Volcanoes: A Global Perspective was written by John P. (“Jack”) Lockwood and Richard W. (“Rick”) Hazlett. Jack retired after a long career with HVO and is now an internationally known consulting volcanologist. Rick wrote and illustrated several field guides about Hawai`i and has been a long-time geology professor at Pomona College, California. Their combined efforts result in a well-illustrated, broad treatment of modern volcanology that provides the reader with a good understanding of how volcanoes work.

Of special interest are stories with Hawai`i ties, like the origin of the term “pyroduct.” The first person to theorize how lava is able to travel so far from its vent was not a geologist but a Christian missionary – the Reverend Titus Coan – who was very interested in the workings of active volcanoes. Reverend Coan was stationed in Hilo between 1835 and his death in 1882, and witnessed every eruption of Mauna Loa during that time.

His first was the January 1843, eruption of Mauna Loa that sent flows racing to the north where it ponded against cinder cones at the base of Mauna Kea in the Saddle between the two great mountains. Having never climbed either mountain or seen an active Mauna Loa lava flow, Coan, with another missionary and a few native porters, decided to make the trip.

After an exhausting journey to the foot of these active flows, the party began a treacherous climb over hot, but hardened, lava flows in an attempt to reach the vent high on Mauna Loa. On the way, Coan’s party noticed openings (now called skylights) through which they could see a molten lava stream below, flowing at a rate of 20 miles per hour. They found several of these openings on their trek up the lava flow.

Unencumbered by the constraints of a formal geologic education, he concluded that “As these lower branches [of the flow] were pushing slowly along upon level ground, and as the feeding flood had ceased to come down upon the surface from the … vent, but flowed in a subterranean duct or ducts …”

Titus Coan humbly offered a name “pyroduct” for these conduits through which lava flows.

Coan’s observations, however, were not without controversy, as he discovered upon discussed his ideas with the premier American geologist, James Dwight Dana. Dana had been the geologist with the U.S. Exploring Expedition that visited Mauna Loa and Kilauea volcanoes in 1840 and 1841.

As the story is told in Volcanoes: A Global Perspective, Dana, who had never observed an active Hawaiian lava flow, openly challenged and dismissed Coan’s ideas that lava flowed through the hardened interior of flows and hypothesized that what Coan had seen were deep volcanic fissures radiating from Mauna Loa’s summit.

Coan’s idea, however, made more sense to other lava flow witnesses, and the reports of subsequent eruptions by fellow missionaries also included descriptions of pyroducts. Even if the term wasn’t used, the idea of internal lava transport had become widely accepted in Hawai`i.

For example, when another Mauna Loa lava flow threatened Hilo in the summer of 1881, newspapers reported plans for diverting lava away from the town and the bay. In the August 20, 1881, edition of The Saturday Press, the rationale was given this way for a potential use of explosives:

“For the last two months nearly, has this flow poured down the mountainside, and it seems to make for itself a tunnel or casing, of cold lava, whilst this heated molten rock flows in a sort of tube of its own construction.…Now if this great conduct were broken up the lava flow might be taken in hand as it were, rendered a little more tractable.”

Titus Coan’s idea made it possible to think of ways to divert a lava flow, Dana’s ideas did not. Years after Coan’s death, Dana did, finally, accept Coan’s concept. As Jack and Rick say in their new book, “Good field observations usually trump academic theories!”

Flash forward to 2010, Pyro-ductTM is now an electrically and thermally conductive material that is commercially available, and the internal conduits through which lava is transported are commonly called “lava tubes.” But, who knows, maybe the new text will return Coan’s term – “pyroduct” – to modern usage.

Kilauea Activity Update

No breakouts on the flow field have been reported over the past week, as of this writing (Thursday, September 2). Though repeated deflation–inflation cycles at Kilauea’s summit may have caused small fluctuations in the size of the steam plume at Puhi-o-Kalaikini, the ocean entry remains active.

At Kilauea’s summit, a circulating lava pond deep in the collapse pit within the floor of Halema`uma`u Crater has also been visible via the Webcam throughout the past week. The lava surface fluctuated slowly in concert with the deflation-inflation cycles. This slow change in lava level was punctuated on several occasions by abrupt increases in the height of the lava surface. These periods of high lava level were short-lived, lasting up to several hours, and ended with a sudden drop of the lava surface, back to its previous level. Volcanic gas emissions remain elevated, resulting in high concentrations of sulfur dioxide downwind.

One earthquake beneath Hawai`i Island was reported felt during the past week. A magnitude-2.8 earthquake occurred at 8:40 p.m. on Thursday, August 26, 2010, H.s.t., and was located 14 km (8 miles) west of Kilauea summit at a depth of 11 km (7 miles).

Visit the HVO Web site for detailed Kilauea and Mauna Loa activity updates, recent volcano photos, recent earthquakes, and more; call (808) 967-8862 for a Kilauea summary; email questions to askHVO@usgs.gov.

Volcano Watch is a weekly article and activity update written by scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.

Choose from an enormous selection of books priced at just $1.00 each. There will also be a large assortment of CDs, DVDs, LP records, videos and audiobooks on sale.

Come early for the best selection. Proceeds from the book sale will benefit the Library. As an added attraction, Fun Fun the Clown will offer free face paintings and balloon twists for children.

Kaimuki Public Library is located at 1041 Koko Head Avenue, corner of Koko Head and Harding Avenues. For more information, please call the library at 733-8422.

In the nearly 25 years since the Mililani Public Library was built, the Mililani area has grown considerably, with a sizeable increase in housing and the addition of a major shopping center, theaters and a bus transit center. This has led to an increase in use of the library and made the current number of parking stalls inadequate.

“Public libraries are important learning centers within our state. They offer families access to valuable reading and multimedia resources and also enhance our sense of community,” said Governor Lingle. “This project will expand and improve the Mililani Public Library to accommodate the increase in use that has occurred over the past two decades.”

Design is scheduled to begin in October 2008 and be completed in April 2009. Construction is scheduled to begin in September 2009 and be completed in April 2010.

According to the article, some proceeds from the sale of the book will go to St. Louis High School for the maintenance of the local Ehime Maru Memorial (although Waddle refused to say how much). The book may be translated into Japanese, he said, and a movie deal is possible.

Waddle, who until now has remained relatively silent since the tragedy, has authored “The Right Thing,” which promises “the untold story of the deadly collision.” The book documents the fateful Feb. 9 voyage, the firestorm of controversy it triggered, his fall from grace in the Navy, the military inquiry (and his decision to testify), and his attempts to make peace with the families of those killed in the accident.

Four students and five instructors died aboard the Ehime Maru, a Japanese fishing vessel that was used for training, when Waddle ordered an “emergency blow” — a dramatic maneuver in which the 9,000-ton submarine surfaces so fast it shoots partly out of the water. Waddle and his crew had not spotted the Ehime Maru, and Waddle’s hopes of providing 16 civillian guests “a short voyage they would never forget” were horribly realized.

Following the tragedy, Waddle told the newsmagazine that the Navy “made several miscalculations” about him and about the Japanese perspective, lacking both vision and compassion. Central to his story is how the Navy refused to support his efforts to follow through on a promise he made to visit Japan and apologize in person. He said his superiors failed to recognize “the customs and traditions of the citizens with respect to the importance of an apology.”

Waddle said he had a chance to apologize two days after the collision, but was stymied by the Navy. Although he wrote letters and ultimately visited Japan last month (where only one victim’s families agreed to meet with him), he told the Stars and Stripes he regretted waiting so long before finally going against the Navy’s wishes and making the trip. “Hindsight is 20/20,” he said. “I am glad I fulfilled my promise; at least I kept my word and my end of the bargain.”

Several chapters of “The Right Thing” are devoted to the military court of inquiry convened to investigate the accident. Much is made of his decision to testify without immunity. In a passage where his attorney Charlie Gittins’ describes the move as legal suicide, Waddle writes:

“I smiled slightly at my defense counsel’s impassioned plea. I knew Charlie wanted to protect me, but I felt compelled to take the witness stand. I believed that the truth should be known about the sorrowful events in which I had played a part. ‘I have to, Charlie, I did it. Nine people are dead because of me.’”

Ultimately, Waddle received a letter of reprimand, was reassigned to a desk job, and was allowed to retire with full benefits.

Nonetheless, Waddle said he was disappointed that the positive accomplishments of his 24-year military career no longer seemed to matter to his comrades.

“They made my quality of life miserable the final months before I left service, and managed to punish me more severely by penalizing me, and demanding that I repay bonuses and incentives that were awarded me during the time I was on active duty that I thought I rightfully earned,” he told the Stars and Stripes. “To leave the Navy after a 20-year career with not so much as even getting a handshake was heart-breaking.”

Watching the news, he said, was “very, very painful and very disheartening,” because “the public never got to see the great successes that the ship achieved and accomplished during the time I was in command.”

Waddle recalls how quickly the Navy disavowed him, refusing to discuss the promised visit to Japan with the victims families following his discharge. Indeed, when the Stars and Stripes sought comment on Waddle’s book, Navy spokesman Cmdr. David Wells told the publication, “He is a private citizen and it would be inappropriate.”

Waddle, however, told the Stars and Stripes that he has such reservations.

“I have no problems whatsoever lambasting the Navy,” he said.

Several relatives of the incident’s nine dead and the 26 survivors from the Japanese ship reached a reported $13.9 million settlement with the Navy in November. The remaining two families will sign settlement accords at the U.S. Embassy on Jan. 31, three days after Waddle’s book comes out.