The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1884-09-10

that If we could from above the surface of
the earth, lower spring balance with, say
ten pound weight on It, at lust the We
locity which falling body ACQUIRES, the
index would show at zero: in other words
we relieve the Spring of the weight. A
rapidly moving lava stream has all the
features exaggerated which exhibit them
selves In a river.
1t would be difficult to do Justice in a
short notice, to all the different interest
ing points connected with Hawaiian vol
canoes to be found in Capt buttons re
port on them. have endeavored more
particularly to call attention to a few of
the problems which seem to admit of other
solutions than those there presented, as
well as to extend to volcanoes generally,
Capt. buttons view-which l have long
advocated the surface of the lava
in the Kilauea and Mauna Loa conduits,
appear as equilibrium levels depending
upon their mean density at any given
time, and so as to be applicable to the gen
eral hypothesis of volcanic action. assum-
ing a thin crust of the earth and molten
substratum
Ii this less density of the upper layer
of the molten substratum- at least
1t expands into a issure in the crust
may be fairly inferred as probable, we
should have 4 ready means of accounting
for the different phases of volcanic action
whether hydrostatic or explosive, in an
cient as well as in modern periods, espe-
cially when We consider them in connec-
ton with Ellie de Beaumont's important
principle of the constant struggle between
the reformation of the spheroid by internal
loss of heat, and the tendency of the earth's
rotation to maintain that spheroidal figure
more nearly exact.
Accidentally occluded water or steam,
which seems to be so common in European
volcanoes, might then-like geysers-take
its proper position as a supplementary or
parasitic phase of volcanic action, while
an Ineligible cause would present itself
for the behavior of certain active volca-
noes, not Hawaiian alone, but such as
Charles Darwin refers to in his account of
those in the Chilean Cordillera, situated
far apart from each other, and built up
lin great snow-clad cones" far above the
earth's mean surface; and the layas in
which simultaneously appearing during
the great regional earthquake of 1896, he
describes as reminding him of water
splashing up through holes in the ice OF
frozen pool when a person stamps on the
surface"
Captain Dutton refers in the concluding
paragraph of the chapter on the Volcanic
Problem to lone characteristic of volcanic
action, which is quite universal" that is,
'the intermittent feature of eruptions," by
which, volcanoes do not discharge all
their available product at once, but by re-
peated spasms of activity, separated by
intervals of repose," the cause of which he
seeks in some unknown elastic force"
which gradually develops and is then dis
charged. 1.-The agency" he says, which
thus progressively develops the potential
energy or elastic force, is the missing fac
tor. When we discover it we shall discover
the secret of the volcano" As far as
the eruptions of Hawaiian volcanoes are
concerned however, Captain button seems
to have sufficiently explained their inter
mittent action in the second paragraph
quoted in the commencement of this no
tice, for he looks upon the columns of lava in
AIauha Loa and Kilauea as steadily rising
columns, while an eruption only means,
that the liquid columns discharge them
selves at lower level, when their height
exceeds the retaining limits of the neigh
boring crust. The columns then take some
years to reach or exceed the old levels
again, when the process is repeated. In
this way the eruptions appear intermittent,
and the cones are gradually built up by a
succession of lava streams, the lava some
times, however, being discharged at the
summit instead of the sides, when the lat
ter are strong enough to resist the hydro
static pressure. The missing factor"
therefore, does not seem, in these cases,
to be connected with the intermittent &C
ton, nor necessarily with any accumulat
ing elastic force, but rather with the power
which has kept these lavas slowly and
steadily rising through the ages, as far
back at least as ''the life of Mauna Loa."
Some phase of the secular reformation
of the spheroid-a process which we in
the Pacific Ocean see in action all around
us in the slow subsistence of its bed, not
withstanding the local upheaval of active
volcanic areas-may perhaps indicate one
means at least, by which the molten sub
stratum may be gradually pressed up
through assures in the crust, while the
normal level of the liquid upper layer
when expanded into such fissure, and leav
ing the heavier components below, may be
many thousand feet above the mean sur
face of the earth's crust, owing to its less
density. However this may be, Hawaiian
volcanoes, in the grander phenomena as
well as in the details of their action, seem
to be operated by hydrostatic rather than
Ply elastic forces, although the latter may
well be every now and then exhibited, as
a noisy and demonstratiye, but really sec
ondary feature. w. L. GREEN
Honolulu, August 25th, 1884.