Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1894-01-31
VOLCANIC ISLANDS.
CHE HAWAIIAN GROUP HAS
SPRUNG FROM THE SEA.
Queer Specks of Land That Bob Up
Serenely, Then Take a Header
and Disappear-Explor
While Red Hot.

TIC Two dIC NO8GbuCA ON a NlAlb
of fire, the earthquakes of Californlo
having a relation to the volcanic out,
burst from the craters of Kilauea. The
Sandwich group, of course, is nothing
more than an aSsembIage of volcanoes
which rise precipitously from the
depths OF the sea, above the surface OF
which their verdure clad tops appear.
There is no certainty that the archipela.
go may not disapL ear beneath the ocean
some day, perhaps robbing Uncle San
of Na.usble political and commercial
possession. Volcanic islands all over
the world, especially in the Pacific, have
a way of doing just that sort of thing.
Unfortunately such reports by sailor;
are not always reliable, inasmucl as they
frequently mistake the backs of sleepin
whales or schools of fish running along
near the surface for islands aud shoals.
Even in the ancient aud respectable
MediteI ranean events of the sort de-
scribed have repeatedly occurred. Sc
recently as the year 1881 an island rCss
from depth of 700 feet at a point
thirty miles south west of Sicily. OK
July 10 John Corroa, a Siciliau skipper,
saw a column of water sixty feet higt
and 500 feet in diameter, spOutIug up
from the sea. Soon afterward a dense
cloud OF steam ascended to a height o.
1900 fee.. On his return voyage, July
IS, this sea airing person found on the
same spot a small island twelve feet
high, ejectiug volcanic matter and i'm.
mcnse clouds of vapor. Tle waters in
the neighborhood were covered with
floating cinders aud dead fish. Two
eeks later the island had attained a
height of 2JU feet and circumference
o! three miles. Several names were
given to it by mariners VINO cruisei
around it ready to land upon it when i
had sufficiently cooled. Three Nations
claimed it, and it was feared that gun
powder would be burned in the contrO.
versy; but before Europe had time to
bee ome embroiled in war over the matter
the island vanished ana so settled the
dispute. By October 81 it was nearly
level with the ocean, the crater having
disappeared. At present the place il
occupied is marked only by a shoal
covered with many fathoms of water.
In the year 1911 Captain TIllard o.
II. NJ. 5. Sabrina saw an island rise out
of the waves during volcanic outburst
in the Azores near St. Michle's. Wnen
he returned few weeks later for the
purpose of surveying and annexing this
bit of territory not q trace of it could be
found. The sea had reclaimed it. As
first observed it was 800 feet hi sh with
crater in the centre.
Within Il comparatively recent periou
an island has been added by volcanic
agency to what are now Uncle Sans
possessions. Ga May 1, 1896, strange
darkness fell upon the Aleutian cIain,
which mark the southern boundary OF
Bering Sea. On the third day flames
we're seen rising from the ocean between
U1alaska aud Umnak. The fire at night
Illuminated the water brightly for many
miles around. Finally a black rock
grew up amid steam and smoke. In
1904 this rock had cooled sufficiently to
be visited by h hlnters, though it was too
hot to walk on with comfort. At that
time it was 35) feet high AMI nearly
three miles in circumference. Contiuu-
iag eruptive it went on growing, pre-,
sentiug the aspect in 1928 of pyramid
1900 feet high. Lately after long
period of quiescence it has again broken
out, and at last accounts it was smoking
so as TO be rendered invisible. Meanwhile
it has been diminishing IN size, aud very
possibly it will vanish altogether sooner
OF later The whole history OF this island
of Bogisloy has been watched from be-
ginning toend. In 1879 Captain Cook,
the famous navigator, sailed right over
that locality, but found no island there.
The rs ost remarkable event of the sort
described, observed within historic
times, was the eruption of Krakatau.
The island of that name was situ1ted in
the straits of SInds, between Java and
Sumatra. 1t was uuinhabited, its area
being fifteen square miles, and it had
two lofty mountains, the taller one at
tai1ing an altitude of 1850 feet above
the sea. 1t was wholly volcanic, the
mountains rising from the floor of a
sunkcn crater. On May 26, 1868, at
p. m, violent explosions were heard in
Sumatra and Java, and early the mex,
morning there was a much greater ex
plosion, followed by tidal wave which
swept away many villages along both
shores of the straits, causing great loss
of life. The material thrown out in the
shape of ashes AID cinders spread over
all Of northern Java aud southern Suma.
ira, covering that region with pail o
impenetrable darkness. Shortly before
noon on the same day, by one supreme
convulsion, the subterranean powers
burst their prison walls with a detona-
ton so terrific as to spread CONSERVATION
among dwellers within a radius of 1900
miles. With sunrise on the fol.
lowing day the dense curtain OF
darkness began to clear off and
light broke upon scene of un-
paralleled devastation. hrLkatau was
reduced to fraction of its original size.
Where the volcano had been active a few
hours before there was an ex Janse of sea
fathomless with a 1000 foot line. A
portion of the island had been shot like
a gigantic projectile 800 miles aud
dropped into the water, where it formed
what is now known as Steers Island. The
final titanic effort had lifted the greater
part of Krakatau out by its $50 fathoms
root, and, hurting it through the air,
had plunged it into the sea seven miles
to the northeast, making what is now
! called Calmeyer Island. The waves pro.
duced by the great exploration went all
the way around the world four times, as
recorded by tide gauges. The esun turned
green and blue, and for several years
sunsets and sunrises all over tho globe
were made lurid by the volcanic dust of
Krakatau still hanging in the air. In
all twenty-oue new islands were created
by this tremendous convulsion in its i'm
Mediate neighborhood.
In the Eyear sea is one of the mos
remarkable volcanic groups known.
This circular archipelago of Santorin is
| .he remains of an enormous crater thirty
miles in circumference. In 170z mass