Eruptions of Kilauea—POWERS 
289 
face-crusted during the initial drying out are 
the only thin leeward layers which remain in 
place for an appreciable length of time. 
In the belt of young ohia forest a mile 
northeast of the rim of Kilauea, the ash sec¬ 
tion and a possible correlation with the Keana- 
kakoi series eruptions is: 
Eruption 
4 inches of surface humus grading into next 
layer 
2 inches of lithic sand and fine gravel.1790 
3 inches of pisolitic aggregate.18-K 
7 inches of lithic sand and gravel.17-K 
Humus layer 
8 inches of lithic sand and gravel.12-K 
Humus layer 
2 inches of pumice mixed with humus. 9-K 
8 inches of vitric ash mixed with humus. 
..8-K to 3-K 
Humus layer 
2 inches of fine clay...2-K 
8 inches of reticulite.........1-K 
Two miles to the northeast, in a more mature 
forest made up of ohia, tree fern, and koa, the 
section is: 
Eruption 
Humus top layer 
8 inches of lithic sand and fragments mixed 
with humus.....1790 to 12-K 
1 inch of pumice mixed with humus.9-K 
15 inches of vitric shards and ash.8-K to 1-K 
In the desert, 6 miles to the southwest of 
Kilauea, at the locality of the human footprints, 
there remain patches of two pisolitic layers, 
probably representing beds of original deposi¬ 
tion, and much wind-transported, dune sand. 
One section showed: 
Inches 
Shifting dune sand. 6 
Crusted stony pisolite layer.... 2 
Imprisoned dune sand. 36 
Mud-cracked pisolitic layer...... 2 
Imprisoned dune sand...48 
Pahoehoe lava surface 
The lower pisolitic bed is made up of three 
layers: at the bottom is half an inch of finely 
laminated dust, next an inch of pisolitic dust, 
and on top is another half an inch of finely 
laminated dust (Plate 3B). The surface of this 
bed is cut by mud cracks which extend down 
part way into the pisolitic layer. The cracks 
have been filled with fine drifted dust. In the 
surface of the layer are found some of the 
fossil footprints, impressed even into the middle 
of the central pisolitic layer. The whole bed 
has been consolidated enough to resist imme¬ 
diate removal by wind and rain, but it has 
been and is being removed slowly by erosion. 
In many places all of the upper laminated dust 
and the middle pisolitic layers have been re¬ 
moved, leaving only a thin crust of the lower, 
laminated, dust layer. In the section described 
above, a trench was driven into the bank ex¬ 
posing a 10-foot section containing the two 
footprint-bearing pisolitic beds with dune sand 
between. In this 10-foot artificial exposure, the 
lower bed ranged in thickness from 2 inches to 
half an inch in places where wind scour had 
removed the upper two-thirds of the bed prior 
to its burial by the dune sand. 
The upper footprint bed consists of mixed 
sand, lithic fragments (up to a half inch in 
diameter), and pisolitic dust and ranges in 
thickness from 1.5 to 2 inches. Its surface is 
protected by a thin crust, and the entire layer 
is partly consolidated. The scattered remnants 
of this deposit in the footprint area have not 
yet been traced with any assurance into the 
continuous layers nearer the crater which can 
be correlated with eruptions with some con¬ 
fidence. It appears reasonable to assign the 
upper, crusted footprint layer to the 1790 erup¬ 
tion, chiefly because it is the youngest and be¬ 
cause it is associated with the known presence of 
Hawaiians in the area during the eruption. On 
the other hand, it might be argued that the two 
pisolitic layers should be correlated with the 
two phreatic eruptions which made the thickest 
deposits remnant on the southwest rim near the 
crater, namely the seventeenth and fifteenth 
eruptions. Possibly more detailed field work 
may yield data on which a definite correlation 
may be based. At present, it seems certain that 
the two footprint-bearing layers are products of 
