Vol. 6, 1920 
GEOLOGY: COMMITTEE REPORT 
711 
out at the Kilauea or any corresponding observatory cannot have their 
maximum value unless conducted with due appreciation of the more 
pressing problems requiring solution at the present time and of the work 
being done in other parts of the world to advance these earth sciences. 
Upon this basis the work in Hawaii can be most effectively directed, 
undesirable duplication avoided, and possibilities of fruitful cooperation 
recognized. 
The Hawaiian Islands are one of many elongated groups or chains 
of volcanic islands scattered through the great Pacific Ocean basin. These 
islands have all been built up from considerable, and in some cases from 
great, depths, and some rise to notable heights above the sea. The 
Hawaiian chain really extends from the island of Hawaii for 1,500 miles 
to the west northwest far beyond the largest and best-known members 
of the group. The only active vents of the present time are the vol- 
canoes of Mauna Loa and Kilauea on the island of Hawaii, but minor 
eruptions have occurred in geologically recent time on all of the principal 
islands, while submarine disturbances have been noted on the southeast 
of Hawaii which are supposed to indicate the existence of other vents 
where new volcanic mountains are being built up. 
Kilauea and Mauna Loa are typical volcanoes of the sort formed by 
repeated eruptions of basaltic lavas, similar to those which have been 
predominant in the principal eruptions throughout the group and in 
most other islands of the Pacific Ocean basin. Kilauea, being one of the 
most frequently active volcanoes in the world, readily accessible, and 
presenting unusually favorable conditions for study, was naturally chosen 
as the site of an observatory of volcanic phenomena by the Hawaiian 
Volcano Research Association, formed by residents of the islands and 
assisted for a time by research funds donated by the Massachusetts 
Institute of Technology. 
The work of the observatory, organized and directed to the present 
time by Dr. T. A. Jaggar, Jr., has already resulted in a most important 
contribution of fundamental data on the phenomena of volcanism, greater, 
perhaps, than has been obtained by the study of any other volcano. 
The value of systematic and continuous observation and permanent 
record has been clearly established. For example, it is only by such 
sustained and complete records that the facts of periodicity can be deter- 
mined and an ultimate knowledge of the influences controlling such 
periodicity may be gained. 
The Committee believes that the Weather Bureau can most eft'ectively 
contribute to the advancement of the sciences of volcanology and seis- 
mology, under the present small appropriation, by maintaining the 
Kilauea Observatory as the major undertaking, with such extension of 
the work in lines to be suggested, as may be found practicable. The 
observatory should be regarded, however, as the chief base for researches 
