Statewide County HI Archives News.....Wiki Mo'olelo Part 8 . November 3, 2008 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/hi/hifiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Darlene E. Kelley donkeyskid@msn.com November 16, 2008, 8:47 am Keepers Of The Culture, A Study In Time Of The Hawaiian Islands November 3, 2008 Contibuted for use in USGenWeb Archives by Darlene E. Kelley donkeyskid@webtv donkeyskid@ msn.com November 3, 2008 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Historical Collections of Hawai;i Keepers of theCulture A Study in Time,of the Hawai'ian Islands Wiki Mo'olelo - part 8 by Darlene E, Kelley +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Wiki Mo'olelo Part 8. The Hawai'ian Islands. Of all the noteworty group of islands of fire in the Pacific Ocean, the Hawai'ian islands are the most stupendous. The crack in the floor of the ocean upon which they are built extends from the large isalnd Hawai'i northwesterly about two thousand miles toward Japan. The islands for the first hndred miles are large and mountainous, but as a chain is followed toward the end; the islands quickly become more bluffs rising ou of the sea, or low coral islands which have been built on the rims of submerged volcanoes. It is interesting to note that the oldest, the smallest, and the lowest of these islands lie nearest to Japan. One of these ---- Midway Island -- is used as the United States mid-Pacific cable station. Properly speaking, the Hawai'ian Island group should cover all the islands in this chain two thousand miles long. The moutains of the large islands rise from 3.000 to 14,000 feet above the sea-level. Between this majestic range of islands mountains and the " Giants of the Rockies," along the western coast of the United States, lies a rough ocean valley abouning in hills and deep ravines with an average depth under the sea-surface of about 2,600 fathoms, or 15,600 feet. We know little about this valley save that its floor is covered with evidences of volcanic action. Pumice and scoriea appear to be universally distributed on the bottom of the ocean.. Red and grey, and blue and green clays abound. The disintegration of pumice is given as the chief souce for the formation of this clayey matter. Sometimes the deposits are premeated with meteoric or star dust.. As the ocean depths draw near the island coasts, they grow more and more shallow and become a wonderful fairy-land into which the dreamer looks from his floating canoe. Strange branching thickets of coral lie below, sometimes fringed wth moving seaweeds and exquisitely colored sea-mosses, while through the coral and moss swim the marvellously painted fish of a hundred varieties. Turning and twisting in and out of coral caves are the spotted eels or the great pink or brown anemone-headed sea-worms. Sea-urchins and star-fish crawl lazily along th valleys and the uplands of the coral reef. The surface of the sea itself covered with ceaselessly moving waves reflecting a tropical luxuriance of color. From well-known localities hundreds of fisherman gather spoil for the substenance of life fortheselves and ther friends Wonderfully restful is the dream life of the winterless seas of the coral caves, and yet even today firce floods and boiling lava sometimes find their way over the seashore and down over the reefs, destroying the life of sea-moss and coral polyps, and surrounding shells and fish and crawling slugs or swift-moving eels with floods of turbid, boiling, death-dealing water in place of the clear waves through which they had been accustomed to journey. Each island has its individual extinct craters, but no island has any form of hot geyser action as characterizes the Yellowstone Park of the United States, or the region around Rotorua, new Zealand. The nearest approach to a geyser deposit such as abounds in central Mexco is found on Molokai and around the small crater Leahi ( Diamond Head ), near Honolulu. Leahi was evidently forced up through coral reefs and the mighty heat produced small layers of geyser-like deposits. The islands have ben built up by lava alone. This lava rapidly falls into pieces under the influence of sunlight and rain, thus permitting plants, such as giant ferns, small shrubs and grasses, to take root. These plants break up the fire-rock very rapidly and send seeds broadcast to multiply sol-making activities. Thus a lava flow in a few years becomes the foundation for a growing forest. The fire-rock breaking through the floor of the ocean to form the Hawai'ian chain of islands, lost its power first in the far northwest and cooled and hardened from island to island until it is now making its last appearance on the largest and most southeasterly of all the group, the island known by the name of Hawai'i. Here is still to be found what is called the largest active crater in the world, Kilauea, and the sister crater, Makuaweoweo, from which comes the most voluminous lava flows Kilauea, is about 4,000 feet altitude, while Mokuaweoweo is nearly 10,000 feet higher and is on the summit of Mauna Loa. Professor Jaggar, a experienced volanologist who was in charge of an observing station on the brink of Kilauea, accepts the theory ofa gas connection between these two craters so that their activity is mutual as to form vents, but not so close that the lower volacano affords a hydrostatic outlet to the lava in the higher crater. It has long been known that the crust of our rocky globe rises and falls with a tide simular to that of the ocean. Professors of a Chicago University have proved a tidal movement in the solid earth up and down of about a foot twice each day, and varying in amount through the lunar month and the solar year. There is definately a daily movement marked in the lava level of the fire-pit of Kilauea, and there is a marked simi-annual high level. This scientific study of active craters is still being studied to create a science in which we may hope to be able in not a distant day to predict the periods of volcanic eruptions and earhtquakes Many early Hawai'ians incorporate in their legends various theories to explain these great Phenomena of nature, many of which cluster around Pele,the great goddess of fire; and Hiiaka her sister, goddess of lightening. Also in the Legends of Maui. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Next - part 9. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/hi/statewide/newspapers/wikimool90nnw.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/hifiles/ File size: 6.7 Kb