FIRE FOUNTAINS.
Mention has been made of the presence of small fountains in the lakes of Kilauea as being ordinary phenomena. During the eruptions from the greater caldera several lofty fountains of lava have been observed : and the evidence for their reality cannot be gainsaid. The annexed table shows the years when these foun tains were seen, the heights of their place of outbreak above the sea (A) and the reported altitudes of the fiery jets (B) : 1852. 1859. 1865. 1868. 1872. 1873.
A 10,000 10,000 12,800 5,600 12,800 12,800 B 500-700 300-400 200-600 500 300-600 1875. 1880. 1887. 1896. 1899, 1903.
A 12,800 12,800 6,500 12,800 11,000 12,800 B 900 80-200 500 25o 500 The data for 1865 are from Mr. Green, who speaks of the foun tain as important, nor does he state more definitely the conditions in 1875. The figure of 12,80o is intended to mean that the foun tains issued from the floor of the caldera.
If the liquid arises like water because of hydrostatic pressure, the locations lowest down should show the highest jets, which does not seem to have been the fact. But the higher flows have proceeded from smaller apertures ; the lower ones from rents or fractures which allowed the lava to discharge more rapidly and easily. This principle could not apply to the jets rising from the summit. Whatever force raised the lava to the floor of the
caldera must have caused the fountains to play there, and also the protrusion of the liquid from crevices still higher, as has been reported several times.
In 188o Mr. Goodale reported that the lavas were thrown sixty to eighty feet above the brink of the crater when they were look ing at the fountains upon the floor. What may have been pro truded at this same time has been described by Rev. Janus M. Alexander in 1885.
Concerning the exudation of lava from seams at the summit W. L. Green writes : "Molten lava has often been seen to rise from cracks at the very summit of Mauna Loa, when the bottom of the crater of Mokuaweoweo remained undisturbed. This, however, only agrees with the phenomena which have been ob served about Kilauea, and in addition to the explanation sug gested in that case may merely mean that a free communication has been opened in those spots, whilst it has remained closed, or more restricted, at lower levels." Add for Kilauea-iki in 1832 and i868, and Keanakakoi for 1877, similar eruptions from the walls higher than the usual discharges.