434 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [June 23,
The greatest earthquake-shock took place on the 2nd April, at
3.40 P.M. The author describes this as excessively severe: the
whole island appeared as if it were being shaken to pieces; walls
and houses were thrown down, great masses of rock were precipitated
from the cliffs, and large trees were broken off. Simultaneously
with this earthquake a great mud-eruption is said to have taken
place at Kapapala, although the author considers that the phenomenon
really consisted in the casting down of a hill-top upon the plain.
The debris extended over a space about three miles long, and varying
from 500 yards to one mile in width. Over this space houses
and cattle were buried, and 31 persons are said to have lost their
lives. Immediately afterwards a stream of fresh water rushed down
the hill-side, and continued to flow permanently. The author suggests
that the sudden explosion by which this great earth-fall was
produced may have been caused by the contact of water with the
hot lava under the surface of the ground.
On the 7th April a rent opened high up on Mount Loa, and from this lava flowed. In the afternoon of the same day a fissure appeared in a hill about ten miles from the sea, in the district of Kahuku, near the southernmost point of the island. From this a stream of the smooth satin-like lava called "pahochoe" in Hawaii flowed for a few hours, and then stopped. Another stream, of larger size, and consisting of the rough, porous lava known locally as "aa," burst forth in the neighbourhood of that just mentioned, but about two miles nearer to the sea; it issued immediately behind the farmstead of the proprietor of Kahuku, which it immediately destroyed, and afterwards flowed down to the sea until the 12th of April, consuming everything in its course. About 250 head of cattle were burnt up. The lava was described to the author as issuing from the ground in four enormous jets. The smoke and sulphurous vapour emitted during this eruption darkened and poisoned the air for a great distance around it. Soon after noon on the 4th of April, an earthquake-shock, almost equal to that of the 2nd, was felt; and this seemed to have affected the basin of Kilauea, which had previously been unusually active; for the lava-lakes sank down, and the fires gradually died out, until, on the 7th of April, none were to be observed. The coincidence of this sudden sinking of the lava in the crater of Kilauea with the breaking out of the great lava-stream at Kahuku, forty miles distant, seems, to the author, to indicate an intimate connexion between the two phenomena.
The great earthquake of the 2nd of April was accompanied by a destructive sea-wave, which washed away several villages, and destroyed many lives. The whole south shore of the island has been permanently depressed, in some places as much as 7 feet, but on the average about 4-1/2 feet.
