GEOPHYSICAL LABORATORY. 



171 



relation between the carbon-dioxide content of the furnace gases and the 

 yield of cyanide, both at two temperatures. The curves indicate that under 

 certain conditions producer-gas may be used in the process and that the 

 dissociation of sodium carbonate is probably one of the controlling chemical 

 reactions. 



(35) The composition of the gases of Kilauea. 

 Obs., 7, 94-97 (1919). 



E. S. Shepherd. Bull. Hawaiian Volcano 



Since 1912, when Day and Shepherd collected the first gas samples ever 

 taken from the Kilauea crater, work has continued on the composition of 

 these gases. Further collection was made in 1917 and a shipment of gases 

 collected by Dr. T. A. Jaggar, jr., director of the observatory at Kilauea, 

 has just been received. This work presents rather unusual difficulties in the 

 matter of collection and also in the analysis. 



This preliminary report is concerned primarily with the 1917 collection, 

 but includes a new analysis of one of the 1912 tubes and one tube from Jaggar's 

 1918-19 collection, for comparison. From an examination of the tables of 

 analyses it appears that the gases from this volcano vary greatly in com- 

 position. About the only constituent which appears in more or less constant 

 quantity is water vapor, wliich averages about 50 per cent of the gases given 

 off by the lava. This refers, of course, to the gases obtained from the inside 

 of flames, i.e., before the gas has come in direct contact with air. The re- 

 maining constituents are CO2, CO, H2, N2, Ar (trace), SO2, CI2, and S2, 

 with traces of F2. The chief ingredients are CO2, SO2, S2, and H2O. It 

 seems significant that the combustible gases are (at the surface) relatively 

 small in amount, and this doubtless explains the quiet nature of Kilauea 

 eruptions — there is Kttle left to furnish an explosion. It is also probable that 

 with the additional evidence which the gases recently collected by Jaggar 

 and the systematic collection which he purposes for the future will furnish, 

 we shall be able to estabhsh the relative importance of the several h3^potheses 

 thus far proposed to account for the energy supply of this crater. The 

 analyses of the 1917 gases are as follows: 



Gases collected from Kilauea, 1917. 

 [Volume per cents at 1200° C] 



1 Tubes 1 and 2 were analyzed before the calcium tube was added to the apparatus, so that the 

 rare gases were not determined. Chlorine was not determined in these tubes (udt.). Other 

 blanks in the table mean that the gas was not present in determinable amounts. 



(36) Tables and curves for use in measuring temperatures with thermocouples. Leason 

 H. Adams. Bull. Am. Inst. Min. Met. Eng., 2111-2124 (1919). 



Thermocouples are very convenient thermometers and play an important 

 role in geophysical research. Previous pubhcations from the Laboratory 



