Rise of Sea Level at Honaunau Apple and Macdonald 
133 
inland creep of the head of Ke-one ele cove and 
the wave damage to the 1868 horse ramp. A con- 
tinuation of the rise will endanger other features. 
The head of Ke-one-ele cove may move so far 
inland that bridging may be required to permit 
access to the restored Hale-o-Keawe temple, if 
indeed the latter is able to survive in its exposed 
position. In short, it may prove difficult within 
the next century or two to maintain the land- 
scape and ancient Hawaiian features as restored 
in place, to their likely appearance in the 1700 s. 
GEOLOGICAL ASPECTS 
Depression of the shoreline of the island of 
Hawaii relative to sea level has not been limited 
to the Honaunau area. Various evidences of de- 
pression have been recognized in other areas, 
but most of them are vague as to the amount of 
sinking indicated and the rate at which it is 
taking place. 
Some sinking has been abrupt, during epi- 
sodes of faulting. During historic time there 
have been two instances of abrupt localized 
sinking. During the great earthquake swarm of 
April, 1868 the area around Kalapana, on the 
southeast shore of the Island ( Fig. 1 ) , sank 4-6 
ft ( Coan, 1869). In 1924, during a swarm of 
earthquakes on the east rift zone of Kilauea vol- 
cano, a graben (fault trough) at Kapoho, at 
the eastern point of the island, sank 8—12 ft, 
causing the drowning of coconut trees at its 
shoreward end (Finch, 1925). The stumps of 
these trees still protruded from the water in 
1940. 
Fig. 8. Location of unnamed marine shelf shown in Figure 9, at high tide, June 8, 1964, looking north. 
(City of Refuge negative 1004.) 
