The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1902-05-23
THE WONDERFUL PHENOMENA OF
RED CLOVIS AND GREEN SUNS
THE SKY HAWAII TELLS PELEE AMI
MARTINIQUE S KRAEAToA


pors, tossed into the air by the volcanic
explosion at Krakatoa suffused the
dawns and sunsets for months with
sun itself with circling vapors. Long
after the usual short tropical twilight
should have ended, those going to the
theater, to the Hawaiian Mission Chill
dren's gathering saw the west aglare
with portentous blood-red glow as if
some mammoth conhagration, some
burning island far below the horizon
line were lighting a beacon of warning
against some dire event of war or Gala
nifty to come.
Many remembered the similar phe-
romena of the eruption of Krakatoa in
1883 and until the evenings entertain
ment otherwise occupied the mind and
the flaming afterglow had turned from
red to orange and finally to olive. the
vivid sunset was a common topic Wis
itors thought it merely a tropical scene
Of perhaps unusual splendor, malihinis
| listened to the kamaaina's tales of 'S3,
Japanese fishermen, their sampans
afloat on a sea of seeming blood gazed
awestruck into the western sky. All
sorts of surmises We're expressed.
Burning trash at Eva or Oahu" said
one AN eruption of Kilauea" said
others, and the more nervous waited
| for signs of local disturbance. The
| phenomenon actually simulated the ap-
Ipearance of a mighty conhagration
| spreading up to thirty degrees above
the horizon, growing in intensity after
sunset and paling the stars.
Sunrise this morning saw the same
appearance and today for nearly thirty
degrees around the sun, extends a
corona of gray yelling, a haze canopy
| that meets the blue half way to the
zenith and turns the brilliance into
| gray.
Local scientists are observing the
| phenomenon with interest expecting to
| be able to witness it for some time to
come as they did the effects of the
years ago when the entire little island
on the western end of Java was hurled
into the air, dissipated in steam and
vapOr with one tremendous explosion,
darkening the light of day, heating
the earth for miles around so that life
was almost impossible and destroying
hundreds of lives. Professor Lyons
discussing the present appearances
compares them with those of 1883 in
| the GOllOWlnS manner.
"The eruption of Krakatoa reached
| it's climacteric on August 27, 1888 In
! the day time darkness extended for a
giant circle of 100 miles. High into the
upper strata of the air infinitesimal
particles, the cloud of the great eX-
| plosion hoated in the upper ether.
There meeting an easterly current they
travelled at high speed with the wind
making perhaps a hundred miles an
hour until five days later they reached
| Hawaii. The course of these particles
and the rapidity of their flight was one
or the phenomenon that helped to es-
tablish the theories existing regarding
the currents of the higher atmospheric
strata.
"The glow paralleled that of last night
| with yet more brilliancy, and the trav-
cling cloud of volcanic atoms showed
themselves also in haze around the
! sun and a tinge i'm the clouds. The par
| [ .les Circled the globe first in the trO-
! pic and then the temperate zone, grad
ually sinking to the earth until, on the
way down they caught the westerly
upper currents showing themselves in
temperate zones about a month later
tran in the tropics.
| "Barometric disturbance evidenced
themselves. The barometer failed to
/
usual. 1 had no barograph here in
those days, but in other places it re-
corded disturbing action from east to
west and then from west to east in
gradually diminishing reflex waves.
| The tide gauge shows a tidal wave
reaching here twenty-eight hours after
| the explosion. The distance between
Krakatoa and Honolulu on table pre-
pared with latitudinal and longitudinal
differences by Serene Bishop, gives the
distance as lS,40O miles, making the
average speed of the wave rushing
across the expanse Of the Pacific G51
miles an hour, while the initial yelo-
/ city must have been much greater
Or. $. E. Bishop, an authority ON
volcanic aftergloWs, is also intensely
interested iu the present phenomena
land attributes them almost unrasery-
cdly to the effects of the explosion at
Martinique. He practically agrees with
Professor Lyons though with the ad-
Vantage of special study of the suJ-
.-.ut and memoranda TO refer to. Pro-
lessor lyons speaks from memory 0r
||U. question. one matter I'm particular
.Illh are agreed ulou The fact .nat .n.
'.... eruI. ION Iu Martinique. tarr.
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