DISCUSSION OF RESULTS 603 



It appears reasonably certain that the italicized portion of this quota- 

 tion (italics are ours) is dictated by the relation between basic rock, 

 liquid water, and air at comparatively low temperatures, and to this ex- 

 tent it may very well be true. In the active volcano Kilauea, however, we 

 are dealing with gaseous H 2 at a temperature above 1,000° ; this is quite 

 another matter. It is a part of our program to endeavor to supply the 

 lack of proper data about the relation between the several gases found 

 and the chief ingredients of the liquid lava, and in view of the absence of 

 such data at the present moment the question raised can receive no very 

 complete answer. It is, nevertheless, a comparatively simple matter to 

 bring the powdered lava and water together at 1,100° in the absence of 

 oxygen. The result appears to support our view, for after several hours 

 of the most intimate contact between the gaseous H 2 and the lava no 

 chemical change whatever could be detected either in the "basic minerals" 

 or the water. In so far as a qualitative experiment of this kind may be 

 regarded as conclusive, this lava is not appreciably affected by water at 

 the temperatures which obtain in the lava lake up to the time when the 

 water leaves the lava and is discharged into the air. Pending the acqui- 

 sition of more detailed data, therefore, we may leave this question in 

 abeyance, with reasonable confidence that it will be found to be in full 

 accord with the fact otherwise established, that water is present and par- 

 ticipates actively in the volcanic activity at Kilauea. 



ORIGIN OF THE WATER 



If we now grant that water is present as an active ingredient of the 

 liquid lava, in view of the positive character of the evidence offered, then 

 it becomes pertinent to inquire whether this water is of magmatic or of 

 meteoric origin. Obviously, to this question no such positive answer can 

 be returned as that which was offered in support of the main thesis of 

 this paper. It is conceivable ( 1 ) that water may have entered by infiltra- 

 tion of sea-water from the surrounding ocean, or (2) through more or 

 less deep-seated infiltration of water originally meteoric, or, finally, (3) 

 that it may be considered strictly magmatic in character and an original 

 constituent of the lava. 



The volcanoes of Hawaii are completely surrounded at no great distance 

 by the sea, which rises on their flanks to a height of 15,000 or 1 6,000 feet, 

 according to charted soundings and the observations of Duttori.* 1 The 

 The crater of Kilauea is about 15 miles from the nearest approach oi' soa- 

 water, as recorded by the most modern surveys. The rock is for the most 



88 C. E. Dutton : Hawaiian volcanoes. Fourth Annual Report, U. S. Geological Survey, 

 1882-1883. 



