Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-05-21
MAUNA LOA'S FURY
Violent Eruption of Hawaii's Big
Volcano.
SPECTATORS RIDING UP THE SUMMIT
It Occurs After an Interval of Over
Fifteen Years.
THE SCENE SKETCHED
Spe cial Correspondence of The Evening Star.

Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.
HONOLULU, April q. 1896.
For some days we have been waiting with
considerable interest, and even anxiety, to
learn in what direction our greater volcano
of Mauna Loa, now in very active eruption,
may vomit forth its desolating lava stream.
Kilauea, our special lion for tourists in
spection, Is large and lively, but on the
whole a quite tame and harmless volcano,
which most of the time keeps itself on tap
for friendly inspection, always accessible
and generally playing Its fire fountains in
the most sociable manner. But Its near
neighbor, the vast Mauna Loa dome, be-
HAYES altogether differently. The mighty
mountain, 1850 feet high, and snow
crowned, lies broad and fiat on Its sixty
miles of base. smoothly rounding from sea
to summit plateau, brown in the tropic sun,
inert and torpid for years together But
midway of its fiat summit yawns hideous
caldera pit, four miles by two in area, and
600 feet deep, in which every once in an
average of ten years a very hell of leaping
fire burns it's hottest, raging up from the
plutOnic depths.
Mokuaweawea crater. as 1t Is called, was
last in full action in 1880, whe4!, after few
days of CONCLUSIVE spouting of fire and
smoke, an outlet opened on the northeast
side. and relieved the commotion in the
Caldera. The outlet was thousand feet
or more below the summit. From it issued
a copious deluge of the white hot fluid rock.
which Immediately covered some twenty
square miles of country on the upland. back
of the Eilo forests. The first accumula-
ton Of fluid in the great caldera having
thus been let off, the supply continued to
flow from the earth's interior for many
months, and gradually worked its way in
stream half mile wide through the mas
sive forest back Of Hilo. 1t did not cease
until within a quarter of a mile of the
beautiful harbor. which it might have
filled up. and the town, which it might have
obliterated. For anything We know, such
a fate may at this moment again be i'm
pending over Hilo, from similar torrent
of fire. The black river of hideous lava
pillows les there, making an open road to
invite another such delugo to descend more
quickly to the sea.
A DisnSreeable Neighbour.
1t was only nine years ago, In January,
1887, that the last outbreak from Mauna
Loa occurred, when a sudden flood of lava
spouted forth from a long assure, which
opened at an elevation of 5000 feet, some
twenty-five miles from the summit. and ran
ten miles to the sea In furious flood, COW
ering in less than week several square
miles twenty feet deep with rugged masses
of clinkers. and making half a square mile
of new land out into the ocean-a hideous
desert or black, ragged scOria. similar
flood had poured out In the same vicinity
In 1853, but from an opening several miles
nearer the sea, utterly destroying several
thousand acres of excellent pasturage, with
the house OF the owner, who with his fami-
ly, barely escaped with their lives at mid
night from the horrible deluge. which fell
upon them unannOunced.
AT the time of both of those two eruptions
there was little If any action In the summit
crater, but terrible earthquakes on the
southwest side of the mountain. Indeed, it
may be plausibly maintained that the IA
huku eruptions were not from Mauna Loa
proper, but from branch subsidiary
volcano, which is fully as distant from the
Mokuaweawea caldera to the southwest, as
are either kllauea to the southeast, or
Hualalai to the northwest. Both of those
are admitted to- be Independent volcanoes
And above Kahuku the eruptions of ages
have been piling up mountain mass which
stands out as huge spur of Mauna Loa,
and nearly an independent mountain, from
whose outer flank flowed the eruptions of
% and 81. Why may not this also be
reckoned as q separate volcano, although
no depression exists. as at Kilauea, between
1t and the main mountain?
There is. indeed, a sympathy between the
volcanoes of kilauea and Mauna Loa An
eruption of Mauna Loa Is apt to be attend
ed either by an increased activity in
k1lauea, or by total disappearance Of its
fires. 1t has often been thought mysterious
that the same interior reservoir of fluid
rock should supply outflows at such differ
ent levels, Kilauea being 1000 and Mokua-
WeaWea 13,6U0 feet above the sea- 1t is
contrary to the laws of hydrostatic pres
sure. The solution of the difficulty is doubt
less to be found in the fact that hydrostatic
laws are not applicable to so viscid a fluid
as lava, and especially to one so saturated
with expanding gases, which efferyesce il
in viscid foam.
The Present ERUPTION.
But 1 have not yet told any of the facts
about the Present eruption-and indeed we
as yet know little, except that there seems
to be one of first-class magnitude. By to-
morrow afternoon we expect full particu-
lars, and may hope to learn in what direc-
ton the expected lava deluge Is running.
The steamer Kinau from HiIo brought the
first news. having seen the first outburst
when of the north end of Hawaii at 1
am. or the list Calling at Kawaihae that
morning, the telephone from Hia reported
an immense column of white fire 900
feet high as seen in the night. From Ka-
Waihae by day. as seen forty-five miles
away. the outpour of smoke was enormous
and projected with immense force
At the same hour after midnight, the
steamer Wa1aleale, going toward Hawaii
observed a bright vertical line of fire near
the horizon, the eruption being 100 miles
away At Lahaiua, twenty miles nearer
the eruption seemed bright, as it did to
the kinau at the same point the following
evening Such a conspicuous appearance at
that distance indicates the extraordinary
magnitude of the eruption. The glow Of
the fire has also been seen from heights
near Honolulu, which is $50 miles away
as the bird flies. The report from Kau
thirty miles southwest also Of a most bril-
liant activity at the summit. No severe or
continuous earthquakes being reported
from that district. seems to make it Ger
tain that the lava is at least not working
its way out at the kahuku center.
Where. then, is 1t going? For the past
sixty years the outfiows attending great
summit action have been confined to the
northerly sides of the mountain. In 1859
an immense stream ran northwest reach
ing the sea thirtySeven miles away to the
south of kawaihae. 1t seems therefore
most probable that the present eruption
will pour it's lava out either toward the
same point or toward Hilo, or in some in
termediate direction against Mauna Kea
One may say that the chances are consid-
cradle that 1t will run toward Hilo. The
assures during the past century have been
much open in that direction.
AT comparatively recent period, but
somewhat earlier, there seem to have been
very copious floods of lava poured from
Mauna Loa to the westward across the fer
tile and now wooded uplands Of Kona
This, of course, may at any time happen
again, although the volcano has of late been
doing it's work In the other direction. The
whole of that beautiful Kona district, with
its rich coffee plantations, thus lies exposed
to the invasions of the enemy, which may