SIERRA CLUB BULLETIN 



VOLUME XI 



NUMBER 3 



SAN FRANCISCO 

 1922 



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HALEAKALA AND KILAUEA 



By William Frederic Bade 



IN" the literature of adventure and romance few places on earth 

 hold so prominent a place as the Hawaiian Islands. Situated on 

 the crossroads of the Pacific more than two thousand miles from San 

 Francisco, the nearest large mainland port, their remoteness and 

 geographical isolation, as well as the rather unique characteristics of 

 their flora, avifauna, and native inhabitants, have made them 

 equally attractive to the traveler and to the scientist. Superadded to 

 these items of interest are remarkable phenomena of volcanism both 

 vestigial and in process. Within the environs of Honolulu on the 

 island of Oahu are Diamond Head and Punchbowl Hill, which are 

 tuff-cones with well-marked craters at their summits. A little farther 

 away is Koko Head, another dead crater. On the island of Maui 

 stands Haleakala, with the largest* crater in the world, also extinct, 

 while the island of Hawaii has long been famous for its active vol- 

 canoes, Kilauea and Mauna Loa. The former is constantly active, 

 while the latter, often erupting subterraneously into the sea, broke 

 into visible and spectacular activity again in 19 14 and 19 16. In 

 short, the Hawaiian Islands are of volcanic origin and have been 

 built up by eruptive process from a base more than fifteen thousand 



*Unless the huge oval depression (area, loo sq. m.) of Aso-san on the island of Kiu- 

 shiu, Japan, is to be regarded as a crater. 



