illuminated a pale red by the 

churning lava, was emanating from the orifice. 

Thus began the fourth phase of activity, the longest 

and largest of the eruptive periods except for the 

first phase. It was characterized by an unusually 

quiet outpouring of very hot lava and only moderate 

fountaining. 

Between 02hQQm and 09hQQm we watched the renewed activity from the north rim of the crater 

directly opposite the vent. As the scene was illuminated more clearly by light from spatter and churning lava, it became evident that the seat of activity 

was on the steep face of the cone about 40 feet above 

the lake. Two separate openings about 15 to 20 feet 

in diameter were clearly visible in the vent areaone was emitting gas and minor spatter accompanied 

by loud booming noises, and the other, 25 to 30 

feet to the west, was extruding a steady stream of 

lava that cascaded down the steep front of the cone 

and produced a small flow on the crust of the lake. 

By 05hQQm a spatter and lava rampart had been 

built up around the vent area, forming a large 

caldronlike bowl containing lava in a continual 

state of agitation (fig. 20, top photograph). Small 

streams of lava poured through a number of breaches 

in the rampart and occasionally a heavy surge deluged the entire rim-all of this was added to the 

small flow advancing across the lake. For 2 hours 

the activity remained unchanged; the small pond in 

the caldron continued to boil, and spatter blown out 

of the easternmost opening shot up to heights of 

100 feet. At 0711 41 m a small fountain suddenly appeared through the new flow at the base of the 

caldron rampart, and 10 minutes later another began 

a few tens of feet to the east. These two fountains 

played to heights of 50 feet for about an hour, 

when their activity gradually decreased, and by 

0911 00m they had disappeared completely. 

At 0911 45m we entered the west bay of the crater 

to sample the flows spreading out from the vent 

(fig. 20). During our stay on the lake the rate of 

lava output increas~d noticeably, and shortly after 

we climbed out of the crater (1P2Qm) the entire 

rampart, which formed the north lip of the caldron, 

was aflood with lava. During the next few minutes, 

as fountaining continued to increase, the rampart 

disappeared; It is very likely that the rampart was 

broken down and was carried away by the deluge 

of lava now pouring out of one large vent. 

Throughout the afternoon, the fountain gushed 

like a giant artesian spring. Occasionally it spurted 

to heights of 200 to 250 feet, and tremendous quantities of lava were · expelled onto the lake surface. 

New flows completely covered the old lake crust by 

18h3Qm, and at 23h25m the lake surface stood 24 
E24 THE 1959-60 ERUPTION OF KILAUEA VOLCANO, HAWAII 

FIGURE 20.-Views of fourth-phase fountain and lava flows. 

, Top: December 4, 1959, 06"00m. Small fourth-phase fountains feed early flows on the lake surface 40 feet below the 

vent. View from crater rim opposite vent. Bottom: December 4, 1959, 12"0om. Small spatter fountain plays in caldron 

over vent. Lava pours over breach in caldron and spreads 

across cooled third-phase lava in foreground. 

feet above the high lava mark left by the 

phase of activity. 

DECEMBER 5, 1959 

A marked increase in fountain height, accompanied by minor pumice production, was noted 

during the early morning hours of December 5. 

By 02hOOm the fountain was consistently reaching 

a height of 300 feet and occasional bursts of spatter 

reached 500 feet. At 031'00m the vent was still rolling 

out great quantities of lava. The entire lake appeared 

to be awash, and wholesale foundering of the crust 

cut the surface of the lake into a myriad of dark 

patches bordered by ever-changing ribbons of incandescent orange to deep-red lava. Temperatures 

as high as 1192°C-this was the hottest lava observed during the entire eruption-were measured 

in the fluid core of the fountain at this time. 

At 04h45m the fountain began to falter beneath 

the rising lake. At times the lake was thrown up in 

violent boiling surges over the vent, and at times 

the fountain burst through the confining tide and 

jetted hundreds of feet into the air (fig. 21). This 

surging continued for about 2 hours, until 06h45m, 

when the entire lake surface began to lower and a 

strong current flowing in the direction of the stillactive vent became evident along the south side of 

the lake. By 07hOOm the level of the lake had dropped 

about 10 feet and the backflow toward the base of 

the fountain appeared to be even stronger. In the 

next few minutes a small lake-within-a-lake, marked 

by a strong counter-clockwise circulation of lava, 

formed over the apparent backflow opening near the 

base of the fountain. Meanwhile, the fountain had 

regained its strength and continued to shoot to 

heights of 300 to 500 feet. At 07h30m backflow was 

still evident but the lake level no longer appeared 

to be dropping. The backflow gradually ceased, and 

by 08h30m the level of the lake had risen to within 

a few feet of the level attained by the lava 2 hours 

earlier. 

FIGURE 21.-December 5, 1959, 06"30m. High, exceptionally 

level lava lake a nd relatively small fountain of the fourth 

phase just prior to the period of backflow concurrent with 

fountaining, as viewed from Byron Ledge overlook. Crust 

of lake is continually foundering and reforming. 

.. 

... 
CHRONOLOGICAL NARRATIVE E25 

The ·lava in the pond was unusually fluid. Waves 

generated at the base of the fountain rose in 5-foothigh breakers as they washed onto the shore opposite the vent; the surface of the lake near the vent 

rolled and pitched like the ocean driven before a 

storm. 

Again at · 09hQQm the fountain began to falter 

beneath the rising lake. Seven times after 09h2Qm 

the fountain was reduced to bubbling at the vent 

and appeared to be dead, only to reappear with a 

mighty burst. Finally, at 09h27m, when the level of 

the lake reached the high 06h45m lava mark the ' . fountain faltered for the last time, and a dead calm 

settled over the vent. 

The fourth phase of activity lasted 32% hours 

and filled the lake to a depth of 395 feet; this was 

44 feet above the previous maximum that was 

attained during the second phase. 

Unlike the close of the last two phases, perceptible backflow did not begin as soon as the fountain 

died. Instead, the lake remained calm and level 

and only the incandescence in a few cracks revealed 

the fluid interior. By 0911 45m, however, the backflow 

had begun in earnest; from the east foot of the 

cone on the south rim of the crater a constant 

clatter and rumble was audible as the thickening 

crust was crumpled and dragged toward the vent 

by the retreating lava. Later in the morning it was 

evident from the crater rim opposite the vent that 

the turbulent draining had ceased and the backflow 

stream was pouring into a small pond that filled 

the vent (fig. 22). In the east end of the crater 

at 12h1Qm, the lake surface had subsided about 20 

feet and was still dropping rapidly. The large part 

of the cone that had floated out into the pond 

during the third phase, and which had been entirely covered by the fourth phase lavas, was again 

protruding from the lake. Lava trees had also formed 

along the east shore of the lake, but they were too 

fragile to stand more than a few minutes and they 

collapsed with the rapid retreat of the lava. 

Backflow at a much diminished rate continued 

throughout the day. At 16hQQm, from a vantage point 

opposite the vent, two streams, one from the large 

east lake and a smaller one from the west pond, 

were seen to be pouring over the lip of the vent. 

By 20h2Qm the smaller stream from the west had 

ceased and the stream from the east was relatively 

small. 

DECEMBER 6, 1959 

Backflow was still evident in the morning of 

December 6, and at 11 hQQm a small sluggish stream 

continued to flow toward the vent. Subsidence of 

FIGURE 22.-December 5, 1959, late morning. A steady stream 

of lake lava flows westward into the small circular pond 

over the vent. Lake level is approximately 15 feet below the 

high mark of a few hours earlier. View from north end of 

Byron Ledge. Photograph by National Park Service. 

the lake, measured in the east end of the crater at 

15h45m, was 33 feet. 

FIFTH PHASE 

DECEMBER 6, 1959-CONTINUED 

The fifth phase of activity began at 14h48m, 

December 6, when strong blue fume followed by 

minor bubbling was observed in the vent area. The 

fountain rapidly increased in strength; at 14h58m 

Rpatter was being tossed 50 feet high, 30 minutes 

later the fountain was cresting at 300 feet, and at 

15h54m it had reached 1,000 feet. Later in the 

afternoon, pieces of cone slumped into the vent and 

diverted the fountain northeastward across the lake, 

and, at times, extremely large arcing jets struck 

the north wall of the crater. 

Tremendous quantities of lava also poured out 

from the base of the fountain and formed a single 

flowfront that moved eastward across the old fourthphase lake and covered its entire surface by about 

17h2Qm. Between 2PlOm and 22h30m a number of 

small secondary fountains up to 20 feet in height 

sprang up through the new flow at scattered points 

on the lake. These fountains probably were caused 

by the release of volatiles that had been trapped 

by the flow during its rapid engulfment of the old 

crust. At 2211 00m freshly-set fires around the entire 
E26 THE 1959-60 ERUPTION OF KILAUEA VOLCANO, HAWAII 

margin of the lake indicated that the lava had risen 

above the old level and was setting fire to the trees. 

On a trip into the crater at 23h00m, we found that 

the lake had risen 38 feet during the preceding 8 

hours, an average rate of almost 4.8 feet per hour. 

DECEMBER 7, 1959 

The high fountaining continued until 00h23m, 

December 7, when it stopped very abruptly; this 

. marked the end of the fifth phase. Although no 

active backflow was visible, it was obvious by 

00h50m that lava was draining away, as the whole 

lake surface had sagged and was pulling away from 

the edge. 

Continued draining through the night again completely changed the lake by morning. The black 

ledge, now 50 to 100 feet wide, formed a glistening 

shelf around the entire crater, and the exceptionally 

level surface of the lake was almost 30 feet below it. 

At 08h50m two streams of lava, one from the main 

east lake and one from the smaller west pond, were 

still flowing toward the vent, and the crust over the 

main lake was locally foundering and reforming. 

SIXTH PHASE 

DECEMBER 7, 1959-CONTINUED 

This respite was short lived, however, and at 

15h30m, December 7, spatter that was again being 

tossed up in the vent heralded the start of the 

sixth phase. The spattering soon evolved into a 

low fountain, and at 16h15m it grew into a rolling 

boil of lava with occasional bursts shooting to 100 

feet. By 17h15m the fountain was a broad fan-shaped 

liquid curtain pulsating between 50 and 350 feet 

high and pouring out a great flood of lava. Later 

in the evening, occasional bursts from the fountain 

flung viscous blobs as high as 750 feet, but in 

general the activity was comparable to that of the 

fourth phase-gas-drive and pumice production was 

minor but lava output was voluminous. 

From Byron Ledge the liquid core of the fountain 

a}Jpeared almost yelow-white as it spewed up out 

of the orifice (fig. 23). By 23ll30m the inner face of 

the cone was constantly aglow from a persistent 

deluge of spatter, and numerous rootless pahoehoe 

flows, fed only by the accumulation of this falling 

liquid, cascaded down the flanks of this cone. 

DECEMBER 8, 1959 

By about 01 hOOm, December 8, lava had filled the 

lake to the previous high level reached by the fifth 

phase. At 02h30m we were at the edge of the lake 

in the east end of Kilauea Iki watching the rise of 

lava, when the fountain began to pulsate irregularly, 

FIGURE 23.-December 7, 1959, 23"30m. Low, broad fountain 

of the sixth phase and spatter-fed flows cascading down 

the flanks of the cone. Note the waves forming on the lake 

at the base of the fountain. View from north end of Byron 

Ledge. (See fig. 22 for contrast.) 

and abruptly at 02h45m it died. Within a few minutes 

the level of the lake began to lower rapidly and to 

withdraw from the crater wall, leaving a lava coating on the trees and old lake surface. By 03llOOm 

the lake level had dropped about 2 feet, indicating 

a rate of withdrawal of 2 million cubic yards per 

hour. 

The sixth-phase lava reached a level10 feet higher 

than that of the fifth phase, and the depth of the 

lake was increased to 413 feet at the cessation of 

fountaining. 

At daybreak conditions on the lake were very 

similar to those on the previous morning, after the 

fifth phase. The great withdrawal of lava had lowered the lake surface about 25 feet. One stream was 

still visible pouring into the vent and copious fume 

was issuing from it. In the small west pond subsidence was not nearly so pronounced, as large volumes of solid cone debris, aa flows, and viscous 

pahoehoe had aided in filling this end of the crater 

during the last 5 days. 

SEVENTH PHASE 

DECEMBER 8, 1959-CONTINUED 

The seventh phase started about 13h00m, December 

8, with splashing and bubbling in the vent area. 

However, unlike the previous eruptive phases, which 

either developed rapidly into a large fountain or 

boiled out great quantities of lava, the activity 

continued at a low level for almost 4 hours. During 

.. 
CHRONOLOGICAL NARRATIVE E27 

most of this time a narrow stream of lava continued 

to drain from the lake and to flow beneath the small 

pool of new lava over the vent area. 

Suddenly at 16h53r:n the fountain roared to 850 

feet. Five minutes later it was playing to 1,150 feet, 

and then gradually within the next hour it attained 

a maximum height of 1,400 feet. Coincident with the 

increase in fountaining, large quantities of lava 

began to pour from the vent, and within 2 hours 

the old lake surface was completely covered. The 

high fountain was also producing large amounts 

of spatter, cinder, pumice, and cored bombs (fig. 24), 

most of which were falling in the saddle between the 

main cone and the smaller east cone and were 

noticeably changing the overall profile of the cone 

mass. 

At 20h12m, the fountain stopped abruptly, and 

backfiow into the vent began immediately (fig. 25). 

At first the orifice remained open as it swallowed 

the returning lava; but later (2P50m) a counterclockwise whirlpool formed over the vent, much like 

the vortex above the outlet in a draining tub of 

water. 

DECEMBER 9, 1959 

The seventh phase failed to reach the high lava 

level of the sixth phase by a few feet, and by morning on December 9 the lake had subsided as far as 

it had after the sixth phase. Subsidence continued 

through the day as shown by the increasing prominence of several islands protruding through the 

FIGURE 24.-Three-foot, spatter-encrusted, cored lava bomb 

photographed where it fell on the east side of the cone 

during the seventh phase of activity. Photograph by R. T. 

Haugen, National Park Service. 

FIGURE 25.-End of the seventh phase of activity as seen from 

Byron Ledge overlook. Top: December 8, 1959. Fountain 

and lake a few minutes before activity stopped. Photograph 

by National Park Service. Bottom: December 8, 1959, about 

20h12m. Same view a few seconds after fountaining stopped. 

The cone is still aglow from incandescent spatter, and the 

lake crust is already fractured and moving as lava pours 

back down the vent. Photograph by National Park Service. 

surface of the lake. Otherwise, the lake remained 

exceptionally level while its crust continually foundered and reformed (fig. 26). 
E28 THE 1959-60 ERUPTION OF KILAUEA VOLCANO, HAWAII 

FIGURE 26.-December 9, 1959, morning. Lava Jake after 

maximum subsidence following the seventh phase. Black 

ledge is visible along base of crater wall at the right. The 

large degassing prominence at the left is the cone island 

which formed during the third phase and reappeared after 

every later subsidence of the lake. Two smaller islands in 

center of picture are also degassing. The extremely level 

surface of the lake is maintained by continued foundering 

and reforming of the crust. 

EIGHTH PHASE 

DECEMBER 10, 1959 

The vent and lake remained quiet until about 

15h15m, December 10, when spatter was again observed being tossed out of the vent. Intermittent 

spattering continued for almost 11 hours before a 

fountain developed; this prelude was very similar 

to the shorter, 4-hour-long prelude to the seventh 

phase. 

During the latter half of this period of spattering, 

a small pond of incandescent lava, measuring about 

100 by 150 feet, slowly formed in the vent area. 

By 2POOm a congealed ring of lava around the 

margin of this small pond had raised the lava level 

about 30 feet above the main lake floor. Shortly 

thereafter, however, the ring was breached, and a 

small tongue of pahoehoe spread slowly across the 

lake toward the northeast. 

DECEMBER 11, 1959 

Activity in the form of 30- to 50-foot-high intermittent bursts of spatter continued virtually unchanged until about 02bQQm, December 11, when 

huge bubbles of lava 20 to 30 feet in diameter began 

to burst from the vent. Slowly the bubbling evolved 

into a pulsing fountain that would shoot up to 

200 feet or so for a few seconds and then die down 

to practically nothing; then it would rise to several 

hundred feet for a few more seconds and then die 

again. After 40 minutes of this sporadic behavior 

the "die outs" ceased and the fountain· jetted to 

heights of 700 to 1,000 feet. 

At 03h3Qm the fountain suddenly inclined from 

near vertical to about 45° and heavy masses of 

spatter as much as 3 feet in diameter were hurled 

almost 1,000 feet northeastward across the lake 

onto the main crater wall opposite the fountain. 

This bombardment continued for about 20 minutes 

before the fountain reestablished its vertical attitude. Spatter covered an area of about 1 acre along 

the crater rim to a maximum depth of 3 feet and 

completely denuded the lush forest growth (fig. 27). 

This was the only occasion during the entire eruption 

that fluid ejecta landed in this area, and it was 

indeed fortunate that no spectators were present 

on this ofttimes-crowded vantage point. 

During the rest of the early morning the fountain 

played to heights of 600 to 1,000 feet while the lake 

filled rapidly with lava (fig. 28). At 08h14m the 

fountain began to surge between heights of 200 and 

700 feet and finally decreased to a few bubbles at 

10h48m. Although the eighth phase was virtually 

ended, and backflow had commenced at a moderate 

rate, fresh lava appeared to continue rising from 

the vent, forming a thin pad of lighter material 

that floated above the streams of heavier lava 

chaining from the lake. Within the next 25 minutes, 

however, as the backflow rate increased, the pad 

shrank and finally disappeared. At 11 h25m the vent 

was visible for a few minutes, but by 11h40m the 

draining lava had filled it to the surface and a 

clockwise whirlpool developed over the orifice. 

Maximum development of the lava lake for the 

entire eruption was attained during the eighth phase 

of activity, when the lake reached a depth of 414 

feet and the area of the surface was 153 acres. In 

the nine subsequent eruptive phases the lava never 

again reached this level (fig. 29). 

The lake continued to drain throughout the day 

and evening. Crustal foundering and reforming of 

the lake surface was especially well marked during 

this period and appeared to be a direct consequence 

of the attempt of the fluid lake lava to reach a 

common liquid level in the concave bowl formed 

by the continual subsidence of the lake. In the 

evening this phenomenon was even more dramatic 

as crack after crack in the crust opened and allowed 

brightly incandescent lake lava to well up and overrun a small area of the surface before solidifying. 

In this manner an entirely new surface crust was 

formed on the lake every few hours. Crustal foun-

·• 
.. 

CHRONOLOGICAL NARRATIVE E29 

FIGURE 27.-Two views of area on the crater rim opposite 

vent deluged by spatter during the eighth phase of activity. 

Top: December 11, 1959. Denuded and burned ohia trees on 

the rim of main crater wall almost 1,000 feet from vent. 

Bottom: December 11, 1959. Same area showing spatter 

draped in burned ohia trees. Photograph by National Park 

Service. 

dering also took place to a lesser extent during 

periods of lakefilling. However, in this case, the 

lake surface was slightly convex and foundering 

occurred principally around the edge of the lake 

where lava flowed out in an attempt to maintain a 

liquid level. 

During the rising period of the sixth phase, the 

process of crustal foundering was closely observed 

in the east end of the crater. The process was cyclic 

and began with molten lava lapping over the leading 

edge of the crust. Within seconds, or at most a 

minute, a major crack would form several feet back 

in the crust parallel to the edge, and a number of 

minor cracks would form perpendicular to the edge. 

Then lava would rapidly well up in the major crack 

simultaneously separating the small part of crust 

from the rest and tilting the detached block so that 

it slipped forward, or was dragged under, into the 

molten lava. The upwelling lava also lapped over 

· the new leading edge of the old crust setting the 

stage for another cycle. 

DECEMBER 12, 1959 

By the morning of December 12, total subsidence 

of the lake was approximately 30 feet, and a few 

areas were still undergoing crustal foundering. The 

vent was once more open and was emitting a small 

amount of bluish fume, but no backflow was evident. 

NINTH PHASE 

DECEMBER 13, 1959 

The ninth phase began at 0511 08m, December 13, 

with feeble spattering in the vent, followed within 

a few minutes by a sluggish lava flow. Slowly the 

activity increased to a rolling boil of lava by 06h25m 

and then to a pulsating fountain oscillating between 

100 and 700 feet in height by 07h00m. The fountain 

vacillated in this manner for about 2% hours before 

steady activity was maintained in the vent. Lava 

extrusion during this period was extremely strong, 

however, and by 0811 15m the entire surface of the 

lake was covered by new lava. 

Steady fountaining lasted for only a few hours. 

At 121134m the fountain began to surge between 

heights of 200 and 600 feet, and within a few 

seconds, at 13h40m, it died completely. Backflow was 

not apparent for more than 20 minutes, but slowly 

the crust began to break and flow toward the vent. 

At 1411 35m a pad of lighter fluid material similar to 

that observed at the close of the eighth phase was 

evident over the vent, and the draining lake lavas 

flowed beneath it at a rapidly increasing rate. The 

pad soon disappeared, and by 1611 00m a vigorous 

stream was pouring back over the lip of the open 

vent. 

TENT H PHASE 

DECEMBER 14, 1959 

Draining of the lake continued through the night. 

At 0711 45m, December 14, however, lava began to 

rise in the vent, and occasional bursts of spatter 
E30 THE 1959- 60 ERUPTI01 OF KILAUEA VOLCANO, HAWAII 
.. 

)-

CHRONOLOGICAL NARRATIVE E31 

were thrown up onto the ramparts of the cone. In 

a slow beginning, similar to those of the seventh 

and eighth phases, this very intermittent activity 

persisted until 10h40m, when large volumes of lava 

began rolling out of the vent. Suddenly at 11 bOOm 

the foqntain roared to life, increasing to a height 

of 1,100 feet in less than 8 minutes and showering 

the cone and nearby lake area with tremendous 

quantities of pumice and spatter. 

The lake level rose rapidly as lava was added to 

it, both by flows across its surface and by subcrustal 

injection, and by 15hOOm lake lava was again interfering with the fountain (fig. 30). During the next 

half hour the fountain surged between 0 and 600 

feet and ceased finally altogether at 15h36m. Drainage was apparent within minutes after the fountain 

stopped, but no surface movement of the lake lava 

was visible. By 18h45m conditions had changed drastically; the lake surface had dropped about 10 feet, 

and a large stream was pouring from beneath the 

crust down a 75-foot-long channel that led into the 

vent. 

The crust of the lake remained virtually unbroken 

after the lOth phase activity, and minor crustal 

foundering was restricted to the area near the vent. 

Subcrustal draining continued through the night, 

and by midnight the surface of the lake had a 

definite concave appearance. 

ELEVENTH PHASE 

DECEMBER 15, 1959 

After only a few hours, the relative quiet following the lOth phase was shattered by the beginning 

of the 11th phase. The 11th phase started like previous phases with gentle spattering in the vent at 

06hll m, December 15, but unlike the others it developed into a roaring 1,000-foot fountain within 

a few minutes. The rate of lava extrusion was also 

high, and by 07h30rn new flows had resurfaced the 

entire lake. The high fountaining (500 to 900 feet) 

and voluminous lava extrusion continued until the 

end of the phase, which came abruptly at 10h25m. 

The lake started to drain as soon as the fountain 

stopped (fig. 31). At 1Pl5rn the lake level was down 

about 5 feet and an enormous flow was pouring back 

down the open vent. 

FIGURE 28.-December 11, 1959, 10"30m. Closeup of fountain 

top and view of lava lake at its highest level a few minutes 

before the end of the eighth phase. At this distance the 

nature of the fountaining lava is clearly visible. Large 

incandescent clots of gas-inflated lava glow bright orange 

as they spurt skyward in the core of the fountain; then 

they darken rapidly through tones of red to steely gray as 

they plummet back to earth. The high crater rim on the 

FIGURE 29.-Lava lake after the eighth phase of activity. 

Top: December 11, 1959, afternoon. Looking westward 

across lava lake toward cone and fuming vent. Fluid part 

of lake in the background is down about 20 feet below the 

black ledge (foreground) and is still subsiding. Bottom: 

December 11, 1959, afternoon. Detail of structure on the 

lava lake at east end of crater. Small pahoehoe flows and 

bulbous oozes of the eighth phase lavas (left) overtop the 

sixth phase lavas on which man is standing. 

With every filling and subsequent draining of 

the lava lake the black ledge had become more 

prominent. Over most of its length it now averaged 

100 feet in width, and in many places its precipitous 

extreme right, above the forest seared brown by radiant 

heat from the fountain and by burning undergrowth, was 

drenched in glowing spatter during the night when an 

avalanche of cone debris deflected the jetting fountain 

across the lake. Mauna Kea, an extinct volcano 32 miles 

away, shows pale blue on the horizon. View north from 

Kilauea Iki overlook. 
E32 THE 1959-60 ERUPTION OF KILAUEA VOLCANO, HAWAII 

FIGURE 30.-December 14, 1959, 15"oom. Fountain and lake 

from west end of Kilauea Iki overlook showing development 

of lava waves at base of fountain in high lava lake. 

scarp prevented access to the lake. In the small west 

bay of the crater, which received little lake lava 

after the lOth phase, but which was continually 

being filled by aa flows and slides from the 

the black ledge was much less prominent. 

TWELFTH PHASE 

DECEMBER 15, 1959-CONTINUED 

The eruptive phases were becoming much shorter 

and more frequent. At 19h30m, December 15, the 

12th phase began, and within 30 minutes after the 

first splashing in the vent, the fountain was jetting 

to heights of 1,000 feet. Again, there was heavy 

pumice production and a strong outpouring of lava. 

By 20h30m the entire lake surface was covered to a 

depth of more than 5 feet, and the lava in the 

crater was rising faster than 1 foot every 10 

minutes. This accumulation indicated the phenomenal extrusion rate of 1,900,000 cubic yards per 

hour. Then, exactly 2 hours after the 12th phase 

started, the fountain ceased. 

At 22hOOm, the wide river of backflowing lava, 

as observed from the cone almost directly above 

the vent, produced a loud roar as it poured into 

the open fume-emitting orifice (fig. 32). When the 

vent filled at 22h35m the noise and fuming also 

stopped, and a slow clockwise whirlpool swirled in 

a caldron 100 feet wide by 200 feet long. The rapid 

backflow during this period affected the entire lake 

surface; long arcuate tension cracks crossed the lake 

FIGURE 31.-Subsidence of lake shortly after the end of the 

eleventh phase of activity. Top: December 15, 1959, 11"15m. 

View from trail at east end of lake 45 minutes after the 

end of fountaining. The lake level has subsided about 5 

feet. The rough lake crust, swept toward the vent by the 

backfiowing lava, has left a swath of flat drag-marked 

incandescent lava between the crust and the black ledge. 

Height of black ledge above lake is approximately 20 feet. 

Bottom: December 15, 1959, 11"20m. View of lake from 

black ledge showing cone, fuming vent, and the band of 

new surface between the rough crust and black ledge. 

floor normal to the direction of flow, and shear 

fractures, parallel the direction of flow, formed 

along both edges of the lake. 

DECEMBER 16, 1959 

In the morning of December 16 the level lake 

surface, which still was undergoing considerable 

crustal foundering, was about 20 feet below its high 

stand at the end of the 12th phase. Around a part of 

the lake a moat 5 to 7 feet wide and 10 to 15 feet 

deep and incandescent at the bottom separated the 

lake from the black ledge. 
CHRONOLOGICAL NARRATIVE E33 

FIGURE 32.-December 15, 1959, 22hoom. A wide stream of 

lava pours back into the vent half an hour after the end 

of 12th phase. Huge rafts of solid lake crust, continually 

breaking as the backfiow stream converges near the vent, 

are mixed and swallowed with the returning lava. View 

from top of cone almost directly above vent. 

THIRTEENTH PHASE 

DECEMBER 16, 1959-CONTINUED 

The 13th phase started about 13h35m, December 

16, and, like the two previous phases, increased 

from a few bursts of spatter to a roaring fountain 

within a few minutes. The fountain then leveled 

off at a height of 600 to 900 feet. Lava extrusion 

was apparently not as copious as during the 12th 

phase, and it was not until 15h1Qm that the new 

flows reached the east end of the lake. At 16h35m 

the fountain began to surge, dying out almost altogether and then rising as high as 800 feet. By 

17h19m it appeared that a great inrush of lake lava 

was choking the fountain, and after a few unsuccessful attempts to blast through this "cold" lava, 

the fountain died. 

Rapid backflow began immediately after the cessation of fountaining. At 17h39m the entire vent area 

seemed to collapse, and lava poured into the opening 

from all sides. Thirty minutes later this voluminous 

backflow was reduced to a relatively narrow stream. 

About 21 hQQm there was a hard downpour of rain 

in the crater area and the sky began to glow brightly. 

The crust of the lava lake was undergoing wholesale 

foundering, and secondary fountains up to several 

feet high developed over much of its surface. This 

unusual activity lasted for only a few minutes, and 

the reformed surface again cooled to a darkened 

crust within 20 minutes. 

FOUR TEE NTH PHASE 

DECEMBER 17, 1959 

At approximately 02h15m, December 17, after a 

brief 9-hour interlude, the 14th and shortest phase 

of the eruption began. It lasted for only 13,4 hours, 

during which time a very erratic, surging fountain 

played to heights of 200 to 700 feet above the vent. 

Only a little pumice was produced, but toward the 

end of the phase copious outpouring of lava swept 

across the lake surface (fig. 33). When the fountain 

ceased at 0411 02m strong backflow began immediately. 

FIFTEENTH PHASE 

DECEMBER 17, 1959-CONTINUED 

Seven hours later, at 11 h1Qm, spatter was once 

more observed in the vent, and for almost 2 hours 

a small fountain bubbled to heights between 25 and 

50 feet. During this time a small stream of lava 

drained from the lake into the same conduit from 

which the fountain issued. 

At 1311 53m, December 17, lava suddenly began to 

surge from the vent, and 12 minutes later this culminated in an awesome and terrifying 1,900-foothigh fountain (figs. 34 and 35). The large amount 

of pyroclastic material produced by this huge fountain deluged the area around the vent and cone (fig. 

36) and generated a dark turbulent dust cloud that 

clothed the ominous spectacle in the crater in swirling darkness. The fountain remained high for only 

a few minutes; by 14h1Qm it had decreased to heights 

FIGURE 33.-December 17, 1959, 03h45m. Fountain of the 14th 

phase, from from Byron Ledge overlook, 17 minutes before 

activity ceased. The copious outpouring from the vent 

sweeps across the lake sm;face as one flow unit. 
E34 THE 1959-60 ERUPTION OF KILAUEA VOLCANO, HAWAII 

FIGURE 34.-Development of 1,900-foot-high fountain during 

the 15th phase of activity as seen from the crater rim opposite the vent. Top: December 17, 1959, 13"45m. Small lava 

boil in vent during early stage of the 15th phase. Stream of 

lake lava continues to flow back toward the vent. Bottom: 

December 17, 1959, about 10 minutes later. Fountain roars 

out of vent and is splashing entire vent area with liquid 

spatter. 

FIGURE 35.-December 17, 1959, 14"05m. The 1,900-foot-high 

fountain as seen from the U.S. Geological Survey's Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. Top of fountain is inside the 

pushed-up cloud bank, and tremendous quantities of pumice 

rain out of the dark cloud on the right of the fountain. 

FIGURE 36.-December 17, 1959, afternoon. Cone and end of 

road west of Kilauea Iki overlook as seen immediately after 

the 1,900-foot-high fountain of the 15th phase. Note the 

large masses of spatter lying on road. 

.. 

·, 
.. 

CHRONOLOGICAL NARRATIVE E35 

ranging between 500 and 700 feet. At 14h41 m the 

fountain, still pouring large quantities of lava into 

the lake, began to surge, and at 15h32m it stopped. 

For about 1 minute before the fountain died, lake 

lava drained back toward the vent. When the fountain did stop, the orifice was open and the stream 

of returning lava poured over the lip. By 19h00m 

only a small stream was still flowing into the vent. 

Throughout the afternoon and into early evening, 

avalanches were continually spalling off the inner 

face of the cone. Much of this debris, including some 

very large sections of the cone, slid directly into 

the vent and were immediately engulfed by the 

draining lava. 

DECEMBER 18, 1959 

Lava continued to drain from the lake throughout 

December 18. In the morning, reports of "splashing" 

in the vent from observers at Byron Ledge overlook 

were possibly due to occasional turbulence in the 

upper levels of the conduit. At 171130m a backflow 

stream still persisted, and fume emanating from 

the vent was illuminated by the churning lava. 

SIXTEENTH PHASE 

DECEMBER 19, 1959 

At approximately 02h40m, December 19, after 

more than a day's repose, the 16th phase began. 

For 20 minutes the activity was restricted to a 

small boiling fountain. Then during the next 25 

minutes the fountain built up to a height of 1,500 

feet. Great quantities of very fluid lava pouring 

from the base of the fountain flowed rapidly over 

the lake, and by 0411 05m, only an hour after appreciable lava extrusion began, a new flow had covered 

its entire surface. After cresting at 1,500 feet for 

a few minutes the fountain subsided and played to 

heights of 400 to ,800 feet until the cessation of 

activity at 06h16m. 

Backflow started immediately. At 0711 10m a 200-

foot-wide river was pouring into the open vent 

carrying great blocks of darkened crust that were 

torn apart as they approached and plunged into the 

open vent (fig. 37). The backflow was accompanied 

by considerable noise and moderate fuming. During 

the morning many active fronts of crustal foundering swept from west to east across the lake. The 

rapid engulfment of large segments of the crust 

generally resulted in a line of small secondary 

fountains as the entrapped gases were released at 

the surface. In the afternoon and evening, the lake 

crust continued to reform, but generally in smaller 

more localized areas and at a much slower rate than 

earlier in the day. 

FIGURE 37.-December 19, 1959, 07h15m. Backflow after the 

16th phase of activity, as seen from the crater rim opposite 

the vent. A 200-foot-wide river pours back into vent, carrying large sections of dark lake crust. Note that sections of 

crust, pulled apart by differential movement of the liquid 

beneath them, continue to float. Inner walls of cone glow 

where slides have bared the incandescent interior. 

SEVENTEENTH PHASE 

DECEMBER 19, 1959-CONTINUED 

The 17th and final phase of the summit activity 

probably began about 20h45m, December 19, when 

spatter was once again observed in the vent. During 

this phase, which continued intermittently over a 

period of 111,4. hours, no large fountain developed, 

nor was there any significant lava extrusion. Spatter 

was thrown as high as 100 feet a few times, and 

toward the end of the phase a small tongue of lava 

flowed out from the vent and covered about an acre 

of the old lake surface. 

Most of the minor fountaining and other activity 

observed during this unique 17th phase was probably 

related to the concurrent drainage of the lava lake. 

As there was very little evidence indicating an 

addition of fresh lava from below during this period, 

most of the spatter and flow material probably 

represented reworked lake lava. 

DECEMBER 20, 1959 

By 081100m, December 20, no further sign of liquid 

lava, either on the lake or in the vent, was visibleall activity had ceased (fig. 38). Fume continued to 

emanate from the vent for several days, and slides 

and rockfalls down the face of the cone were 

numerous. 
E36 THE 1959-60 E RUPTION OF KILAUEA VOLCANO, HAWAII 

FIGURE 38.-December 20, 1959. View from Byron Ledge overlook after all activity ceased. The black ledge, 50 to 200 feet 

wide and approximately 50 feet high, surrounds the entire 

lake. Vent and largest island continue to emit fume . Compare with figure 7 taken on second day of eruption. Photograph by R. T. Haugen, National Park Service. 

POST-ERUPTION SUPPLEMENT 

On December 22, 1959, a group of Geological Survey and National Park Service personnel went into 

the crater to examine the vent (fig. 39). At that time 

the vent was still emitting large quantities of choking sulfurous fumes, but it was possible, by breathing through a wet cloth, to approach the north lip 

and peer into the conduit. The upper diameter of 

the vent was approximately 100 by 50 feet, and at 

the lower limit of view about 75 feet down-but not 

the bottom-it narrowed to about 50 by 40 feet. 

Some of the rocks at this lower level were still 

slightly incandescent, but no liquid material was 

visible; nor did rocks thrown into the vent appear 

to hit anything but solid material on the bottom. 

The estimated depth of the vent, as calculated from 

the time required for a rock to fall to the bottom, 

was 200 feet. 

Two days later, on December 24, 1959, we visited 

the vent area again. Fume emission was considerably reduced, and some of the spatter lining of the 

conduit had spalled off; but, otherwise, conditions 

werE: virtually unchanged (fig. 39, bottom photograph). 

FLANK ERUPTION 

While each of the later phases of the eruption at 

Kilauea Iki poured its lava into the lake and then 

swallowed most of it up again, the summit of the 

volcano continued to swell rapidly. When surface 

activity ceased on December 21, far more lava was 

FIGURE 39.- Closeup views of vent. Top: December 22, 1959. 

Strong emanation of fume from vent, 2 days after cessation 

of activity. Lava flows in front of observer are from the 

17th phase. Bottorn : December 24, 1959. Slightly closer view 

showing only minor fume emission from the vent. Dense lava 

coating the wall of vent has already begun to spall off. Vent 

is 100 feet across greatest dimension. 

stored in the shallow reservoir beneath the caldera 

than when the eruption began. Weak harmonic 

tremor that continued to agitate the North Pit 

seismograph in Kilauea caldera indicated that lava 

was still moving beneath the bulging summit and 

warned that the eruption might revive with little 

notice. 

During the last week in December a swarm of 

small earthquakes began to record on the seismograph at Pahoa (fig. 1). By means of a sensitive 

portable seismograph the source of these earthquakes was soon traced to the east rift zone of 
:-

CHRONOLOGICAL NARRATIVE E37 

Kilauea southeast of Pahoa near the site of the 

outbreak of the 1955 eruption. Prospects for an 

early eruption in that area diminished during the 

first week in January as the swarm declined. 

At the beginning of the second week in January 

the source of the swarm moved down the rift zone 

toward the sea, and the size and frequency of earthquakes increased. The number of earthquakes recorded on the sensitive vertical-component seismograph at Pahoa rose steadily from less than 100 on 

January 8 to more than 1,000 on January 12. 

During the afternoon of January 12 the portable 

seismograph was again used to pinpoint the source 

of the swarm. At several places along the rift zone 

just north of Kapoho, a farming community of 290 

inhabitants 7 miles east of Pahoa and 29 miles from 

the summit of Kilauea, the seismograph was in 

almost constant motion as half a dozen earthquakes 

were recorded per minute. Foci of some of the 

quakes were less than 2 km (kilometers) from the 

seismograph and probably almost directly beneath it. 

At about 17hOOm, inquiry at Kapoho revealed that 

none of these tiny earthquakes had been felt, although they originated at shallow depths nearly 

beneath the village. By 20hOOm it appeared that the 

swarm had abated somewhat. 

JANUARY 13, 1960 

At about 05h45m, January 13, earthquakes from 

the vicinity of Kapoho increased markedly in size 

and frequency, and the zone from which they originated moved upward to a very shallow depth. Half 

an hour later, Mrs. Kongo Kimura, wife of the 

U.S. Geological Survey seismograph operator in 

Pahoa, reported by telephone that many earthquakes 

were being felt in and near Kapoho. 

When we reached Kapoho2 at 08h10m cracks trending N. 60° E. had already opened across the PahoaKapoho road on the west edge of town. The cracks 

extended eastward through the village along the 

Kapoho fault scarp, which bounded the south edge 

of a small prehistoric graben in the rift zone just 

north of Kapoho. In 1924 this fault had been reactivated, with a maximum· displacement of 12 feet, 

when the graben subsided during the· great swarm 

of earthquakes that shook the region prior to the 

steam blast eruptions in H~lemaumau. Although it 

was supposed that the large volume of lava withdrawn from the caldera region at that time was 

injected into the rift zone near Kapoho or discharged 

2 In the text that follows many features of interest will be mentioned without specific reference to any figure. All are shown on at least one of the nine 

time-sequence maps that accompany the text. Generally, the next map following the mention of a specific feature will adequately identify it. 

through it to pour out in an unseen submarine 

eruption beyond Cape Kumukahi, no lava reached 

the surface. Again in 1955, minor displacements 

occurred along the fault, .at the west end of Kapoho, 

just before the opening of the easternmost vents 

of the 1955 eruption on the outskirts of town. 

On the portable seismograph, set up beside the 

widening cracks near the west end of town, the 

level of seismic disturbance was about 10 times 

higher than on the previous day. Frequent large 

earthquakes kept the ground beneath our feet in 

almost constant motion. Low-pitched booming sounds 

accompanying the largest quakes heightened the 

apprehension of the quiet group of disbelieving 

onlookers who watched their village being gradually 

torn asunder. Minute by minute old cracks lengthened and widened and new ones appeared, although 

no immediate physical change accompanied even the 

largest earthquakes. 

A zone of virtually continuous cracking could be 

traced from the cracked road on the west end of 

town for about 1,500 feet northeastward along the 

Kapoho fault. From that point to the Koae-Pohoiki 

road, heavy brush and broken terrain prevented 

easy access to the fault. Where the Koae-Pohoiki 

road crossed the ancient scarp, it was striped with 

new 1/2- to l-inch-wide cracks striking about N. 65° 

E. and arranged in a crude en echelon pattern in a 

zone about 100 feet wide. 

By 08h59m at the north edge of the 0.6-mile-wide 

graben, movement on the Koae or north-bounding 

fault had vertically displaced the Koae-Pohoiki road 

· at least half a foot (south side down). In Kapoho, 

some of the. thin cracks seen earlier in the morning 

had widened to 1-foot gashes by 09h34m, and renewed 

subsidence of the graben along the Kapoho fault 

was clearly discernible. Along the west end of the 

Koae fault, vertical movement was even more pronounced, and by 09h50m the old railroad-bed road 

north of Kapoho was rendered impassable by a 

1-foot displacement (south side down) where the 

road crossed the old scarp. 

Although the Kapoho fault ran directly through 

the village, little damage resulted from the earthquakes and faulting. One house, however, which had 

been built directly over the old fault scarp, was 

tilted northward (into the graben) approximately 

15° before movement on the fault ceased (fig. 40). 

Because it appeared that an eruption might break 

out at any moment, inhabitants of the village, especially those living on the graben side of the fault, 

were urged to evacuate. Voluntary evacuation started 
E38 THE 1959-60 ERUPTION OF KILA UEA VOLCANO, HAWAII 

FIGURE 40.-January 13, 1960. House built directly over the 

Kapoho fault scarp tilts backward (north) into the graben. 

Photograph by Howard Pierce, Hilo, Hawaii. 

a?out 10hOOm and continued throughout the day; by 

mghtfall most of the village was deserted. 

Through the rest of the morning earthquakes continued to shake the area and the graben continued 

to subside slowly. By noon the maximum vertical 

displacement along the Kapoho fault was 11/2 feet 

and along the Koae fault it was 2 feet. Elongate 

collapse pits, some as deep as 30 feet (see fig. 41, 

top photograph), marked the fault zone in areas 

overlain by poorly consolidated soil or fill; from 

one of these pits, at the west end of Kapoho south 

of the Pahoa-Kapoho road, steam was issuing feebly. 

In the afternoon seismic activity gradually decreased, and by 15hQOm only an occasional earthquake 

was being felt. The subsidence had virtually ceased 

by midafternoon, although cracks continued to form 

in the graben during the next few days. On the 

south side of the graben, renewed movement along 

1.7 miles of the Kapoho fault extended east-northeast 

from a few hairline cracks on the old railroad-bed 

road to the base of Puu Kukae, where the fault 

branched into a number of weak fractures over a 

zone 300 feet wide. Along the north side of the 

graben, which was marked by a very pronounced 

scarp formed during earlier epochs of faulting and 

which exhibited greater displacement this time the 

disturbed zone was slightly longer. It extended from 

southwest of the old railroad-bed road to at least 

0.25 mile east-northeast of the Koae-Pohoiki road 

a distance of 1.9 miles. The maximum vertical dis~ 

placement along the Koae fault was approximately 

4 feet (fig. 41, top photograph), and along the 

Kapoho fault it was about 3% feet in the village 

of Kapoho (fig. 41, bottom photograph). Although 

movement on both faults was practically vertical, 

tensionlike gashes along the Koae fault west of the 

Koae-Pohoiki road indicated some minor rightlateral movement; that it, a relative westerly shift 

of the graben occurred. 

With the decrease in seismic activity and cessation 

of movement along the faults, the course of future 

developments seemed highly uncertain. Was this 

ominous quiet merely the "lull before the storm " . ' 

or m1ght the disturbance subside without an eruption as in 1924? The uncertainty was soon resolved. 

At 1911 35m, while we were discussing possible volcanic 

developments and plans of action with county officials in Pahoa, a red glow lit the night sky over 

Kapoho. 

Rushing to the area, we reached the west end of 

the Kapoho fault on the old roalroad-bed road at 

about 20 11 00m. From atop a small spatter cone of 

the 1955 eruption just north of the fault, we looked 

out over a spectacular curtain of fire, an almost 

continuous line of lava fountains 3,000 feet long 

(fig. 42) . Surprisingly, the erupting fissures were 

not along either of the two active faults which had 

suffered displacements earlier in the day but instead 

were aligned in a slight en echelon pattern, trending 

N. 63 ° E., just north of the center of the graben 

(A to J, fig. 43) . 

Conutinuing northward along the old railroad-bed 

road, we approached to within 100 feet of the 

westernmost fountains near A. A 5-foot-thick flow 

was moving slowly down the road toward us and 

a veritable flood of lava from the vents farthe; east 

was pouring southward across the canefields into 

the topographic low along the center of the graben. 

Burning telephone poles. protruding through the 

fiery flood stood like huge torches marking the 

course of the old road. 

The erupting fissure continued to split toward 

the east, and by 20h45m the line of fountains had 

extended to C. In this area one of the new fountains 

was playing to heights of 200 to 300 feet, whereas 

along most of the curtain of fire the fountains were 

between 50 and 100 feet high. The erupting fissure 

attained its maximum development at about 2P30m, 

when a short 100-foot rift opened at D. Fountaining 

then was almost continuous from D to C, a distance 

of 3,500 feet. 

Within half an hour fountaining began to abate 

noticeably. Along the west end of the initial out-
CHRONOLOGICAL ARRATIVE E39 

FIGURE 41.-Subsidence of the graben in the Kapoho area 

that occurred prior to eruption outbreak. Top: Koae fault 

cuts the old railroad-bed road north of Kapoho. Picture was 

taken January 14 (day after faulting) anrl shows the finegrained salty ash deposit spewed out by the steaming vents 

earlier in the morning. View is toward the northeast. 

Bottom: January 13, 1960. View westward along the 

Kapoho fault scarp in the village of Kapoho. Maximum 

vertical displacement is about 3% feet. Photographs by 

R. T. Haugen, National Park Service. 

FIGURE 42.-January 13, 1960, 20"00m. Initial outbreak of 

flank eruption. View northeast toward curtain of fire and 

first lava flows, half an hour after outbreak. Erupting 

fissure is about 3,000 feet long and lava fountains are 50 

to 100 feet high. 

break, from A to H, and in. the vicinity of F, fountaining became very feeble. At 22hOOm the fountaining from the eastern vents, between B and C, ceased 

abruptly and a dark cloud of ash from these vents 

rose into the air. In spite of the extinction of many 

fountains, the rate of lava extrusion continued to 

increase; the greatest volume of lava was coming 

from the vents between B and F. Unlike the flows 

from the westernmost vents, which spread southward from the rift, most of the lava erupting from 

E and vents farther east flowed in a northerly direction to the north edge of the graben where it was 

directed east northeastward by the high fault scarp. 

Here it was confined in a narrow trough between 

the southward-facing fault scarp and the northward 

tilted graben floor, and the lava was funneled into 

a narrow flow that advanced rapidly toward the s~a. 

As the hot fluid flow advanced across cleared fields 

of nearly barren rock, small explosion cracks would 

open with loud reports. Gases, most likely derived 

from buried vegetation, burned vigorously with 

bluish flames up to a foot or more in height along 

these cracks until they were overrun by the advancing lava. 

At 231145m fires in the dense forest west of the 

Koae-Pohoiki road attested to the approach of the 

advancing lava. Twenty minutes later a thin 200-

foot-wide aa flow, moving at an average speed of 

700 feet per hour, crossed the road and continued 

down the graben. 

Large quantities of brackish ground water (altitude of the vents ranged from 130 to 170 feet above 
E40 THE 1959-60 ERUPTION OF KILAUEA VOLCANO, HAWAII 

PACIFIC OCEAN 

Kaoko 

EXPLANATION 

Ill 

Approximate extent of lava 

coverage (01hoom, Jan. 14, 1960) 

Faults of J an.13, 1960 

U, upthrown side; D, downthrown side 

Active vents 

N 

r 

I 

0 1000 2000 3000 FEET 

CONTOUR INTERVAL 50 FEET 

TO POHOIK/ 

FIGURE 43.-Map of eruption area at 01hOom, January 14, 1960. 

sea level) first gained access to the eruptive conduits 

at about 23h15m, when a loud roaring noise emanated 

from the vents near H. Although the area was illuminated only by light from the fountains, a few minutes after the noise was heard dark steam clouds 

could be seen spewing from the vents, much like 

the puffing of giant steam engines. 

JANUARY 14, 1960 

Through the night and the early morning of January 14 fountaining gradually decreased along the 

rifts, and ground water continued to gain entry to 

the hot lava conduits. The decrease in activity followed no orderly pattern, however, as many vents 

or groups of contiguous vents abruptly ceased fountaining, emitted steam for a short while, and then 

resumed normal lava fountaining. 

At 01 hOOm the vents at C, which for 3 hours had 

intermittently produced light billowy ash clouds, 

suddenly began pouring out great quantities of ash 

and steam. This turbulent cloud spewed upward 

until 01 h50m, when the steaming abated, and by 

021130m the vents were quiet again. During this time 

the fountains from B to E continued to erupt vigorously and showed no effect of the terrific rush of 

water into the conduits beneath the vents at C a 

short distance away. 

Along the vents at F, fountaining ceased at about 

021100m and was followed by minor steam emission. 

The feeble spattering at D stopped altogether at 

031130m, but the vents continued to emit pale flames; 

at 04hOOm a number of vents in the G area ceased 

fountaining. 

At 041115m dense· black clouds of steam and ash 

again began to rise from the original steaming vents 

at H and the dead vents at F. Concurrent with this 

increased steam and ash production at H and F, 

the fountains between B and E, which had been 

spurting lava to heights of 300 feet, began to subside, and at 041157m, after a few minutes of quiescence, water entered the conduit beneath the big 

fountain area at B. Rapidly expanding gas bursting 

from the vent ripped out pieces of incandescent 
CHRONOLOGICAL NARRATIVE E4l 

wall. rock and shot them like projectiles into the 

mushrooming vapor cloud above. This spectacle was 

short lived, because at 05h01 m lava fountaining revived at B, G, and F, and by 05h30m, B was again 

spurting lava to heights of 300 feet. Within minutes 

however, fountaining again subsided, and by 05h50m 

another t].lrbulent column of steam was thundering 

out of vent B. These steam blasts lasted for only 

2 minutes before fountaining started again. During 

this period of erratic activity at B, weak fountaining 

revived in t4e long~dead vents along H and produced 

a number of narrow lava tongues that flowed slowly 

southward over the older cooled flows. 

Sounds similar to the roaring of a gigantic blowtorch began to emanate from the vents along F at 

06hOOm, and within seconds steam blackened by 

abundant ash boiled upwards (fig. 44, top photograph). This violent steam emission at F, bracketed 

by normal lava fountaining at G and B, continued 

for more than an hour. Hot gases that burst suddenly 

from the east vents at C at 07h40m were soon followed by copious steam and ash. Meanwhile, fountaining diminished at B but revived in the F area, 

and by 08h15m, when the steam blasts ceased at C, 

only an occasional burst of spatter issued from B 

whereas fountains up to 200 feet high played from 

the vents at F. 

The vents at C, which again began to emit steam 

and ash profusely at 08h50m, continued in a very 

erratic manner until about 10hOOm (fig. 44, bottom 

photograph). One or two vents "blew" for a minute 

or so and then reverted to fountaining. Steam and 

ash then roared from another vent and repeated the 

process. At 09h45m the vents at H were spouting 

steam again, and at 09h50m the vent at B, which had 

been quiet for more than an hour, revived with a 

big steam blast. Fountaining was then strong only 

at J and E. At F feeble spatter activity continued, 

and at C spatter mixed with steam occasionally 

issued from the vents. 

Except for a short period of steaming from the 

C area during the afternoon, steam and ash production had virtually ceased by 10h30m. Most of the 

steam emitted from the vents was light brown to 

black, depending on the amount of vitric ash and 

comminuted wallrock that it contained. Frequently, 

however, uncontaminated white steam, which was 

in striking contrast to the darker ash-laden cloud, 

spewed violently from the vents. At times, narrow 

jets of white steam, which appeared to be almost 

totally liquid and resembled the spray stream of 

large fire hoses, spurted outward at relatively low 

angles from the same vents that were producing 

FIGURE 44.-Steam and ash production from the early vents. 

Top: January 14, 1960, o7•oom. Violent steam emission 

caused by ground water rushing into the subsurface eruptive conduits. Darker steam cloud is choked with fine ash 

particles. Bottom: January 14, 1960, 10"00m. Violent steam 

emission and adjacent moderate lava fountaining. Note the 

volcanic debris carried high into the steam cloud. 

a steam-ash mixture. White steam trails also marked 

the graceful arcuate trajectories of large hot fragments that occasionally shot from the steam-emitting 

vents. 

The fine-grained vitric ash produced during this 

episode of violent steam emission settled over hundreds of acres northwest of the vents. Along the 

Koae fault, about 1,000 feet from the vents, the ash 

deposit was % inch thick, and as far as 5000 feet 

to the north it formed a thin film on plants (fig. 41, 

top photograph). Before it was washed by rain the 

ash had a strong salty taste due to occluded salt 
E42 THE 1959-60 ER UPTION OF KILA UEA VOLCANO, HAWAII 

particles that were carried along during the nearexplosive vaporization of the brackish groundwater. 

By 1P45m activity was confined to a number of 

fountains along a 700-foot segment of the original 

rift between B and E. Through the afternoon the 

fountains slowly grew in size, building a 20- to 30-

foot-high spatter rampart that completely encircled 

the vent except for a gap along the north side from 

which poured a steady stream of lava. By midafternoonthe front of the main lava flow, fed by the long, 

narrow lava river pouring from the vents, had 

advanced 1 mile down the graben and was within 

0.3 mile of the ocean. 

At 20hOOm the fountains were playing steadily to 

heights of 250 to 300 feet, and most of the lava was 

coming from a broad massive fountain at B. Activity 

at E and J was more sporadic, and the lava, especially at J, appeared to be more heavily charged with 

gas. 

JANUARY 15, 1960 

There was very little change in fountaining during 

the night. The main lava flow continued its advance 

toward the coast, gradually increasing in thickness 

and spreading laterally toward the center of the 

graben. At OPOOm, January 15, the flow across the 

Koae-Pohoiki road was more than 20 feet thick-its 

north edge was level with the top of the Koae fault 

scarp. South of the flow on the Koae-Pohoiki road, 

where the land surface rose gently toward the less 

pronounced Kapoho fault scarp, aa flows with local 

pahoehoe squeeze-out fronts were spreading southward from the main lava channel. By 0711 35m the 

total width of the flow along the Koae-Pohoiki road 

was 1,000 feet, and its south edge was half a mile 

from the junction of the Kapoho road. 

The main lava front first reached the ocean a few 

hundred feet south of Kaoko Point at about 081'08m 

and sent a large white steam cloud into the sky. 

The flow had advanced along the gently sloping 

2-mile course from the fountains to the sea at an 

average speed of 290 feet per hour. 

Four hours after the flow entered the sea, we 

inspected its steaming front aboard the Hilo-based 

U.S. Coast Guard cutter. Lava was flowing into the 

ocean along a 1,000-foot-wide front, from which rose 

an almost solid curtain of steam that was rapidly 

swept back over the flow by strong onshore winds 

(fig. 45). The steam generated at the flow front was 

so copious that during our 11/2-hour stay in the area 

we never observed incandescent lava and only occasionally glimpsed the dark, craggy top or front 

of the massive aa flow. Between ll/2 and 2 miles offshore from the flow front the ocean had a peculiar 

FIGURE 45.-January 15, 1960, 12•oom. Early lava flow pouring into the ocean behind a massive curtain of steam. V esse! 

is approximately 1,000 feet east of the front. Photograph 

by R. T . Haugen, National Park Service. 

green roily appearance in contrast to its normal 

clear dark-blue color, and, at about this demarcation 

between disturbed and undisturbed water, the first 

noticeable increase in water temperature was observed. Water temperatures were recorded at the 

engine intake at 5-minute intervals, beginning approximately 21/2 miles offshore, during the entire 

time we were in the area. As we approached the 

bank of steam clouds on a course perpendicular to 

the coast, the water temperature remained at 25 °C 

(normal sea-water temperature) until about 1% 

miles from the shore, where temperature increased 

abruptly to 28 °C. From this point to 1,500 feet offshore the temperature gradually increased to 33°C, 

and during the 45 minutes we cruised at this distance 

from the flow front, water temperatures ranged 

from 28 ° to 38°C. On a quick trip to within 900 

feet of the flow, our closest approach, we found the 

water temperature was up to 39°C. At this distance 

the air was warm and clammy; beads of moisture 

covered everything, and a peculiar odor, possibly 

from the decomposition of marine life, pervaded the 

area. 

Back at the vent area, small aa flows continued 

to spread slowly across the low ground between the 

fountains and Kapoho and inundated a number of 

small papaya and orchid groves north and east of 

the village (fig. 46). Through the morning and early 

afternoon, fountain activity, which was still restricted to the area between B and E, slowly increased, and the old spatter rampart grew in height 

and bulk as cinder and pumice accumulated upon it 

(fig. 47). 
CHRONOLOGICAL NARRATIVE E43 

FIGURE 46.-January 15, 1960, 15hoom. Lava fl.ow moving 

slowly through papaya orchard northeast of Kapoho. Lava 

fountain in background is about 400 feet high. 

In the afternoon, through the courtesy of the 

Hawaii Army National Guard, we obtained our first 

comprehensive view of the eruption from the air 

(fig. 48). A narrow river of incandescent lava pouring from a gap at the northeast end of the cone 

swerved first toward the north, until it encountered 

the high south-facing cliff along the Koae fault, and 

then toward the east-northeast along the fault scarp 

(fig. 48, bottom photograph). Confined between the 

straight fault scarp and the northward-tilted floor 

of the graben, the river of lava flowed in a straight 

narrow ribbon along the fault from the fountain to 

the sea, where its advancing front was hidden beneath turbulent clouds of steam (fig. 48, top photograph). 

Fountaining from the vents at E and J became 

very sporadic during the afternoon and evening, and 

at about 1811 00m, a spatter bridge developed between 

them, separating E from the rest of the active vents 

(fig. 47, bottom photograph). For a while strong 

fountaining continued at B and J, but by 2011 40m the 

vents at J apparently ceased fountaining altogether 

and the principal activity was restricted to B, where 

a broad fountain shot to heights of 400 feet. With 

the increased fountain height, pumice and cinder 

accumulated rapidly on the new cone, and by 2311 45m 

it was estimated to be 80 feet high. 

At the seacoast the lava flow continued to broaden 

its front, and by 2011 55m it was more than 300 feet 

beyond the original shoreline and had advanced 

southward to within a few hundred feet of the 

entrance to Higashi Pond. Billowing steam clouds 

rolling upward from the flow front were carried 

FIGURE 47.-Early views of main vent area. Top: January 15, 

1960, 15"00"'. Main fountain area (vents E-J-B) showing 

initial development of cinder-pumice cone. Note the fully 

leafed papaya trees in foreground. Bottom: January 15, 

1960, 19"00m. View northward showing, left to right, the 

glowing orifice over ~ent E, two fountains in the J area, 

and the massive fountain in the B area. 

back over the flow by the onshore winds. Here, the 

steam clouds caught the glow from the incandescent 

river of lava and illuminated the countryside with 

a soft eP.rie red light. 

JANUARY 16, 1960 

Fountaining at B continued to increase through 

the night. At 02Itl5m, January 16, the fountain was 

consistently reaching heights of 550 to 600 feet, and 

at 0311 45m, 600 to 700 feet; occasional bursts reached 

900 feet. 

An aa flow, creeping southward along the seacoast 

from the end of the main lava channel near Kaoko, 

advanced to the entrance of Higashi Pond during 

the night, but at 0711 30m it had temporarily ceased 
E44 THE 1959- 60 ERUPTION OF KILA CEr\ VOLCANO, HAWAII 

FIGURE 48.-Aerial views of eruption area. Top: January 15, 

1960. View southwestward of steam clouds over the lava 

front at the ocean. In the background, under wing of plane, 

the lava fountains and fume cloud are visible. Bottom: January 15, 1960. View northward of the fountains and cone 

showing the lava river pouring from a breach in the cone 

and flowing against the Koae fault scarp north of the cone. 

flowing. Elsewhere, the flows continued to spread 

southward across the floor of the graben (fig. 49) . 

At noon many small pahoehoe tongues advancing 

through the forest ahead of a larger aa flowfront 

were only 800 feet north of Warm Springs, a small 

swimming and picnic area at the base of Puu Kukae. 

From the south side of the cone a 20-foot-thick aa 

flow advanced slowly through the stripped coffee and 

papaya groves toward Kapoho (fig. 50). Air reconnaissance between 1411 3Qm and 161100m disclosed moderate activity along the entire south edge of the lava 

field from Kapoho to Higashi Pond. The main lava 

river was beginning to spread out and pond over the 

old Koae road, but from there to within about 1,000 

feet of the flowfront at the ocean, it still flowed in 

a narrow red ribbon parallel to the Koae fault. 

Higashi Pond began to fill with lava at about 

1911 45m, when the south lobe of the lava front at the 

seacoast renewed its advance. The lava poured into 

the pond at its extreme eastern (outlet) end and 

spread slowly toward the south and west, sending a 

new steam cloud into the air. 

By 21 11 30m the fountain was spurting to a height 

of 800 feet and was playing slowly back and forth 

through several degrees of arc. At 2211 50m it was 

reaching 1,050 feet in occasional bursts, and glowing 

pumice was still discernible as high as 2,000 feet as 

it was wafted aloft by hot turbulent air currents. 

The flow on the Koae-Pohoiki road, which had 

advanced southward along the road at an average 

rate of 33 feet per hour during the preceding 40 

hours, had spread to within a quarter of a mile of 

the Kapoho road junction at 23hOOm. 

JANUARY 17, 1960 

In the early morning of January 17 the height of 

the fountain decreased somewhat, but the rate of 

lava and pumice production remained large. By 

0311 45m the 300-foot-long crest of the cone had been 

built to a height of 100 feet. Lava, which found its 

way through tubes and channels in the wall of the 

cone, and spatter-fed rootless flows that oozed off 

the south flank of the cone continued to feed the 

large aa flow that advanced slowly through the 

papaya and coffee groves northeast of the village. 

About dawn fountaining increased again, and at 

0611 3501 bursts as high as 1,200 feet were measured. 

Pumice fall was heavy in Kapoho throughout the 

day, and occasionally the strong easterly winds carried finer fire-fountain debris as far as Pahoa, 7 

miles to the west. 

Although most of the lava erupted still poured into 

the channel leading to the ocean along the north wall 

of the graben, the volume of lava pouring into the 

sea decreased during the night; by 0611 30m only a few 

minor wisps of steam were rising from the flowfront 

at the ocean. Observations from the air at 08h30m 

revealed that a large lake of lava had ponded in the 

area between the fountain and the Koae-Pohoiki 

road, and no visible lava river was running to the 

sea. Spreading of the lava was restricted to small 

flows advancing southward between Higashi Pond, 

which was about two-thirds covered, and Warm 

Springs. By early afternoon the lake of lava east 

of the cone had risen about 10 feet, and increased 

movement was noted in the flowfronts near Warm 

Springs. 
CHRONOLOGICAL NARRATIVE E45 

PACIFIC OCEAN 

EXPLANATION 

Approximate 

.. extent of lava 

coverage (OShoom, Jan. 16, 1960) 

Faults of Jan. 13, 1960 

U; upthrown side; D, downthrown side 

Active vents 

Lava barrier 

N 

0 1000 2000 3000 FEET 

CONTOUR INTERVAL '50 FEET 

TO POHOIKI 

FIGURE 49.-Map of eruption area at oshoom, January 16, 1960. 

In an attempt to protect the Warm Springs picnic 

area from the rapidly advancing flows, bulldozers 

were brought in to scrape together a 1,500-foot-long 

rock dike around the north side of Puu Kukii and 

Puu Kukae. By 16hOOm lava had reached the 4- to 

10-foot-high man-made barrier in a number of places, 

and within an hour it had risen above the dike. The 

futile attempt to save the springs was soon abandoned, and by 20h20m most of the dike had been 

covered by new lava. 

The fountain remained high ( 700 to 1000 feet) 

all through the day, and a further gradual increase 

in activity occurred late in the night. The heavy 

rain of pumice and cinder rapidly added to the 

height of the cone, and by 17h15m it was 170 feet 

above its original base. At 20h40m a small fountain 

west of the main fountain (between B and J) was 

active, and occasional bursts of spatter were being 

thrown from a depression in the cone over the old 

vent at E. 

JANUARY 18, 1960 

Flows- advanced actively during most of the night 

in the area north of Puu Kukae. Long streams of 

incandescent lava, evidently originating from the 

crusted-over lake of lava, repeatedly broke through 

the blackened crust and poured rapidly toward the 

southeast. Lava reached Warm Springs shortly after 

midnight on January 18 and in the next hour slowly 

filled the small pool of water that gave the area its 

name·. Farther .west, activity was greatly subdued, 

and by 02h45m the large aa flow north of Kapoho had 

practiGally stopped. 

Between 03 11 00m and· 0411 30m the fountain rose in 

a single straight plume to the greatest heights it 

attained during the entire flank eruption (fig. 51). 

For half an hour it played to heights of 1,200 to 

1,400 feet; stronger bursts climbed to at least 1, 700 

feet, and still-glowing pumice reached 3,000 feet. 

During this episode of high fountaining at B, inter-
E46 THE 1959-60 ERUPTION OF KILA UEA VOLCANO, HAWAII 

FIGURE 50.-Effects of lava and pumice on papaya. Top: 

January 16, 1960. Massive aa flow is advancing through 

papaya orchard; main lava fountain is in background. 

Compare denuded papaya trees with those in figure 47 (top 

photograph). View is toward northwest. Bottom: Closeup 

of papaya fruit cluster. The individual fruits have been 

cooked by the radiant heat of the fountain and flow and 

sheared away by falling pumice. 

mittent spatter activity continued at E, and by 

05h15m a small flow was issuing from that vent. 

The main fountain was down to 400 to 500 feet 

by 05h40m, whereas the activity at the spatter vent 

(E) had noticeably increased. The lava flow from the 

spatter vent was also more vigorous, and by 06h10m 

it had covered several acres south and southwest of 

the cone and was threatening the west end of the 

village. About 07h00m, however, fountaining at E 

ceased and the flow it fed stagnated. 

During the morning the main fountain split into 

two parts; one part jetted lava into the outlet channel, and the other boiled up through a pond in the 

vent and flung great quantities of lava onto the 

south slope of the cone. Seven successive flows fed 

by lava draining off the cone-the last at 1P30mheaded for Kapoho, but each flow died out when its 

limited supply of lava was interrupted. 

During the day the top of the fountain occasionally 

dropped below the rim of the cone, but it generally 

played to heights of 400 to 700 feet. The rate of lava 

extrusion appeared to increase, however, and new 

flow fronts developed locally around the perimeter 

of the lava field. North of Puu Kukae, lava was still 

pouring rapidly eastward, and by 15h30m the advancing tongues were within 500 feet of the west 

end of Higashi Pond, which was more than twothirds covered by the 20-foot-thick aa flow moving 

slowly westward from its east end. 

In the morning, flows finally topped the graben 

wall along the north edge of the lava field, and by 

midafternoon two pahoehoe lobes, one east and the 

other west of the Koae road, were spreading northward across the buried fault scarp. 

The large lava lake, which had built up gradually 

in the middle of the lava field for the past two days, 

FIGURE 51.--January 18, 1960, 04h00"'. Main lava fountain, 

1,600 feet high, as seen from top of Puu Kukii, 4,700 feet 

east of fountain. 
CHRONOLOGICAL NARRATIVE E47 

spawned a mammoth aa flow that branched early in 

the evening and sent flows toward the north, east, 

and south across the· older flows in the graben. This 

breakdown of the high lava lake also appeared to 

augment the .flows crossing the buried north graben 

wall, and by 181155m a large stream was feeding the 

flow east of the Koae road. 

Fountaining increased during the afternoon, and 

by 191120m the main fountain was again reaching 

1,100 feet and exceedingly heavy pumice showers 

from this high fountain pelted the papaya groves 

southwest of the cone. Sometime during the day 

intermittent spattering at vent E resumed and at 

2POOm hot gases, with an occasional burst of spatter, 

issued from its glowing throat. 

JANUARY 19, 1960 

Through the night and the early morning of J anuary 19 the fountain remained high, and great quantities of lava continued to pour from the vent. About 

midnight the south side of the cone collapsed. This 

collapse released a flood of lava toward Kapaho, but 

within an hour the cone had repaired itself and the 

flow had stopped. At 02h00m a lava flow angling 

southeastward across the graben . reached the west 

end of Higashi Pond. By daybreak the two opposing 

flows in the pond had still not met, and a large area 

north of the pond rem.ained uncovered (fig. 52). The 

main river from the fountain now flowed northeastward across the buried Koae-Pohoiki road and then 

split; one branch poured northward across the wall 

of the graben and the other moved eastward toward 

the Higashi Pond area. 

The construction of a second lava barrier, between 

the east end of Kapoho and the west end o~ Puu 

Kukii, was begun in the morning. The announced 

purpose of the barrier was twofold : ( 1) to prevent 

lava in the vicinity of Puu Kukii from flowing southwestward into Kapoho, and (2) to keep lava from 

passing through the gap between Puu Kukii and 

Kapoho Crater, from where it could flow downslope 

. to the area of expensive homes and real estate in 

the Kapoho Beach Lots. However, the site chosen 

PACIFIC OCEAN' 

EXPLANATION 

Ill 

Approximate extent of lava 

coverage (09hoom, Jan.19, 1960) 

u 

--- D 

Faults of Jan. 13, 1960 

Dashed. where covered. U, upthrf)Wn 

stde; D, downthrown side 

Active vents · 

dllllliftfJ 

Lava barrier 

Kumukahi 

N 

0 1000 2000 3000 FEET 

CONTOUR INTERVAL 50 FEET 

TO POHOIKI 

FIGURE 52.-Map of eruption area at 091100m, January 19, 1960. 
E48 THE 1959-60 ERUPTION OF KILAUEA VOLCANO, HAWAII 

for the barrier was down slope from Kapoho and 

lay 20 to 40 feet below the natural barrier between 

Puu Kukii and Kapoho Crater a few hundred feet 

farther south.. When the dike was completed to a 

height of 15 to 20 feet the following day, its top 

over most of its length was still below the level of 

the natural ridge. By 15h30m lava had reached the 

new barrier along its east end, and a ~assive 20-footthick aa flow was slowly approaching the barrier 

from the west. The same aa flow was inching southward toward the village along a 1,000-foot front 

west of the barrier. 

The fountain continued in a very erratic manner 

through the day and night. Often it almost disappeared behind the rim of the cone, only to revive 

quickly and jet to heights of 900 feet (fig. 53, top 

photograph). The vent at E continued to throw out 

spatter sporadically, and by 23h00m a small rim of 

welded spatter had accumulated around its mouth. 

JANUARY 20, 1960 

The voluminous pumice production of the preceding 48 hours added more than 60 feet to the height 

of the cone, and by 02h40m, January 20, it stood 235 

feet above its base. Through the early morning hours 

the fountain raged on, often as a broad Y-shaped 

pulsating fan that appeared to oscillate slowly around 

the vent. By daylight this oscillatory motion had 

stopped, and the fountain continued as a slightly 

inclined jet spurting toward the east. 

Strong flows continued to advance southward between Puu Kukae and the ocean. Higashi Pond had 

been completely filled, and by 03h15rn two new fronts, 

each 1,000 feet wide, were working southward upslope toward the broad topographic ridge forming 

the backbone of Cape Kumukahi. The easternmost 

flow had apparently just poured over the small scarp 

along the south side of the buried Higashi Pond, 

and the other flow, at the east base of Puu Kukae, 

was advancing through the forest only 1,000 feet 

north of the road to the U.S. Coast Guard station. 

Near the village of Koae the flows pouring northward 

from the graben had abated considerably, and south 

of the fountain the thick aa flow advancing on 

Kapoho and the new barrier had stopped completely 

by 04h45m. 

By midday a total of about 40 million cubic yards 

of lava, spread over approximately 750 acres of 

ground, had been erupted from the vents north of 

Kapoho since the beginning of the eruption. 

Flows continued to move southward between Puu 

Kukae and the ocean throughout the day. Near the 

former inlet of Higashi Pond, considerable lava was 

once more entering the sea and sending up another 

FIGURE 53.-Main lava fountain and cinder-pumice cone. 

Top: January 19, 1960. View eastward from old railroadbed road showing pumice from vent B pelting southwest 

flank of cone. Flows in sugar cane field in the foreground 

are from vents (out of picture on the left) that were active 

briefly along the curtain of fire on January 13, Bottom: 

January 22, 1960, 16"00m. View eastward from old railroadbed road showing main V-shaped lava fountain (vent B) and 

small parasitic spatter cone (vent E). Large fountain apparently originating from the spatter cone is actually rising 

from the main vent beyond. Compare features with those 

above, taken from approximately the same location 3 days 

earlier. 

billowing steam cloud. On the north side of the 

graben at 17h00m, pahoehoe flows with disrupted 

blocky surfaces had moved about 400 feet up the 

Koae road in advance of a larger aa front and were 

only 300 feet from the first house in the village. A 

more active flow across lower ground just east of 

the road, however, was already opposite the first few 

houses. 
CHRONOLOGICAL NARRATIVE E49 

JANUARY 21 , 1960 

The small spatter vent at E, on the west side of 

the main cone, continued sporadically, and by 05h45m, 

January 21, a small . parasitic cone had developed 

around its orifice. Spatter flung from this vent shot 

upward, inclined about 45° toward the west, and was 

generally ·accompanied by a loud shooshing sound. 

Between bursts of spatter, gases emanating from the 

vent burned with a large pale-blue flame. 

The flow on the Koae road advanced 200 feet 

northward in 12 hours, and by 07hOOm it was within 

100 feet of the first house in Koae. Between Puu 

Kukae and the ocean, the two distinct flowfronts of 

the previous day merged into an irregular broad 

front which was advancing southward slowly. 

Shortly after daybreak, lava began to ooze from a 

domed area on the pumice-covered flanks of the cone 

about 500 feet southwest of the spatter vent. The 

dome was undoubtedly pushed upward by the head 

of lava within the vent area; it had a maximum uplift 

of about 5 feet over a 10,000-square-foot area and 

was covered by at least 10 feet of pumice. Lava oozed 

from cracks in and around the periphery of the dome 

until about 08hOOm. 

The fountain remained relatively low throughout 

the day and rarely exceeded a height of 400 feet. 

By noon the lava flows in the Koae area had ceased 

to move and the massive aa flow immediately north 

of Kapoho was still dormant. Lava continued to 

pour into the sea at the site of Higashi Pond, however, where it generated a steam cloud that was considerably larger than the fume and steam cloud over 

the vent. At the shore, turbulent steam emission was 

frequently accompanied by violent blasts of rockfragment-charged water and steam generated by 

large masses of incandescent lava tumbling into the 

water from the front of the aa flow (fig. 54). 

Construction of a mile-long barrier between the 

east end of Puu Kukae and the ocean was begun 

in the morning. It was hoped that this barrier, 

which was placed atop the broad ridge extending 

inland from Cape Kumukahi, would prevent the 

spreading of lava across the ridge, from where it 

could pour down upon the Kapoho Beach Lots and 

the U.S. Coast Guard facilities at Cape Kumukahi. 

By late afternoon more than 2 dozen large D-8 and 

D-9 caterpillar tractors, some with earth rippers 

and others with dozers, were frantically engaged in 

the project. 

By 21 h30m the main fountain began to increase in 

height erratically, and at midnight it was reaching 

1,000 feet. Meanwhile, little lava was pouring into 

FIGU RE 54.-Aa lava flow entering the ocean. Top: January 

21, 1960. Heavy turbulent steam clouds rise from the front 

of a ma ssive aa flow as it slowly pushes into the ocean. 

Small blast s of comminuted rock, which frequently exploded 

from the water, are not visible in the picture. Bottom: 

January 21, 1960. Closeup of same flow entering the ocean. 

the sea; only a few steam clouds were rising from 

the flowfront. 

JANUARY 22, 1960 

Conditions remained virtually unchanged during 

the early morning of January 22. Flows between Puu 

Kukae and the ocean advanced not more than 100 

feet toward the barrier under construction, and in 

the Koae area, motion of flows along the road and 

in the forest east of the road revived slightly. 

A flight over the area at 13h00m revealed very 

little movement around the entire periphery of the 

lava field, and only a small amount of material appeared to be entering the sea. In the middle of the 
E50 THE 1959-60 ERUPTION OF KILAUEA VOLCANO, HAWAII 

lava field, however, a great lava lake, which was 

higher and more ominous than the one of a few days 

earlier, was clearly evident. 

Spatter activity at ventE had gradually increased 

in intensity for about 24 hours, and by 14hQOm showers of lava were blasted skyward every few seconds. 

The steep-sided parasitic spatter cone built by this 

very fluid ejecta grew very rapidly, and by late 

afternoon it was as high as the main cinder-pumice 

cone on the flank of which it perched (fig. 53, bottom 

photograph)~ Fountaining at the main vent increased 

at about 17hQQm to a massive fountain, 1,000 to 1,400 

feet high, which produced abundant pumice. Spattering at E also increased at this time, but there was 

no obvious synchronization of bursts from the two 

vents. 

At 20h1Qm we watched the reactivation of a cold 

5-foot-thick blocky flowfront near Koae. The first 

signs of revival, which we did not fully appreciate 

at the time, were peculiar rumbling sounds coming 

from within the flow. In the next few minutes cracks 

in the flow began to glow a deep red; gradually they 

became brighter and more orange as the temperature 

increased, and then, almost imperceptibly at first, 

the cracks parted and allowed small tongues of fluid 

lava to ooze out. By 20h25m a lobe about 200 feet 

wide had advanced as much as 5 feet beyond the old 

frozen front of the flow. 

JANUARY 23, 1960 

Activity at E continued to increase, and by 00h3Qm, 

January 23, spatter was shooting to heights of 300 

feet. Moreover, by this time the western lip of the 

very steep spatter cone was visibly higher than the 

crest of the main cinder-pumice cone. 

Flows immediately west of Puu Kukii revived 

about 01 h3Qm and rapidly covered the area north of 

the first Kukii-Kapoho dike; by 07h15m lava was 

ponding behind the eastern half of the dike. In the 

Koae area lava. slowly continued to advance, but at 

04hQQm it was still 50 feet from the first house in the 

village. Shortly before noon, however, the flows near 

Koae surged forward, and within 3 hours (13hQQm 

to 16hQQm) a house, a small community hall, and a 

church had been destroyed (fig. 55). 

FIGURE 55 (left) .-Flows in the Koae village area. Top: 

January 23, 1960, 12h50m. A slowly moving lava flow surrounds a large mango tree and is less than 30 feet from the 

first house in the village of Koae. Middle: 15 minutes later 

the lava reaches the house, flows underneath, and sets it 

afire. The water tank seen in the top photograph has collapsed. Bottom: 10 minutes later, as seen from the front 

yard, the house is a holocaust. Large mango tree behind 

house is the same one shown in the top photograph. 
.... 

· .. 

) 

CHRONOLOGICAL NARRATIVE E51 

Between 15h50m and 16hlOm the high lava lake in 

the middle of the lava field above the buried KoaePohoiki road was still distinguishable from the air, 

but only one lava stream, which fed the flow curving 

eastward past Koae, led directly from it. Other small 

aa tongues and short pahoehoe oozes, probably fed 

through tubes leading from the central lake, continued to smooth out irregularities on the older 

flows. A short wide stream of Ia va gushing from 

another subcrustal tube fed the flow around the west 

side of Puu Kukii which had breached the east end 

of the first Kukii-Kapoho barrier sometime earlier 

(fig. 56). At the seacoast many small tongues of lava 

bleeding from beneath the immobile aa crust covering 

the lava field were emptying into the water along 

the entire flowfront, but no zone of concentrated 

flow into the sea was visible. 

Destruction of the first Kukii-Kapoho lava barrier 

spurred the construction of a second, slightly south 

of the old one and extending westward from the base 

of Puu Kukii about 1,500 feet along the Kapoho road. 

This dike, hurriedly erected during the afternoon 

and early evening, was intended to give State and 

civil defense officials time to erect a "last ditch" 

barrier along the high ground between Puu Kukii 

and Kapoho Crater. 

Activity at both the spatter vent (E) and main 

vent (B) remained about the same during the day 

(fig. 57). The .voluminous flow pouring through the 

gap in the northeast end of the cone near the base 

of the main fountain continued to raise the level of 

the lake in the middle of the flow over the KoaePohoiki road. At 2P15m a large flow from the lake 

was advancing rapidly around Puu Kukae toward 

the mile-long barrier complex east of the cone, and 

a smaller stream from the lake fed the slower moving 

flows east of Koae. In the village of Koae one more 

house was destroyed during the early evening, but 

at 2P35m only a few lobes of lava were still moving. 

At the west base of Puu Kukii, lava continued to 

pour through the breach in the old barrier and 

rapidly filled the area between it and the new barrier, 

which was still under construction. 

Many times during the night the main fountain 

PACIFIC OCEAN 

EXPLANATION 

Approximate extent of lava 

coverage (20hoorn, Jan. 23, 1960) 

u -0--

Faults of Jan. 13, 1960 

Dashed where covered. U, upthrown 

side; D, downthrown side 

Active vents 

Lava barrier 

Kumukahi 

N 

0 1000 2000 3000 F 

CONTOUR INTERVAL 50 FEET 

TO POHO/KI 

FIGURE 56.-Map of eruption area at 20"oom, January 23, 1960. 
E52 THE 1959-60 ERUPTION OF KILAUEA VOLCANO, HAWAII 

FIGURE 57.-January 23, 1960. Aerial view southeastward 

across the fountains and cone. Fountain at main vent B 

(left) feeds river flowing through breach in cinder-pumice 

cone. Spatter cone E (right) is higher than main cone. 

Defoliated coconut grove in foreground is dwarfed by 

growing 200-foot-high cone. 

was reduced to a broad boiling mass of liquid lava 

less than 200 feet high. Generally, however, it played 

to heights of 400 to 700 feet. During these severe 

variations in the habit of the main fountain, the 

spatter vent continued undisturbed, blasting out a 

spray of liquid every few seconds. 

JANUARY 24, 1960 

At OPOOm, January 24, the large flow that had 

earlier begun to circle southeastward around Puu 

Kukae was spreading eastward along the axis of the 

old graben. From its point of most southerly advance, a narrow distributary lava stream was feeding the very active flows that were rapidly approaching the long barrier. Flows emerging from the 

massive front moving down the old graben, and 

overriding the older lava, apparently reached the 

ocean within a few hours, because by 04h30m a 

steady stream was pouring into the sea. This flow 

pattern remained unchanged during the morning, 

but by 13h30 111 activity had increased along the entire 

south side of the lava field between Puu Kukae and 

the ocean, where many local flowfronts were being 

fed by tubes bleeding southward from the main river. 

At 1211 15m a large jet of black smoke was first seen 

rising from the cone between the main fountain and 

the spatter vent. From the north, at 1611 00m, it was 

evident that a new vent (J) had formed. Unlike the 

two old vents that flanked it, the new vent emitted 

a steady stream of hot gas charged with rock fragments and occasional shreds of incandescent lava 

that roared straight into the air. When night fell 

the cone and fountains were an incongruous spectacle-the main fountain was a mass of liquid ejecta 

pulsating to heights of 500 feet; over the new vent 

a slightly incandescent gas-cinder jet shot vigorously 

to 400 to 500 feet; and at the spatter vent, a sporadic 

shower of lava was blasting out toward the west. 

By early evening flows containing approximately 

60 million cubic yards of lava had covered about 

1,080 acres. Cone-height measurements at 22h40m 

revealed no significant change in the height (235 

feet above its base) of the main cone since 20 

January, whereas the spatter cone, with 50° slopes 

on its west side, rose 65 feet above the main cone. 

Although the main cone had not grown in height 

during the last 4 days, it had increased greatly in 

mass and had compacted and spread laterally beneath the load of debris that rained down upon it. 

Through the night the main lava river continued 

to pour into the ocean-its sinuous course from cone 

to sea was an ever-changing incandescent ribbon. 

JANUARY 25, 1960 

Activity in each of the three vents in the long high 

cone continued all night. By 0411 50m, January 25, a 

small symmetrical cone had developed atop the main 

cone around the gas-cinder vent (J), and the west 

lip of the steep-sided spatter cone on the west appeared to be very unstable and ready to crumble. 

From the air at 0611 40m, a tremendous quantity of 

lava was observed entering the sea. From north of 

Kaoko to the east terminus of the long barrier, three 

rapidly flowing rivers and at least six smaller 

streams were pouring into the ocean behind a 

massive curtain of steam. The rivers and streams 

were very short; they were not fed by the active 

flows pouring into the ponding area northwest of 

Puu Kukae, but they were emerging from beneath 

the immobile crust of the lava field approximately 

along the original shoreline. Along most of the new 

coastline, flows had advanced about 500 feet into 

the ocean during the preceding 24 hours. 

Bulldozers began work on the third Kukii-Kapoho 

barrier in the morning. This structure extended 

1,500 feet from Puu Kukii to the east shoulder of 

Kapoho Crater on the high saddle between the two 

cones. When finished, it was 15 feet or more in 

height over its entire length and was by far the most 

massive barrier built during any Hawaiian eruption. 

At noon only a few small local flows were still 

active in the village of Koae, but farther east an 

irregularly advancing flow fed by one of the main 

channels draining the high lava pond northwest of 

• 
.... 

I 

\ 

CHRONOLOGICAL NARRATIVE E53 

Puu Kukii was creeping toward the ocean north of 

Kipu Point. Strong rivers of lava were also pouring 

into the region east of Puu Kukae, and by 15h10m 

lava was pushing up against the long barrier north 

of the U.S. Coast Guard residence area. West of 

Puu Kukii, however, the pahoehoe flows that had 

poured through the first Kukii-Kapoho dike the 

previous day had stagnated, and farther west the 

massive aa flow threatening Kapoho was still 

dormant. 

Late in the afternoon a dark plume of ash began 

to evolve from the gas-cinder vent (J), ·and by 

191150m it had increased to a dense black convoluting 

ash cloud. This cloud bore much incandescent debris 

aloft over the cone and showered the countryside 

with fine ash as far as Puu Kukii. 

The lava flow between the first two Kukii-Kapoho 

barriers at the west base of Puu Kukii was rejuvenated around 2011 00m, and by midnight the entire 

flowfront from Puu Kukii to the west end of the 

first barrier had begun to thrust forward. 

JANUARY 26, 1960 

Shortly after midnight on January 26 the main 

fountain (B) increased from the 300- to 500-foot 

height, which it had held throughout the day, to 

1000 feet, and it again showered the cone and 

nearby region with great quantities of pumice. The 

gas-cinder jet (J) had earlier ceased its vigorous 

ash production, and at times the pumice raining 

down from the main fountain completely obscured it. 

About 03h00m liquid lava in the spatter cone rose 

above the level of its rim, and two short-lived flows 

poured down its steep flank onto the gentle pumicecovered western slopes of the main cone. 

During flights over the eruption area at 061130m 

and 15hOOm dozens of small lava streams were seen 

entering the sea along the entire flowfront. At 

1511 00m Kaoko was completely covered, and an impressive river flowed northward from the lava apron 

along the original shoreline toward Kipu Point. 

At 14hOOm a circular pit 15 feet in diameter collapsed at the base of Puu Kukii just south of the 

second -Kukii-Kapoho barrier. Although steam issuing from the hole obscured its bottom, the rim continued to collapse, and the pit widened to more than 

20 feet in half an hour. Cracks also opened across 

the Pohoiki road nearby, and a few hours later 

steam was evolving from the porous flank of Puu 

Kukii about 100 feet east of the collapse. These disturbances appear to have been caused by lava, 

impounded in the thick flow behind the dike, that 

was injected at a shallow depth into a zone of 

weakness leading from beneath the flow to Puu Kukii. 

Possibly the avenue of access was one of the many 

fissures that broke through the region when the 

graben subsided in 1924, or possibly an arm of the 

fragile cinder cone (Puu Kukii) that had been buried 

by later flows. 

The massive aa flow west of Puu Kukii, which had 

slowly revived about midnight, was breaking through 

and pouring over a 300-foot section of the first 

barrier just east of Kapoho at 171130m. The first KukiiKapoho barrier failed at still another point at 

19h05m, and by 20h30m fluid pahoehoe· pouring through 

the break had flooded the low ground between the 

first and second barriers. 

During the afternoon or early evening the gascinder vent (J) stopped jetting, but at 20h30m it 

opened again and resumed activity as before. The 

main fountain (B) continued spewing lava to heights 

of 1,000 feet, and for a brief time at 19h15m, pieces 

of incandescent pumice, some as large as footballs, 

rained down on Puu Kukii 4,500 feet away. Sporadic 

activity at the spatter vent (E) continued unchanged. 

JANUARY 27, 1960 

Resumption of movement in the massive aa flow 

fronting Kapoho was heralded by weird crunching 

and rasping sounds emanating from the east end 

of the cold flowfront shortly after midnight on 

January 27. By OPOOm the flow had started to advance, and within 10 minutes a house at the northeast edge of the village was being crushed and 

pushed backward by a 20-foot-high wall of cold 

clinkery aa. The flow advanced as a tumbling wall 

of cold aa until about 0211 00m, when fluid lava finally 

reached the front of the flow. Slightly toward the 

east, along the second Kukii-Kapoho barrier, the 

surface of the flow impounded behind the barrier 

loomed 15 feet above it, and blocks of new lava 

spalling from the flow tumbled down the south face 

of the barrier. At 0311 30m incandescence was observed 

in the collapse pit in front of the barrier, and steam 

ell_lission had increased between the pit and the west 

slope of Puu Kukii. 

By 0611 00m the aa fiow east of Kapoho was pouring 

through the barrier and in places was halfway across 

the road. The collapse pit was covered rapidly, and 

just west of the pit the flow was shoving the barrier 

en masse across the road (fig. 58) . In places, the . 

asphalt surface of the road was crumpled and thrust 

forward in advance of the massive aa flowfront, · 

which contained tabular blocks as large as 15 X 15 X 3 

feet (fig. 59). At 061140m, 500 feet of roadway west 

of the junction had been covered, but within an hour 

the aa flows between Puu Kukii and Kapoho tempo-
£54 THE 1959-60 ERUPTION OF KILAUEA VOLCANO, HAWAII 

FIGURE 58.-January 27, 1960, early morning. Massive, blocky 

aa flow east of Kapoho overriding and shoving 8- to 10-foot 

high manmade barrier before it. 

rarily halted, and only small pahoehoe lobes continued to ooze from the immobile aa flowfronts. 

From the air, between 1011 00m and 1POOm, it was 

observed that the flows east of Puu Kukae were 

against the mile-long barrier almost along its entire 

length (fig. 60). At the shore a host of small lava 

streams were entering the sea along a 1% mile front. 

East of Koae the flows appeared to be within 1,000 

FIGURE 59.-January 27, 1960, 06"40m. Massive, blocky aa 

flow crossing Kapoho road east of the village. ~ote the 

burning telephone pole and the buckled pavement thrust 

forward by the flow. 

feet of the ocean, but haze from forest fires in that 

area limited visibility. The main fountain was relatively low and did not appear to be extruding much 

lava, but a large pool of liquid lava was boiling in 

the spatter cone and a small flow emerged from its 

base and slowly covered the older flows west of the 

main cone. 

In the early afternoon the main fountain increased 

greatly in size, and for the next 7 hours the heaviest 

pumice fall observed during the entire eruption 

rained down in the area northeast of the cone. At 

times the falling pumice formed an opaque wall as 

far east as the buried Koae road, and lesser amounts 

floated down in black lacy curtains extending far 

out over the ocean. The entire lava lake ponded 

northwest of Puu Kukii was rapidly covered with 

tens of feet of pyroclastic debris, and by 1811 20m a 

broad pumice loaf almost as high as the main cone 

extended 3,000 feet northeast of the fountain. 

Lava leaking from the base of the spatter cone 

continued to feed thin flows on the west side of the 

lava field, which by 16h20m were slowly approaching 

the west end of Kapoho. The massive aa flow just 

north of the village also revived during the day, and 

by 1811 20m it was pressing into the backyards of 

houses on the north side of the main street. This 

flow seemed to be fed mainly by spatter from the 

main vent falling on the south flank of the cone. 

A more serious threat to Kapoho, however, was the 

high pumice-covered lava lake, which was impounded 

along its north edge by the immense still-growing 

pumice loaf northeast of the cone. 

Through the early part of the evening, liquid lava 

continued to slosh in the spatter vent (E), and 

occasionally the gas-cinder jet (J) was visible 

through the screen of pumice falling from the main 

fountain. Then at 2P40m the main fountain sank 

abruptly below the rim of the cone. At the same time 

activity in the spatter vent increased markedly, but 

after a few minutes it too died and the countryside 

was plunged into darkness. At 2P50m, after 5 minutes of quiet, the spatter vent roared to life, expelling 

the pool of liquid lava in its throat and collapsing the 

thin, unstable rim of its cone. During the next half 

hour fountaining alternated between the vents at E 

and B, but at no time did the fountains exceed a few 

hundred feet in height. At 22h20m a new vent (L) 

opened 500 feet east of the main vent, and shortly 

th~reafter still another new outbreak occurred 1,000 

feet farther east near K (fig. 61). Fountaining near 

K began at a vent at the south base of the pumice 

loaf but was soon replaced by a more persistent 

fountain at K. 
... 

CHRONOLOGICAL NARRATIVE E55 

PACIFIC OCEAN 

EXPLANATION 

Approximate extent of lava 

coverage (12hQom, Jan. 27, 1960) 

u -0--

Faults of Jan. 13, 1960 

Dashed where covered. U, upthrown 

side; D, downthrown side 

·-·- Active vents 

llhlllltllfl/1/1 

Lava barrier 

N 

0 1000 2000 3000 FEET 

CONTOUR INTERVAL 50 FEET 

TO POHOIKI 

FIGURE 60.-Map of eruption area at 12hoom, January 27, 1960. 

From the top of Puu Kukii at 23h15m, the spatter 

vent appeared to be dead, while extremely variable 

fountains played from B, L, and K. The old main 

fountain at B sputtered to heights rarely exceeding 

100 feet, whereas the new fountains at vents Land 

K spurted as high as 700 feet. At times, activity 

appeared to alternate between K and the two fountains at B and L. Gases continued to blast from the 

vent at J, which was undisturbed by the variations 

among the other fountains. Very fluid lava pouring 

from all the active vents descended toward the south 

and fed the flows between Puu Kukii and Kapoho. 

This new source of lava for the massive aa flow 

south of the cone spelled doom for Kapoho, and 

shortly after 23h30m the flow began to advance toward 

the village. Moving so·uthwestward, the flow rapidly 

overwhelmed building after building, and by midnight most of Kapoho had been destroyed. 

JANUARY 28, 1960 

Through the night and the early morning of January 28 activity at all fountains was erratic. At 

01h35m the principal activity was at K, where a 

200-foot fountain erupted great quantities of .laya 

that poured eastward along the south edge of the 

pumice. loaf, whence it swept southward toward Puu 

Kukae. Beyond the east end of the pumice loaf a 

branch of this flow swung northeastward past Koae. 

Part of the lava from K and all of the lava from B 

and L flowed southeastward toward the Kapoho-Puu 

Kukii sector. 

By 02h37m the fountain at B had increase~ in 

height to 1,000 feet, and its main discharge was 

directed toward Puu Kukii (fig. 61). The large flow 

southeast of the pumice loaf had. slowed down by 

this time, but the branch flowing no~theastward 

beyond Koae remained strong, By daybreak, flows 

fed by lava leaking intermittently from the base bf 

the spatter cone had advanced beyond the earlier 

flows southwest of the cone. 

A long crack extending about 1,000 feet northeast 

of K opened in the south flank of the pumice loaf 

about 02h55m. For a period of about half an hour 
E56 THE 1959-60 ERUPTION OF KILAUEA VOLCANO, HAWAII 

FIGURE 61.-January 28, 1960, 02h40m. Renewed fountaining 

along the extended active rift, as seen from Puu Kukii. 

From left to right the active vents are: the spatter vent 

(E), main vent (B), and the two new vents, L and K. 

this glowing crack emitted fume and an occasional 

burst of spatter. 

The aa flow in the Puu Kukii area reached the 

last barrier between Puu Kukii and Kapoho Crater 

shortly before 04hQQm and very rapidly rose to a 

level even with the top of the barrier. By daybreak 

the lava ponding behind the barrier on the northwest 

flank of Puu Kukii reached a depth of more than 

50 feet. The resulting high pressure at the base of 

the flow injected lava into the uncompacted cinder 

of the Puu Kukii cone (probably along the zone of 

weakness manifested by the collapse pit and steaming areas 2 days earlier) and drove it through the 

cone beneath the barrier to escape on the south slope 

of the cone near Kapoho School (fig. 62). The dense 

liquid squeezing through the cone floated a 500-footlong part of. the light cone as high as 30 feet above 

its original position; this left an island of cone partly 

covered by earlier lava high above the west end of 

the barrier. 

A futile attempt using a small hastily built barrier 

was made to block the flows advancing toward the 

school, but at 10hQQm the first of the school buildings 

was consumed. Lava continued to stream through 

the cinder cone, and by 12h3Qm three more buildings 

at the school had been destroyed. 

' The increased outpouring of lava from the fountains was soon noted along the south edge of the 

flow beneath Puu Kukae and the ocean. By midafternoon lava had breached the long barrier in four 

places; the largest breakthrough was only 800 feet 

west of the Coast Guard residence area. On the north 

side of the lava field, flows were actively advancing 

northwest of Kipu Point, but again smoky haze 

severely limited visibility in that region. By 16hQQm 

only a few pahoehoe oozes were active along the 

front of the aa flow that had buried Kapoho, and 

near the school lava movement had virtually ceased. 

West of the main cone, however, lava still pumping 

from the base of the spatter cone was forming a 

large pond confined only by the cooled flows around 

its periphery. 

At 16h5Qm another section of the west flank of Puu 

Kukii was raised by a fresh injection of lava through 

the cone, and lava began to ooze over the flows that 

poured beneath the barrier in the morning. As the 

flow spread across the schoolyard, shallow explosions 

rent the ground a few feet ahead of its leading edge, 

probably due to the ignition of hydrocarbon gases 

distilled from organic matter in the soil. 

Through the afternoon and evening activity in all 

fountains continued erratically. At times all the 

fountains jetted to heights of 1,000 feet and showered 

the cone with pumice; frequently, one or more was 

high and the others were low; and occasionally all 

were low. The only vent that showed little variation 

was the gas-cinder jet at J, which continued to emit 

a straight plume of particle-charged gas. 

The pond of lava fed by the vent at the base of 

the spatter cone gradually increased in thickness 

during the day, and by 21 h2Qm it was above the level 

of the vent. The vent continued to erupt, however, 

burping through the overlying fluid and spraying 

the area with blobs of spatter. Above it, a heavy 

cloud of gas accompanied by an occasional shower 

FIGURE 62.-January 28, 1960, early morning. Lava emerges 

from the base of Puu Kukii cone after pushing through 

the cone's flank behind the manmade lava barrier (left). 
CHRONOLOGICAL NARRATIVE E57 

of spatter was discharging from the vent of the 

spatter cone. 

Flows pouring through the large breach in the 

barrier between Puu Kukae and the ocean crossed 

the Coast Guard access road shortly before 22hQQm. 

Farther west the flows that crossed the dike earlier 

had abated; only a few incandescent streaks marked 

their paths. 

By nightfall, flows had covered about 1,280 acres 

with an estimated 85 million cubic yards of lava. 

JANUARY 29, 1960 

The fountain at L continued to be principal source 

of lava through the night. By daybreak, January 29, 

the once smooth pumice loaf was transected by sharp 

gullies and ridges showing the effect of the vigorous 

activity along the extended rift during the past 30 

hours. Along the south flank of the loaf, where it 

was undercut by the lava river, huge blocks of 

bedded pumice, some 40 to 50 feet high and 100 

feet across, had been plucked off and carried away 

by the moving stream. Many of these blocks, which 

formed much like the calving of a glacier, floated 

far downstream and eventually foundered along the 

main river channel or in the shallow extremities of 

the lava lake. 

The advance of lava along the Coast Guard access 

road had practically halted by 06hQQm. Northwest of 

the residence area, flows had approached to within 

200 feet of the buildings; but here, too, all movement 

had stopped. In fact, flows had stagnated along the 

entire barrier east of Puu Kukae, and lava was no 

longer pouring across it. 

By 11 hQQm the vent at L was quiet and only the 

old main fountain at B and the gusher at the western 

base of the spatter cone were active. Occasionally, 

the gusher rose through the thin layer of lava above 

its vent and sprayed lava to heights of 300 feet in 

the manner of a t.ypical gas-charged fountain (fig. 

63, top photograph). At 11 h1Qm two explosions ripped 

through the liquid lava in the pond in the area of 

the dead vents along H, about 1,000 feet west of the 

spatter vent. These secondary explosions, possibly 

caused by the sudden expansion of ground water 

that had entered the old vents after cessation of 

fountaining on January 14, formed large dark clouds 

of steam and ash mixed with liquid lava carried up 

from the pond. 

At the seacoast, lava continued to pour into the 

ocean along most of the flowfront; the greatest activity was northeast of the Coast Guard lighthouse 

and farther north along the shore east of buried 

Higashi Pond. From this latter area a tremendous 

FIGURE 63.-Views of vent area. Top: January 29, 1960, 

11 •oom. Cone and fountain viewed from the west. Small 

gushing fountain at base of spatter cone (vent E) bursts 

through shallow lava lake. Fountain from the main vent B 

in cinder-pumice cone behind spatter cone is about 600 feet 

high. Bottom: January 30, 1960. Heavy pumice fallout from 

main fountain covers top of fuming spatter cone. View is 

from the west. Compare with activity in top photograph. 

cauliflowerlike steam cloud rose several thousand 

feet into the air. 

About 16hQQm the vent pouring lava westward 

from the base of the spatter cone stopped erupting, 

and liquid lava from the pond immediately began to 

flow back down the vent. New lava from this vent 

had spread over almost all the area covered by flows 

from the original outbreak west of the cone; it had 

edged northward to the old railroad-bed road and 

had advanced southwestward into fresh cane and 

papaya land northwest of Kapoho. Drainback was 
E58 THE 1959-60 ERUPTION OF KILAUEA VOLCANO, HAW All 

no longer apparent at 17hOOm, but the surface of the 

pond, especially along its northern edge where it 

bordered the road, continued to subside slowly 

throughout the night. 

As seen from the air at 16h30m, the main flow from 

the fountains was still directed toward the Puu 

Kukae area. From here it flowed under the surface, 

probably through a complex system of tubes, to all 

the active flowfronts. 

Lava again began spilling over the barrier between 

Puu Kukae and the ocean late in the afternoon. At 

17h50m flows were crowding southward east of the 

Coast Guard residence area, and, along almost the 

entire barrier, lava stood 5 to 10 feet above its top. 

West of Puu Kukii, lava behind the third KukiiKapoho barrier had risen about 4 feet higher than 

the dike, but in the Kapoho schoolyard in front of 

the dike all lava movement had ceased. 

At about 19bOOm fountaining revived at L and K. 

All fountains were relatively low-B, the highest, 

spurted eastward in a 300-foot-high arc, while the 

others played to heights of less than 200 feet. Later 

in the evening the fountains were even smaller, and 

by 23h20m the vent at K was emitting only an occasional shower of spatter. Meanwhile loud booming 

reports emanated from the cone but they were accompanied by no visible change at any of the vents. 

J ANUARY 30, 1960 

Early in the morning of January 30 lava from the 

deep still-fluid pond west of the spatter cone began 

to ooze through the broad southwest pumice flank 

of the main cone and emerged northwest of Kapoho 

(fig. 64). After covering 3 or 4 acres, this secondary 

flow reached the west end of Kapoho, and by 09h00m 

it had destroyed two more buildings. The flow soon 

abated, and by early afternoon it was no more than 

a trickle. During the escape of lava through the cone, 

the level of the lava pond dropped about 10 feet and 

a number of "lava trees" were left along the northern 

shore. 

Only the main vent (B) continued to fountain 

vigorously throughout the day, and frequently it 

produced abundant pumice (fig. 63, bottom photograph) . Occasionally a small fountain or a shower 

of spatter emerged from the vents at L and K. 

Fuming from the spatter vent (E) was heavy, and 

the gas-cinder vent (J) was quiet. 

From the air at 13h30m there was no major activity 

visible along any of the flowfronts on land. A small 

stream of lava continued to ooze from the pumice 

cone near the west end of Kapoho, and a few small 

tongues of lava were advancing east of the Coast 

Guard residence area. Along the coast, however, a 

FIGURE 64.-January 30, 1960, 08h00m. Lava is oozing from 

the south base of the cinder-pumice cone and is flowing 

southward. Peak of spatter cone looms above main cone. 

large river of lava was pouring into the sea just 

north of Cape Kumukahi, and many short smaller 

streams were entering the water farther north. The 

large lava river, which was incandescent even in 

bright daylight, was at least 200 feet wide and 

flowed about 3,000 feet to the seashore from the old 

Higashi Pond area, where its identity was lost. 

Although the lava field from which the river emerged 

was extremely rough and broken, it probably was 

the edge of the huge lava pond that had been accumulating slowly over the buried graben for several days. 

A wider but more slowly moving river meandered 

southward from above the buried Koae-Pohoiki road 

toward Puu Kukae, where it turned eastward and 

disappeared in the stagnant crusted pond. Sometime 

during the last two days the flow north of Kipu Point 

had finally reached the ocean. At 13h30m, however, 

this flow was inactive after having sent a narrow 

tongue of lava less than 300 feet into the water 

(fig. 65). 

J ANUARY 31, 1960 

Shortly before midnight on January 30 and in the 

early morning hours of January 31, measured temperatures in the erupting lava were as high as 

1,100°C; this was a significant increase over the 

1,050°C to 1,080°C temperatures previously measured in the flank eruption. An increase in lava temperature had been suspected when fountaining resumed after the 5-minute lull in activity on January 

27, but the increase was slight and erratic. The 

higher temperatures were also accompanied by a 

distinct change in the mineralogy of the lava. The 
I~ 

,,. 

CHRONOLOGICAL NARRATIVE E59 

EXPLANATION 

Approximate extent of lava 

coverage (02hoom, Jan. 30, 1960) u 

--- 0 

Faults of Jan. 13, 1960 

Dashed where covered. U, upthrown 

side; D, downthrown side · 

Active vents 

Lava barrier 

N 

0 1000 2000 3000 FE 

CONTOUR INTERVAL 50 FEET 

TO POHOIK/ 

FIGURE 65.-Map of eruption area at 02hOOm, January 30, 1960. 

· early cooler lavas contained abundant phenocrysts 

of clinopyroxene and plagiocase, and olivine was 

scarce or entirely absent. With the increase in temperature, olivine suddenly appeared, and within a 

few days it became the principal phenocryst of the 

lavas. 

Throughout the day there was little change in 

the activity. At midnight the main fountain (B) 

was still predominant. Spattering was slowly reviving at E, and occasionally a spray of lava emerged 

from the vent at L. The easternmost vent (K), 

which had remained quiet for more than a day, 

was apparently dead. 

FEBRUARY 1, 1960 

At 00h45m, February 1, the main fountain (B) 

briefly surged upward and threw clots of spatter 

more than 1,300 feet into the air. It subsided quickly, 

however, and the orifice appeared to be wider than 

before. About 03hOOm a short rift opened halfway up 

the west flank of the spatter cone in line with the 

old gushing vent at its base. For almost an hour. a 

fountain spurted to heights of 600 feet from this 

vent, but by 04h45m only a sluggish flow issued from 

its glowing mouth. Several small flows were also 

pulsing over the lip of the spatter cone; these were 

fed by lava welling up within the liquid-filled caldron 

over the vent. By 1POOm an occasional dribble of 

lava still poured over the lip of the spatter cone, 

but fountaining from B and L was greatly reduced. 

The gas-cinder jet at J had revived by this time and 

was blowing a plume of fine .particles 200 to 300 

feet into the air. 

West of the Coast Guard residence area, flow 

movement increased rapidly during the morning; 

some local 3- to 4-foot-high aa fronts were advancing 

as fast as 10 feet per minute. East of the residence 

area, a small slowly advancing tongue of pahoehoe 

cut the lighthouse road at 13h30m (fig. 66). 

In the morning the main flow emerging from the 

cone area continued to feed the lake of lava over 

Higashi Pond. At 09h00m flows west of the Coast 

Guard residences were rejuvenated, and by 11h15m 
E60 THE 1959-60 ERUPTION OF KILAUEA VOLCANO, HAWAII 

'lava was entering the shallow topographic trough 

leading southeastward down the south flank of the 

Kumukaki ridge toward Kula Pond. East of the 

residence area lava was also beginning to press 

southward, and small pahoehoe tongues were advancing along a front 2,000 feet wide less than 500 

feet north of the lighthouse road. Elsewhere around 

the margin of the lava field no flows were moving. 

Fountaining at B and L continued through the afternoon and into the night. 

Observation of the Kumukahi region from the air 

at 14hOOm, revealed that a great stream of lava was 

pouring across the drowned barrier between Puu 

Kukae and the Coast Guard residence area (fig. 66). 

This vigorous stream was pouring into the trough 

that led to Kula Pond, and the rapidly moving aa 

front it fed had advanced to within 1,000 feet of the 

pond. Nearer the lighthouse, the flows were still 

sluggish, and only the one observed earlier in the 

morning had as yet crossed the road. On Puu Kukii, 

fresh lava was again emerging from the tunnel 

through the southwest flank of the cone and was 

flowing over and around the cooled flows of January 

28. This renewed movement of lava through the 

cone disrupted more ground above its subterranean 

channel, and by late afternoon some of the small 

fault blocks had been thrust upward another 20 

feet (fig. 67). Rejuvenated flows north of the third 

Kukii-Kapoho barrier were filling the remaining low 

ground east of Kapoho Crater. 

Late in the afternoon only the main vent and the 

gas-cinder vent were active. By 171115m the fountain 

FIGURE 66.--February 1, 1960. Aerial view northeastward 

showing flows encircling the U.S. Coast Guard residence 

area. Flows have cut road leading to lighthouse out of 

picture on the right. 

FIGURE 67.-Small fault blocks pushed upward and tilted by 

shallow intrusion of lava through old cinder cone (Puu 

Kukii) during the period January 28 through February 1. 

Photograph was taken March 23, 1960. 

from the main vent was again up to 600 to 800 feet 

and was once more producing abundant pumice. 

Flow activity continued to increase west of the 

Coast Guard residence area through the afternoon. 

At 171145m the flowfront on the access road was only 

150 feet west of the first house; just south of the 

road several isolated aa flows had merged into a 

single massive front advancing toward Kula Pond. 

When this front reached the steep slope in the trough 

leading to the pond shortly before 20h00m, the lava 

surged forward in a massive aa river. On some of 

the steeper slopes the flowfront advanced at speeds 

of 400 to 600 feet per minute ( 5 to 7 miles per hour), 

and bowled over large coconut trees like matchsticks. 

At 201135m the flow crossed the last road into the 

Coast Guard area (from the beach lots), and by 

221100m it ' reached Kula Pond, where its extremely 

rapid advance was temporarily halted. 

At 23h00"' the main fountain was again low and 

there was only minor activity at the spatter and 

gas-cinder vents. The main lava river from the cone 

continued to pour into the crusted-over lake east of 

Puu Kukae, which in turn fed the flow into Kula 

Pond. 

FEBRUARY 2, 1960 

During the early morning hours of February 2 the 

vent at L revived, and by 08h00m it was producing 

the largest fountain in the cone group. Fountaining 

at B was minor; a thin plume of cinder-charged gas 

spewed upward from J, and an occasional spray of 

spatter was thrown out of the cone at E. 
CHRONOLOGICAL NARRATIVE E61 

The first building in the Coast Guard residence 

area was overwhelmed by lava about 08hOOm and the 

others were destroyed · in quick succession. Farther 

south, the rapidly flowing river continued to pour 

into Kula Pond, where it fed an aa flowfront 10 

feet high and 500 feet wide that slowly advanced 

seaward across the pond behind a dense curtain of 

steam. On the shore opposite the advancing lava, 

the water was so hot that we could not hold our 

hands in it for more than a few seconds; yet, great 

numbers of fish, including eels, were still alive and 

many were swimming in the near-boiling water at 

the very edge of the flow. They swam frantically 

about with head and back above water in a futile 

effort to escape the steaming waters. 

Pahoehoe flows began to ooze from the cold aa 

flowfront in the Kapoho School area during midmorning, and by 1POOm the entire flowfront from 

the barrier to Puu Kukae was advancing. Since lava 

had not yet actually poured down over the third 

Kukii-Kapoho barrier that separated the isolated 

"schoolhouse" flow from the main lava field, this 

new material must have found its way through the 

injected zone beneath the flank of Puu Kukii. 

At 10h48m the fountain at L was playing to heights 

of 500 feet (fig. 68, top photograph), but by noon 

it had diminished till it only occasionally surged 

above the rim of the cone. Fountains at the main 

vent were also low, and the minor activity at J 

and E remained unchanged. Outflow from the fountains at this time formed a broad river, up to 500 

feet wide, that continued to pour into the immense 

ponding area northeast of Puu Kukae. One small 

lobe of the river extended toward the Puu Kukii 

area, and out of the pond farther east emerged a 

narrow river feeding the aa flows in the Kula Pond 

area. The spatter cone was again very prominent, 

having been rebuilt s~nce the collapse on the night 

of 27 January. Its rim stood about 370 feet above 

sea level or 270 feet above its base. 

In the Kula Pond area, the massive aa flow split 

during the day-one tongue continued toward the 

ocean, and the other turned southeastward across 

the low peninsula separating Kula Pond from the 

next bay south. About 14hOOm the southern branch, 

advancing about 100 feet per hour, entered the bay 

and began to move across the shoal waters toward 

the nearest houses in the Kapoho Beach Lots area 

less than 1,500 feet away (fig. 69). 

By 16h35m vents B and L were both extruding an 

immense volume of very fluid lav3; with little fountaining (fig. 68, bottom photograph). The river pouring from the boiling fountains wi~ened to about 

FIGURE 68.-Fountains and cone. Top: February 2, 1960. 

View northeastward from old railroad-bed road. Large 

fountain plays from vent L. Small fountain from main vent 

is barely visible above rim of cone, and spatter vent emits 

copious fume. Bottom: February 2, 1960. Aerial view northeastward showing large fountain playing from main vent 

(center) and the low boiling emission of lava from vent L 

(right). Note the patchwork pattern of congealed spatter 

on cone, formed by differential downslope movement. 

300 feet after leaving the pumice-loaf area and then 

widened even more as it emptied into the ponding 

area north of Puu Kukii. Above the buried Koae 

road, the river was lower than its banks; downstream, both in the river and ponding area, the lava 

rose above the surrounding flows and was confined 

only by fragile levees of thin congealed pahoehoe 

overflows. At 191

'15m the same flow pattern remained. 
E62 THE 1959-60 ERUPTION OF KILAUEA VOLCANO, HAWAII 

EXPLANATION 

PACIFIC OCEAN ~::::::.,::·:·!:'·.:·::_·:::::~ Approximate extent of lava ~ 

TO POHO/KI 

coverage (14hoom, Feb. 2, 1960) 

Faults0of Jan. 13, 1960 

Dashed where coverr'd. U, upthrown 

side; D, downthrown side 

Active vents 

Lava barrier 

Kumukahi 

N 

0 1000 2000 3000 FEET 

CONTOUR INTERVAL 50 FEET 

FIGURE 69.-Map of eruption area at 14boorn, February 2, 1960. 

From Puu Kukii, which had not yet been completely 

encircled by lava, flows were seen entering the sea 

along an almost continuous front from Kipu Point 

to just north of the lighthouse and in the area north 

of the Kapoho Beach Lots. 

North of the Kapoho Beach Lots, the two aa flows 

which had separated earlier over Kula Pond appeared to ha.ve rejoined by 23h55m, forming a single 

flow unit that extended to the surf zone about 1,000 

feet o:ff$hore. The part of the flow that was advancing 

most rapidly was moving southeastward toward the 

open ocean. At the same time, however, the flow was 

broadening and creeping southward along the shore 

and was now' less than 1,000 feet" from the nearest 

houses in the Kapoho Beach Lots. 

FEBRUARY 3, 1960 ·. ~. . :·; 

Early in the morning on February 3 the fountain 

at L was again high, sending up a · candleflamelike 

plume of pumice. B was low but was still producing 

great quantities of lava. At the spatter vent (E) 

activity was mostly hidden within the cone, but the 

glow brightly illuminated the fume cloud that rose 

· above it. 

Between 06h35m and 07h35m aerial reconnaissance 

revealed that a large flow was entering the sea north 

of the lighthouse and that a second smaller flow was' 

pouring into the shoal waters north of the Kapoho 

Beach Lots. The main flow could be traced an esti:-.-\ 

mated half a mile beyond the shore by the narr<?w 

zone of turbulent upwelling water above it. Iii th~· 

Kapoho Beach Lots area the southward advanci:hg 

flow was more than 1,500 feet. wide .. and . extei-tded 

from the. shore to beyond the bllake~-, ,~one at the 

edge of the shoal waters. 1 " . •• · 

Throughout tl;).e~day flows remained .strong in the 

Kapoho Beach Lot-s· area and along the shore north . ·•b•. 

of Cap.e KumQ,~hi. There was alsO minor. movement 

in the flowfront ~outh of Puu Kukae, but elsewhere 

around the perjph~o ... of the lav~ field there was no 

activity. The 'fbuht~ining changed very little during 

the day; the vent ·at L generally predominated. In 

-..: 

( 
Oil. 

'\ 

CHRONOLOGICAL NARRATIVE E63 

the afternoon a small flow began to issue from 

another crack in the west flank of the spatter cone, 

and by 19hQQm the crack was gushing lava profusely. 

About 18h3Qm a large part of the main cone or 

part of the channel wall broke loose and partially 

clogged the outflow system at the upper end of the 

lava pond and caused the channel to overflow. One 

overflow headed toward Koae and another headed 

toward Puu Kukii. After this surface overflow, flow 

movement increased along the entire front from 

Kapoho Crater to east of Puu Kukae. 

FEBRUARY 4, 1960 

All vents except the gas-cinder jet at J remained 

active through the night. Occasionally a loud report 

emanated from the main vent, and an increase in 

fountain heights usually followed. At ,Q2hQ5m, February 4, the gusher on the flank of the spatter cone 

had diminished to a dribble; yet, liquid lava continued to splash in the pool inside the cone above it. 

By daybreak the Kula Pond flow was in the Kapoho 

Beach Lots area and had destroyed about six houses 

'during the night. At 08hQQm, however, the advance 

had practically stopped ; only a few pahoehoe tongues 

were still creeping forward. Also, during the night 

flows had finally encircled the twin cones of Puu 

Kukii and Puu Kukae and had partially covered the 

Kapoho cemetery; between 03h45m and dawn lava 

advanced about 70 feet southward along the Pohoiki 

road. 

A small aa flow oozed from a break through the 

north side of the dissected pumice loaf during the 

morning. When first observed at 11h3Qm it was still 

advancing slowly northward over the pumice-covered 

plain several hundred feet from its source. 

Late in the afternoon only the main fountain, 

which was shooting to heights of 100 to 200 feet, 

and the spatter vent were active. Lava from the 

fountain flowed north tow~rd Koae-this was probably in response to the clogging of the old channelthen it curved south toward Puu Kukae into the 

ponding area. 

FEBRUARY 5, 1960 

The southward advance of the flows through the 

Kapoho Beach Lots had stopped by 03h5Qm, February 

5. However, lava must have continued to push seaward because at 04hQQm the lava stream in the narrow 

defile above Kula Pond was still moving. Where the 

stream crossed the former south access road to the 

Coast Guard station it was approximately 200 feet 

wide and was flowing at an average speed of 2 feet 

per minute. Its surface was a jumbled mass of cooled 

blocks-some wet:e the size of automobiles-that 

were continually readjusting and. shifting their positions as the stream carried them along. Sharp vertical 

walls, continually plastered and reformed by red-hot 

pasty lava conspicuously marked the edge of the 

Ia va stream. 

During the clear bright morning a magnificent 

steam cloud rose almost vertically above the area· 

where the main flow entered the sea north of Cape 

Kumukahi. From a distance of 6.3 miles and at an 

altitude of 643 feet, the top of the billowing cloud 

was 23° above the horizon-a height of almost 15,000 

feet. 

At noon the fountain at L began to increase in 

size while the fountain at B diminished. Copious 

fume with an occasional splash of liquid rose from 

the spatter vent, but the gas-cinder vent· remained 

quiet. On land, flow advance was restricted to a 

mile-long zone extending eastward from Kapoho and 

possibly to the inaccessible area near Cape Kumukahi 

(fig. 70). North of the third barrier b.etween Kapoho 

Crater and Puu Kukii, however, the flows continued 

to increase in thickness and finally rose far above, 

and covered all but the very ends of, the barrier. 

Shortly before 2POOm, after a period of subdued 

activity in the vents at B and L, the long-dead rift 

west of the spatter cone reopened (fig. 71). Along a 

line extending about 700 feet from the base of the 

spatter cone to the east end of the old vents at H 

(fig. 43), at least 18 small fountains spurted from 

the new rift in a short curtain of fire. By 22h4Qm the 

new fountains, all between 25 and 50 feet high, had 

developed to a maximum, and within minutes they 

began to subside slowly. At the same time activity 

at the old vents began to decrease, and by 231125m 

only an occasional shower of spatter was be~ng 

thrown out of the vent at L. 

FEBRUARY 6, 1960 

Very fluid lava from the curtain-of-fire vents 

quickly formed a small pond around the erupting 

rift, and some lava spread northward to the old 

railroad-bed road. At 00h15m, February 6, only a 

few vents along a 300-foot section of ·the new rift 

were still fountaining, and by 03hQQm activity was 

restricted to a 100-foot-long low boiling area. Meanwhile the vent at L had died completely and the old 

main vent (B), for the first time during the er~ption, 

evolved into a gas producer. This activity resembled 

a giant roman candle ; gases roared from the vent 

and carried incandescent blocks that had been ripped 

from the walls of the conduit to heights of 1, 700 

feet, where they lazily reversed directiop and plummeted back onto the cone. During the next few hours 

activity at the main vent alternated between this 
E64 THE 1959-60 ERUPTION OF KILA UEA VOLCANO, HAWAII 

E X PLANATION 

Approximate extent of lava 

coverage (23hOom, Feb. 5, 1960) 

-"0 -- Faults ofJan. 13, 1960 

Dashed where covered. U, uptkrown 

side; D, downthrown side 

Active vents 

Lava barrier 

N 

0 1000 2000 3000 FE 

CONTOUR INTERVAL 50 FEET 

FIGURE 70.-Map of eruption area at 23"oom, F ebruary 5, 1960. 

almost explosive expulsion of gas and cinders and 

quiet fuming. 

At 05h15m the vents along the new rift were completely quiet, and by 07h05m both the main vent and 

spatter vent continued only feebly. After weeks of 

FIGURE 71.-February 5, 1960, 22"30m. Renewed outbreak west 

of the spatter cone (left) along original fissure. Very fluid 

lava pours northward toward the old railroad-bed road. 

constant noise-whooshing, booming, roaring, and 

clattering volcanic sounds-the quiet was strange 

and almost ominous. 

As we surveyed the eruption area from the top 

of Puu Kea at 10h45m, and later from the air, it was 

apparent that the vents had ceased extruding lava. 

By looking directly into the vents from the plane, 

an occasional fling of spatter would be seen rising 

from the main vent, and in the spatter cone lava 

flowed into the crater from a hole on the east side 

and drained away through a hole on the west sfde. 

Between the main and spatter vents a bright orange 

hole, probably over the gas-cinder jet, was spewing 

out a small amount of black ash. During a later flight, 

at 16hOOm, there was still no visible lava outflow from 

the vent area. The vent at J was predominant, shooting a vertical jet of ash with occasional spatter as 

high as 100 feet. A moderate amount of lava was 

still flowing into the sea north of Cape Kumukahi, 

and the broad front south of Puu Kukii and Puu 

Kukae continued to advance slowly. 
> 

• 

CHRONOLOGICAL NARRATIVE E65 

Through the rest of the afternoon and evening the 

vent at J continued to jet except. during short periods 

of explosive detonations from Within the vent. Detonations usually began when the jetting weakened, 

built up to a maximum while the jetting stopped 

altogether, and then decreased as jetting revived. 

FEBRUARY 7,J960 

From February 7 until February 20, when all 

activity except minor fum'ing ceased entirely, there 

were only minor changes in the activity at the eruptive vents. Moreover, only twice during this period 

did appreciable lava flow from the vents. Weak flows 

that drained into the ocean and oozed forward along . 

the south .edge of the lava field were undoubtedly 

supplied by lava draining from beneath the high 

central part of the field north anq northeast of Puu 

Kukii. 

Early in the morning of February 7 the old main 

vent (B) revived weakly and threw out spatter sporadically. The strongest activity was at J, however, 

where a particle-charged gas jet continued to spew 

from the vent. In the spatter cone a pool of liquid 

lava boiled and splashed throughout the day. 

FEBRUARY 8, 1960 

A small vent opened about half way up the steep 

west flank of the spatter cone during the night, and 

by 01 h45m, February 8, a few short 'flows and small 

bursts of spatter were issuing from it. The vent 

inside the main spatter cone became active at this 

time also, and some of its bursts flung material to 

heights of 500 feet. 

At 0211 15m, during a lull in th~ effusive activity, 

burning gases were first observed rising from the 

small new vent on the west flank of the spatter cone. 

Like those seen over the dying vents at Kilauea Iki, 

the gases burned with a pale-yellowish-blue flame 

which flickered to heights of 20 or 30 feet. 

During the day and evening activity was much 

feebler than during the morning and was restricted 

to the spatter vent and the small vent on the side 

of the spatter cone. After dark, flames were once 

more visible, and the glowing interior of the spatter 

cone brightly illuminated the dense fume rising 

above it. Lava was still oozing forward in a few 

areas along the ocean front, but on land all flow 

. advance had stopped. 

FEBRUARY 9, 1960 

There was very little change in activity throughout February 9. The spatter vent (E) continued to 

throw liquid lava 50 to 100 feet above the lip of the 

cone, and the small vent on its flank still emitted 

flame (visible only at night), which was extinguished 

occasionally for short periods of time when it was 

supplanted by copious emission of dense fume. 

From the air at 1411 00m, lava was observed flowing 

sluggishly into the sea at four small areas from Cape 

Kumukahi northward to beyond Kipu Point. At each 

area a number of very small streams, generally 

branching from one larger stream, constituted the 

active flowfront. 

FEBRUARY 10, 1960 

The main vent (B) began ejecting spatter feebly 

about 01 11 00m, February 10, and, like the spatter vent 

(E) and the small flaming vent on the side of the 

spatter cone, it continued with little change through 

the day. By daybreak, a small rampart, built by the 

sporadic emission of spatter and by small overflows 

from the flaming vent, clung to the west flank of the 

spatter cone. 

At 16h45m billowing black clouds of ash boiled 

upward from the elongate crater in the spatter cone. 

This emission of ash lasted for only a few minutes 

and was followed shortly by loud detonations from 

the main vent, which continued intermittently until 

at least 23h2Qm. At about the same time the vent at 

J revived ~nd began spewing out a small plume of 

gas and fine rock particles. 

FEBRUARY 11, 1960 

During the morning of February 11 and the early 

part of the day, the vents that were active the 

previous night continued their .activity, but with 

diminishing vigor. About 1411 00m a furious discharge 

of gas began to ream out the conduit of· the main 

vent (B) and formed a plume of black ash with 

filaments of incandescent particles and larger glowing clots that pulsed to heights of 700 feet. At 16h3Qm, 

as this apparently anhydrous gas discharge waned, 

white steam began to spew from the vent with almost 

explosive violence. At vent J, black ash clouds billowed upward about 18h3Qm, and for the next 12 

hours these contrasting phreatic discharges continued from the two vents . 

FEBRUARY 12, 1960 

Shortly before 0811 00m, February 12, the main vent 

(B) stopped its violent gas discharge and a steady 

flow of very fluid lava began to pour from it down 

the old river channel toward the east. When the low 

boiling fountain producing this flow stopped abruptly 

at 0~h25m, the lava level in the vent dropped and 

explosive bursts recommenced. At J the erratic gascinder discharge continued, unaffected by changes 

at B. 

For 2 days activity in the crater of the spatter 

cone had gradually decreased until only dense fume 
E66 THE 1959-60 ERUPTION OF KILA UEA VOLCANO, HAWAII 

emanated from its interior. The smaller vent on the 

west flanks of the spatter cone was also quiet; no 

flames had been observed since the previous night. 

FEBRUARY I 3, 1960 

By 16h15m, February 13, the main vent at B was 

completely quiet. At J, however, a vigorous gas jet 

was spewing a thin plume of cinder to heights of 300 

to 500 feet and was rapidly building a small cone 

around the vent. From the air 1,000 feet above the 

cone, the main vent was no longer visible ; apparently 

it had been covered by ejecta from J. By looking 

directly down into the mouth of the active vent, no 

fluid lava could be observed; the cinder-charged gas 

burst from a very small aperture deep in the glowing 

interior of the cone. 

Except for a few sluggish streams of lava that 

still dribbled into the ocean north of Cape Kumukahi, 

the entire flow looked cold and dead. A few wisps of 

blue fume rose from cracks in the old flow channel 

and from the pumice loaf, but not even the flow 

of the previous day showed any movement or 

incandescence. 

During the night, the jet occasionally sprayed 

cinder as high as 1,100 feet; at other times it was 

barely visible above the lip of its cone. During some 

of the higher bursts, the impelling gas column seemed 

to rotate as it rose; this gave the jet a spiral form. 

FEBRUARY I 4, 1960 

The cinder jet spewed upward with little change 

throughout February 14. 

FEBRUARY 15, 1960 

With the continued emission of ash, cinder, and 

blocks from the vent at J, the small steep-sided cone 

developed rapidly. By midday on February 15, it 

towered above the old spatter cone on the west and 

the cinder pumice loaf extending toward the east. 

At 15h3Qm a thin spray of incandescent fragments 

accompanied by a loud hissing roar was still pulsing 

to heights of 1,000 feet. 

FEBRUARY 16, 1960 

Activity at J continued unchanged. Rain during 

the night and the morning of February 16 transformed the new lava field into a vast steaming plain. 

During the afternoon a moderate ash cloud drifting 

from the top of the high jet over J (fig. 72) deposited 

a thin film of fine-grained vitric and lithic ash west 

and southwest of the vent. At 20hOQm on the top of 

Puu Kea, a dense low-hanging fume cloud, probably 

originating from the spatter vent (E), accompanied 

this light rain of ash. The fume had a strong hydrogen sulfide odor in contrast to the dominant sulfur 

FIGURE 72.-February 16, 1960. Gas-cinder jet shooting to 

1,000 feet from vent J as viewed from Puu Kea. Spatter 

vent E (left) emits strong fume cloud. Steam rising from 

flows and cone is from r ecent heavy rain. 

dioxide odor detected earlier during the eruption. 

This fume irritated the mouth and throat but was 

not acrid to the taste. 

FEBRUARY 17, 1960 

Activity at vent J on February 17 remained virtually unchanged from the preceding several days, 

and the cone continued to grow. Measurements during the afternoon indicated that the top of the cinder 

cone was about 450 feet above sea level-this was 

more than 50 feet above its base on the old cinderpumice cone. Impact craters formed by the larger 

blocks and clots of cinder expelled from the vent (J) 

dotted the ash-cinder covered slopes of the new 

cone and the broad pumice flank of the old cone (fig. 

73, top photograph) . Many of these craters, some 

of which were as much as 5 feet in diameter, still 

contained the blocks that formed them ; in others 

the blocks had disintegrated on impact or had buried 

themselves in the soft surface (fig. 73, bottom 

photograph) . 

FEBRUARY 18, 1960 

On February 18 the vent at J still continued to 

pour out a steady stream of gas and rock particles. 

From the air at 141130m two very small sluggish 

streams were observed entering the ocean, but elsewhere only a few wisps of bluish fume and a minor 

amount of steam rose from the cooling lava flows. 

At 20hQQm the gas jet gradually began to weaken, 

and soon it was very low. Shortly thereafter liquid 

lava welled up in the crater of the spatter cone, and 
CHRONOLOGICAL NARRATIVE E67 

FIGURE 73.-Impact craters. Top: View north from top of 

new cone showing the impact-scarred pumice and cinder 

blanket. Old railroad-bed road crosses Koae fault scarp in 

background. Bottom: Closeup view of large impact crater. 

Block that formed the crater disintegrated when it struck 

the ground. 

about 22hOOm very fluid lava poured out over the 

cone's northwest lip (fig. 74). The flow was voluminous but brief. The 70-foot-wide river on the flank 

of the cone spread rapidly over the ash-pumice field 

at its base and within minutes reached the old 

railroad-bed road north of the vent. 

FEBRUARY 19, 1960 

The February 18 flow was the last gasp of the 

dying eruption. Minor intermittent bursts of gas 

FIGURE 74.-Fehruary 20, 1960. Flow of February 18 that 

poured out over lip of spatter cone. Minor fume still emanates from the now quiet vents. 

and cinder continued to discharge from vent J 

through the night and the morning of February 19, 

but by 14hOOm only a gentle billowing fume cloud 

rose from the vents. The eruption was over. 

The black lava flows covered 2,510 acres, including 

about 500 acres of new land built beyond the original 

shoreline (fig. 75). North of Cape Kumukahi, once 

the easternmost tip of the Island of Hawaii, the 

new land extended the island a few hundred feet 

still farther eastward. A conservative estimate of 

the volume of lava extruded, based on areal coverage 

and thickness and including the lava beyond the new 

shoreline, is about 160 million cubic yards. The widespread pumice blanket, exclusive of the area overlain by new lava, covered a total of 2,750 acres to a 

depth of 0.1 foot or more, including 820 acres with 

more than 1 foot of pumice and 55 acres with more 

than 5 feet of pumice (fig. 75). This pumice plus the 

huge pyroclastic mass of the cone and pumice loaf 

constitute an estimated additional 10 million cubic 

yards of lighter effusive material ranging in density 

from 0.08 to 2.0 grams per cubic centimeter. 

SUMMIT COLLAPSE 

On January 17, 1960, 4 days after the beginning 

of the flank eruption, magma in the great reservoir 

beneath Kilauea caldera, which had refilled slowly 

during the years .following the 1955 eruption and 

which had fed the multiphased summit eruption in 

Kilauea Iki, began to drain rapidly away through 

the east rift zone toward Kapoho. Thus began the 

dramatic, and at times frightening, subsidence of 

the Kilauea dome which was climaxed on February 7 

with a major collapse of the floor of Halemaumau 
E68 THE 1959-60 ERUPTION OF KILAUEA VOLCANO, HAWAII 

N 

PACIFIC OCEAN 

ION 

Maximum extent of lava coverage 

-oVents __ u_ 

Faults of J a~. 13, 1960 Dashed where covered. U, upthrown 

side; D, downthrown side 

Lava channels 

--1--

Pumice isopach, in feet 

0 1000 2000 3000 FEET 

VERTICAL EXAGGERATION 

APPROXIMATELY X 17 

400 

300 

...J 

LLJ 

> LLJ 

...J 

<( 

LLJ 

(f) 

LLJ 

> 

0 

CD 

<( 

1-

LLJ 

LLJ 

Ll.. 

150 

B' 

50 

FIGURE 75.-Map and cross sections of the eruption area showing maximum extent of lava coverage and isopachs of the 

pumice blanket. 

(fig. 76). Very feeble harmonic tremor had continued 

to emanate from beneath the caldera after the 

Kilauea Iki eruption ceased, and as the escape of 

lava and consequent subsidence of the summit of 

the volcano intensified, the tremor steadily increased. 

By January 23 small shallow earthquakes announced 

the beginning of failure in the rock enclosing the 

deflating reservoir. Within a few days the number 

and intensity of earthquakes increased, and by the 

end of January the seismograph on the caldera floor 

was recording thousands of quakes a day. Hundreds 

of these quakes were strong enough to be felt and 

apprehension mounted as the swarm intensified day 

by day. Old peripheral cracks a~ound Halemaumau 

and Kilauea caldera widened, and many new cracks 

developed. Avalanches from the precipitous walls of 

Halemaumau became very frequent, and on February 

5 new steaming areas were observed in a 200-footwide ring encircling Halemaumau's 450-foot-deep 

floor. 

· FEBRUARY 7, 1960 

Park Ranger R. T. Haugen, on patrol around the 

caldera on the night of February 6-7 to warn of any 

dangerous change that might develop, reported a 

night of unnerving solitary vigil. Through the night 

and early morning the entire caldera region shuddered frequently as earthquakes rent the roof over 

the shrinking magma reservoir. Near the south rim 

of Halemaumau the ground was in almost incessant 

motion. From the dark interior of the pit (moonset 

was approximately OP40m) strange booming sounds 

accompanied the constant clatter of rocks raveling 

off the walls and the occasional jetlike roar of an 

avalanche spilling onto the floor. 

By daybreak, collapse of the 140-acre nearly flat 

floor of Halemaumau was already in progress. 

Around the entire floor, 100 to 300 feet in from 

the base of the crater wall, a 20- to 30-foot scarp, 

formed during the preceding hours of darkness, 

marked the outer limit of a broad saucer-shaped 

' 

-· 
• 

.. 

• 

CHRONOLOGICAL NARRATIVE E69 

N 

EXPLANATION 

Reextruded 

.. 

1952lava 

Rim of Halemaumau 

~ 

and 

peripheral subsidence scarp 

Principal scarps and cracks 

on floor of Halemaumau 

Talus 

X 3170 

Elevation, in feet, by vertical angle 

Observation platform 

0 400 800 1200 FEET 

A A' 3800 

3400 ~ ~ \ ' Precollapse floor level 

~~ 

--------------------------

3000 ~' ~ '~""---;.::= 

C~llapse 2 

Feb. 9, 1960 

Collapse 1 

Feb. 7, 1960 

Collapse 3 

Mar. 11, 1960 

2600~------------------------~--~--~----------------------------~ 

FIGURE 76.-Map and cross section of Halemaumau showing principal features of the 1960 collapse . 

depression. Unseen cracks ha:d evidently opened beneath the 300-foot-deep lava lake erupted into Halemaumau in 1952, and the still-liquid lava in its core 

had drained away (fig; 77). 

.As we watched, the floor continued to sink; great 

quantities of steam rose from new cracks on its 

concave floor, and clouds of dust rolled upward from 

avalanches along the main peripheral scarp. By 

10hOOm displacement along the scarp was as much 

as 40 feet, and the center of the floor had sunk much 

lower. The elevated apron around the sinking floor 

sagged inward as the center sank deeper, and many 

cracks that were formed during the earliest stages 

of subsidence were reshaped by the resulting com-
E70 THE 1959-60 ERUPTION OF KILAUEA VOLCANO, H AWAII 

__) 

w 

> w 

__) 

<{ 

w 

(/) 

w 

> 

0 

co 

<{ 

fw 

w 

"-

3600 

34 00 

3200 

3000 

2800 

2600 

3600 

3400 

3200 

3000 

2800 

2600 

3600 

3400 

3200 

3000 

2800 

2600 

1934 and older lava 

----, 

0 4 00 800 1200 FEET 

CD 

PRECOLLAPSE 

® INITIAL DRAIN 

OF 1952 LAVA 

AND SUBSIDENCE 

OF FLOOR 

® RAPID DRAIN , 

CENTRAL COLLAPSE, 

AND EXTRUSION 

OF 1952 LAVA 

FIGURE 77.-Hypothetical east-west sections through Halemaumau showing development of principal collapse features. 

pressional forces into prominent pressure ridges. 

By 11 h15m, when a transit was set up on the rim 

of the crater to follow the progress of the collapse, 

the lowest part of the floor had subsided about 100 

feet; in the next half hour it sank an additional 13 

feet. Then at 11 h51 m, with a mounting roar and a 

voluminous rising cloud of steam and rock dust, a 

circular area 1,000 feet in diameter in the deep 

central part of the crater floor suddenly began to 

fall as though a gigantic plug had been pulled deep 

within the crater. In less than 9 minutes the huge 

pit collapsed more than 200 feet, and at 12hOOm 

viscous lava began to pour from a ring fracture along 

the northwest quadrant of the pit's rim. As the floor 

of Halemaumau continued to subside, more and more 

lava was squeezed from beneath the crust of the 

1952 lake and into the new pit. By 12h10m a broad 

stream flowed slowly into the collapse from the 

northwest fracture, a smaller stream cascaded down 

the rubbly east side of the pit, and a number of 

small ponds accumulated in moats formed by the 

collapse along the south and west rim of the pit 

(fig. 78). 

By 12h15m, the bottom of the central pit had subsided approximately 314 feet below the level prior 

to collapse. Through the afternoon the pit filled 

slowly with viscous gas-free lava, and by 17h10m a 

small pond 31/2 acres in area and 60 feet deep had 

F IGURE 78.-Ea rly collapse f eatures in Halemaumau. Top: 

Februar y 9, 1960. Aerial view northwestward across Halema umau. Scarp encir cling floor of cr at er marks outer limit 

of saucer-shaped subsidence. Steam rises from periphery 

of central collapse pit, par tia lly filled with r eextruded 1952 

lava . Not e wormlike pr essure ridges crisscrossing floor. 

Diameter of central collapse pit is about 1,000 feet. 

Bottom: F ebruary 13, 1960. View of central collapse pit 

from south rim of Halemaumau. The small dark lava pond 

mer ges imperceptibly with the steep lava delta on far wall 

of pit. 

.

" 
CHRONOLOGICAL NARRATIVE E71 

formed (fig. 78). At night many incandescent spots, 

but no fluid lava, were observed in the 40- to 80-foot 

deep crack at the foot of the scarp that encircled 

the sunken floor of the crater. 

FEBRUARY 8, 1960 

Small .oozes of lava continued to bleed from the 

walls of the inner collapse pit during the night. The 

principal activity was along the northwest wall 

where lava first began to spill into the pit, and by 

the morning of February 8 a small steep lava delta 

had formed on the side of the pit below the extrusion 

orifice. 

Although local earthquakes continued to shake 

the summit area, their number and intensity decreased considerably after the collapse. Harmonic 

tremor, which had increased to a maximum during 

the draining of the 1952 lake, also diminished greatly 

after the collapse. 

FEBRUARY 9, 1960 

At 08h20m, February 9, three small rivulets of 

lava continued to ooze down the lava delta on the 

northwest slope of the inner pit. The streams appeared to be extremely viscous, almost like toothpaste squeezed from a tube, and they all congealed 

before reaching the small pond deep in the bottom 

of the pit. When Halemaumau was inspected from 

the air during the afternoon only one small tongue 

of lava was still moving (fig. 78, top photograph). 

Concurrent with a strong earthquake at 1711 28m, 

a second smaller collapse pit formed in the sunken 

floor of Halemaumau along its margin southwest of 

the central collapse (fig. 79) . (Also see fig. 76.) As 

with the central pit two days earlier, the collapse 

was very rapid; nearly continuous slides, which 

generated dense clouds of dust, "poured" into the 

new 700-foot-diameter pit for almost 10 minutes. 

At the time of the collapse, a few short-lived fresh 

lava oozeR appeared ·around the closest rim of the 

central pit, but none was squeezed into the new 

southwest pit. By 18h25m all was relatively quiet; a 

few small rockfalls clattered down the walls of Halemaumau, and a number of incandescent spots glowed 

in the large crack around the main sunken floor. 

FEBRUARY 10 TO MARCH 10, 1960 

By February 12 extrusion of lava at the lava delta 

in the central collapse pit had ceased. A few cracks 

near the apex of the delta continued to glow throughout this period, however, and early in March a slight 

glow was observed for the first time on the steep 

rubbly slope on the west side of the pit. 

The number of earthquakes from the summit of 

FIGURE 79.- View southward across Halemaumau showing 

saucer-shaped subsidence of floor, central collapse pit (left) , 

and second (southwest) collapse pit at base of large talus 

pile in background. 

Kilauea further decreased after the second collapse. 

Many were still felt, however, and two were strong 

enough to cause considerable damage. The first of 

these occurred along one of a group of east-west 

faults 4 miles south of the caldera at approximately 

16h35m on February 12. Uprooted trees, freshly exposed soil, and new talus were observed for about a 

mile along the fault, and cracks were very abundant 

in a zone 500 feet wide on both sides of the scarp. 

Where the fault was crossed by the Hilina Pali road, 

the north (caldera) side was down thrown 6 inches 

and a gaping 4- by 6-foot-wide hole had engulfed a 

part of the road. The other earthquake that caused 

damage occurred at approximately 03h20m on March 

7 at a shallow depth beneath the east end of the 

caldera. Although the earthquake was felt rather 

strongly by all residents in the summit region, 

damage was restricted to a small area in the community of Volcano, 2 miles east of the caldera. 

Kitchenware, lamps, toiletries, and other small objects were overturned or broken in about six houses; 

at one house the fireplace and chimney were cracked; 

and at another house, the water tank was slightly 

damaged. 

On February 28 the main vent in Kilauea Iki, 

which had emitted fume and steam in diminishing 

amounts since the beginning of the year, began to 

expel a dark convoluting cloud of steam and dust. 

Emission of fine black ash was strongest during the 

afternoon, when a thin layer was deposited around 

the north and northeast rim of the caldera. By 
E72 THE 1959-60 ERUPTION OF KILAUEA VOLCANO, HAWAII 

morning the next day, only steam was rising from 

the vent, and its volume had diminished greatly. 

MARCH 11, 1960 

The third and final collapse of the floor of Halemaumau began about 08hOOm, March 11, when a 

dust-laden steam cloud boiling up out of the northeast corner of the crater was seen from the Hawaiian 

Volcano Observatory. By 08h25m when we arrived at 

the rim of Halemaumau, the collapse was virtually 

over. A pit, 300 by 400 feet in diameter and about 

100 feet deep, had formed at the northeast corner 

of the crater on the remaining level ledge of 1954 

lava that still encircled the sunken main floor at the 

base of the crater wall (fig. 80). Steam clouds smelling slightly of hydrogen sulfide and sulfur dioxide 

continued to rise from the collapse, and frequent 

rock slides tumbled down its steep walls. The dust 

generated by the collapse formed small pisolitic mudballs up to an eighth of an inch in diameter that fell 

on the crater rim above the northeast pit. A thin 

film of fine dust was deposited on the north and 

northeast rim of the caldera more than 2 miles from 

Halemaumau. At nightfall steam still evolved from 

the collapse, and within the pit the lowermost wallrock was brightly incandescent. 

The total volume of the 1960 collapse in Halemaumau was approximately 29 million cubic yards; this 

volume was slightly less than one-half of the 64 

million cubic yards of lava that poured into Halemaumau during the 1952 eruption. 

FIGURE 80.-March 11, 1960, 08"30m. View northward of 

steam rising from third (northeast) collapse pit in floor of 

Halemaumau. Main caldera wall is in background. 

MARCH 12 TO NOVEMBER 3, 1960 

Rocks in the third collapse pit remained incandescent until about the third week of April. At night, 

steam rising from the pit was often brilliantly illuminated from below, and occasionally the reflected 

glow could be seen from the northeast rim of the 

caldera. Although the few incandescent spots in the 

west wall of the central collapse pit were very weak 

and were visible only at night, they persisted much 

longer and were last observed glowing very feebly 

on the night of November 3. 

On June 4 bluish fume was first observed emanating from the southeast side of the collapse pit. Daily 

the fuming increased, and the choking odor of sulfur 

FIGURE 81.-Views of Halemaumau from the U.S. Geological 

Survey's Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. Top: April 26, 

1960. Halemaumau before the period of fuming after the 

collapse. Steam escaping around rim is from vaporized 

ground water. Bottom: June 26, 1960. Halemaumau during 

the period of strong fume emission from central collapse pit. 

'-

... 
... 

CHRONOLOGICAL NARRATIVE E73 

dioxide was at times very pronounced on the rim of 

Halemaumau 700 feet above source of the fume. By 

June 14 the entire inner face and rim of the central 

pit was emitting fume, filling the crater with bluishwhite haze (fig. 81, bottom photograph}. This strong 

emission of fume, which was preceded by feeble 

harmonic tremor, suggested that the liquid core had 

drained from a part of the reservoir labyrinth beneath the caldera and had allowed the hot interior 

to degas. 

Fume emission reached a maximum during the 

last two weeks in June, and throughout this period 

a heavy fume cloud drifted leeward over the Kau 

Desert as far as the southwest rift of Mauna Loa. 

By the middle of July fuming had visibly abated, 

and by early August it had virtually ceased~ 

REFERENCES CITED 

Brigham, W. T., 1909, The volcanoes of Kilauea and Mauna 

Loa: Bernice Pauahi Bishop Mus. Mem. 2, no. 4, 222 p. 

Finch, R. H., 1940, Engulfment at Kilauea Volcano: Volcano 

Letter 470, p. 1-2. 

Jaggar, T. A., 1938, Hawaiian Volcano Observatory report for 

May 1938: Volcano Letter 459, p. 2-4. 

Macdonald, G. A., 1955, Hawaiian volcanoes during 1952: U.S. 

Geol. Survey Bull. 1021-B, p. 15-108. 

Macdonald, G. A., and Eaton, J. P., 1957, Hawaiian volcanoes 

during 1954: U.S. Geol. Survey Bull. 1061-B, p. 17-72. 

--1964, Hawaiian volcanoes during 1955: U.S. Geol. Survey Bull. 1171, 170 p. 

Stearns, H. T., and Macdonald, G. A., 1946, Geology and 

ground-water resources of the Island of Hawaii: Hawaii 

Div. Hydrography Bull. 9, 363 p . 

't.ru.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1970 0-379-997