The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-07-15
DIAMOND HEAD WAS MADE IN /
LESS THAN ONE HOURS TIME

There was quite party gathered on
crater Saturday afternoon to listen to
a talk by DR.. Serene E. Bishop on the
eruption and formation of the crater.
The subject matter gave rise to many
questions which were ably answered by
DR.. Bishop. Among those present were:
Mrs. Jonathan Shaw, the Misses King,
Mrs. Belts, Mrs. Goudin, Miss Johnson,
Miss Paulding, Miss Ruth C. Shaw,
Miss Dorothy E. True. Miss Margaret
F. Shaw, Miss Jessie c. Shaw, Miss
Lulu Law, Miss May Frasher, Mr.. c.
H. Dickey, c. F. True, Judge Lyle
Dickey, Mr.. Law, L. j. Frasher and
Rev. Mr.. Hartley.
DR.. Bishop spoke in part as follows:
DIR. BISHOPS ADDRESS.
L suppose that you wish to hear some
account of how this singular crater of
Diamond Head was formed. 1t is prop
erly tuff-cone, being composed not of
lava, like the main mountain mass in
land, but of this soft brown rock called
tuff
Volcanic eruptions may be distin-
guished into two classes, the effusive
and the explosive. In the former the mol
ten rock is poured out and covers the
mountain slopes with great floods. If
you look up at the sides of yonder ra-
vines which the transforms of many
hundred thousands of years have worn
49,
tain. you will see the black edges OF
the ancient lava streams lying in lay
ers.
The tuff-cones are entirely different,
and are produced by very brief and sud
den explosive eruptions. The tuff was
violently shot high aloft into the air in
the form of superheated mud. This hot
mud cooled and thickened by the ex-
pansion of its water and its partial es-
cape as steamg before reaching the
ground. 1t hardened and cemented as
it fell, though still liquid enough te
form in thin layers or Nominations as
we see it lying around us at the base
of the hill.
Several of these tuff-cones in this vi
cinity are of very recent formation, be-
ing only from five to forty thousand
years old, although the great mountain
masses of this Island are probably q
million years old or more. Those an
cient volcanic masses had long ages age
grown up by. lava flows, had become
dead volcanoes, had been eaten an6
weathered away by the transforms OF
a million years, and had gradually sunk
I by their own weight thousands of feet
below their original level into the sea
Then, at a recent period the long re-
pose of the earth's crust below then
! became disturbed anew. This disturb
ance was very likely connected with the
glacial period. and the weighing dowr
| of portions of the earth by deep con
| tinents of fee.
| But. whatever the cause, assures seen
to have been formed in the crust of tn,
| earth, along these shores. through
which the sea waters penetrated to thu
white-hot magma or lava lying twenty
| five or thirty miles below us. The wa
ter and lava became commingled int
a fiery paste or mud. Finally the In
creasing pressure of the steam gener
ated found vent through some fissure
A gigantic explosion ensued near wher
we stand, which was then in the sea
outside of the shore of the Island.
fountain of mud was shot aloft to :
height, probably, of three miles, an,
! in a brief space of time piled up thi
cone.
| Other tuff-cones stand near US. Yon
| der a few miles to the east lies tn
broad and massive Koko, and a littl
northeast the great cone of Koko lipe