| 1889 Reclus print KILAUEA VOLCANO, HAWAII ISLAND
(#81) |
Nice print titled Iles Havaii. - Cratere du
Kilauea, from wood engraving with fine detail and clear
impression, nice hand coloring, approx. image size is 13 x 19 cm.
From La Nouvelle Géographie universelle, la
terre et les hommes / The Earth and Its
Inhabitants, great work of Elisee Reclus.
Click here or
image for larger version
Kilauea,
the world's largest active volcanic mass, located
on southeastern Hawaii Island, Hawaii, U.S. The central feature of
Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, Kilauea (“Much
Spreading”) is an elongated dome built of lava eruptions from
a central crater and from lines of craters extending along east and
southwest rifts, or fissures. The volcano's 4,090-foot
(1,250-metre) summit has collapsed to form a caldera, a broad
shallow depression nearly 3 miles (5 km) long and 2 miles (3.2 km)
wide with an area of more than 4 square miles (10 square km).
Kilauea's slopes merge with those of the nearby volcano Mauna Loa
on the west and north.
During the 19th century, the main floor of
Kilauea's caldera went through several periods of lava filling and
collapse. By 1919 it assumed its present depth of 500 feet (150 m).
The floor, paved with recent lava flows, contains the Halemaumau
(“Fern House”) Pit, an inner crater that is Kilauea's
most active vent. Halemaumau is the legendary home of Pele, the
Hawaiian fire goddess. The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory is at
Uwekahuna on the western rim of Kilauea, near
Halemaumau.
Kilauea's frequent eruptions are usually
nonexplosive and are contained within Halemaumau as a boiling lake
of active lava, which sometimes rises and overflows along the floor
and flanks of the caldera proper. But, in 1790, a paroxysmal steam
explosion killed part of a Hawaiian army marching near the caldera.
A less-violent eruption in 1924 enlarged the Halemaumau crater to a
depth of 1,300 feet (400 m). In 1955, an eruption in the east rift,
accompanied by a series of violent quakes, was one of the most
destructive in the island's history, with lava pouring from
fissures over a period of 88 days, destroying a village and more
than 6 square miles (16 square km) of valuable canelands and
orchards. A similar but shorter-lived occurrence in 1975 was
followed by destructive tidal waves. In a series of eruptions that
began in 1983, Kilauea produced a river of flowing lava that
reached the sea 30 miles (48 km) south of the volcano.
Kilauea Iki, a crater directly east of Kilauea,
erupted spectacularly in 1959, creating a 400-foot- (120-metre-)
deep lake of molten lava and Puu Puai (Gushing Hill), a cinder cone
near its southern rim. The east rift zone supports numerous pit
craters ending in Makaopuhi (depth 1,000 feet). Mauna Iki (3,032
feet [924 m]), situated 6 miles (9.5 km) from Kilauea on the
southwest rift zone, is a low volcanic dome in a desert
area.
Kilauea is bordered by the volcano of Mauna Loa
(west and north), the Kau Desert (southwest), Ainahou Ranch
(south), and a tropical fern jungle (north-northeast). The littoral
Kau Desert consists of barren lava, crusted volcanic ash, and
moving dunes of wind-blown ash and pumice 10–30 feet
(3–9 m) high. The Thurston Lava Tube, a 450-foot (135-metre)
tunnel east of the caldera, was formed when a lava stream's outer
crust hardened while the molten lava continued its flow. Kipuka
Puaula (also called Bird Park) to the northwest, a grassy meadow
dotted with clumps of koa, ohia, soapberry, kolea, and mamani
trees, has a nature trail leading to an open forest with many
varieties of native trees.
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