Volcanic geology and eruption frequency,lower east rift zone of Kilauea volcano,Hawaii

Detailed geologic mapping and radiocarbon dating of tholeiitic basalts covering about 275 km² on the lower east rift zone (LERZ) and adjoining flanks of Kilauea volcano, Hawaii, show that at least 112 separate eruptions have occurred during the past 2360 years. Eruptive products include spatter ramparts and cones, a shield, two extensive lithic-rich tuff deposits, aa and pahoehoe flows, and three littoral cones. Areal coverage, number of eruptions and average dormant interval estimates in years for the five age groups assigned are: (I) historic, i.e. A D 1790 and younger: 25%, 5, 42.75; (II) 200–400 years old: 50%, 15, 14.3: (III) 400–750 years old: 20%, 54, 6.6; (IV) 750–1500 years old: 5%, 37, 20.8; (V) 1500–3000 years old: <1%, 1, unknown. At least 4.5–6 km³ of tholeiitic basalt have been erupted from the LERZ during the past 1500 years. Estimated volumes of the exposed products of individual eruptions range from a few tens of cubic meters for older units in small kipukas to as much as 0.4 km³ for the heiheiahulu shield. The average dormant interval has been about 13.6 years during the past 1500 years. The most recent eruption occurred in 1961, and the area may be overdue for its next eruption. However, eruptive activity will not resume on the LERZ until either the dike feeding the current eruption on the middle east rift zone extends farther down rift, or a new dike, unrelated to the current eruption, extends into the LERZ.     

Differentiation and magma mixing on Kilauea's east rift zone

The lavas of the 1955 east rift eruption of Kilauea Volcano have been the object of considerable petrologic interest for two reasons. First, the early 1955 lavas are among the most differentiated ever erupted at Kilauea, and second, the petrographic character and chemical composition of the lava being erupted changed significantly during the eruption. This shift, from more differentiated (MgO=5.0–5.7%) to more magnesian (MgO=6.2–6.8%) lava, has been variously interpreted, as either due to systematic excavation of a zoned, differentiated magma body, or to invasion of the differentiated magma by more primitive magma, followed by rapid mixing and eruption of the resulting hybrid magmas. Petrologic examination of several nearvent spatter samples of the late 1955 lavas shows abundant evidence for magma mixing, including resorbed and/or reversely zoned crystals of olivine, augite and plagioclase. In addition, the compositional ranges of olivine, plagioclase and groundmass sulfide are very large, implying that the assemblages are hybrid. Core compositions of olivine phenocrysts range from Fo85 to Fo77. The most magnesian olivines in these samples must have originally crystallized from a melt containing 8.0–8.5% MgO, which is distinctly more magnesian than the bulk composition of the late 1955 lavas. The majorelement and trace-element data are either permissive or supportive of a hybrid origin for the late 1955 lavas. In particular, the compositional trends of the 1955 lavas on plots of CaO vs MgO, and the virtual invariance of Al₂O₃ and Sr in these plagioclase-phyric lavas are more easily explained by magma mixing than by fractionation. The pattern of internal disequilibrium/re-equilibration in the late 1955 spatter samples is consistent with reintrusion and mixing having occurred at least twice, during the latter part of the 1955 eruption. Plagioclase zonation preserves possible evidence for additional, earlier reintrusion events. Least-squares modelling the mixing of early 1955 bulk compositions with various summit lavas±olivine pick the 1952 summit lava as most like the primitive component. The results also indicate the primitive component had MgO=7.5–8.0%, corresponding to liquidus temperatures of 1165–1175°C. The absence of Fe-Ti oxide phenocrysts in the late 1955 lavas implies that the cooler component of the hybrid had T>1110°C. Thus the thermal contrast between the two components may have been as much as 55–65°C, sufficient to produce the conspicuous disequilibrium effects visible in the spatter samples.     

Mechanism of explosive eruptions of Kilauea Volcano,Hawaii

A small explosive eruption of Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii, occurred in May 1924. The eruption was preceded by rapid draining of a lava lake and transfer of a large volume of magma from the summit reservoir to the east rift zone. This lowered the magma column, which reduced hydrostatic pressure beneath Halemaumau and allowed groundwater to flow rapidly into areas of hot rock, producing a phreatic eruption. A comparison with other events at Kilauea shows that the transfer of a large volume of magma out of the summit reservoir is not sufficient to produce a phreatic eruption. For example, the volume transferred at the beginning of explosive activity in May 1924 was less than the volumes transferred in March 1955 and January–February 1960, when no explosive activity occurred. Likewise, draining of a lava lake and deepening of the floor of Halemaumau, which occurred in May 1922 and August 1923, were not sufficient to produce explosive activity. A phreatic eruption of Kilauea requires both the transfer of a large volume of magma from the summit reservoir and the rapid removal of magma from near the surface, where the surrounding rocks have been heated to a sufficient temperature to produce steam explosions when suddenly contacted by groundwater.     

Development of the 1990 Kalapana Flow Field,Kilauea Volcano,Hawaii

The 1990 Kalapana flow field is a complex patchwork of tube-fed pahoehoe flows erupted from the Kupaianaha vent at a low effusion rate (approximately 3.5 m³/s). These flows accumulated over an 11-month period on the coastal plain of Kilauea Volcano, where the pre-eruption slope angle was less than 2°. the composite field thickened by the addition of new flows to its surface, as well as by inflation of these flows and flows emplaced earlier. Two major flow types were identified during the development of the flow field: large primary flows and smaller breakouts that extruded from inflated primary flows. Primary flows advanced more quickly and covered new land at a much higher rate than breakouts. The cumulative area covered by breakouts exceeded that of primary flows, although breakouts frequently covered areas already buried by recent flows. Lava tubes established within primary flows were longer-lived than those formed within breakouts and were often reoccupied by lava after a brief hiatus in supply; tubes within breakouts were never reoccupied once the supply was interrupted. During intervals of steady supply from the vent, the daily areal coverage by lava in Kalapana was constant, whereas the forward advance of the flows was sporadic. This implies that planimetric area, rather than flow length, provides the best indicator of effusion rate for pahoehoe flow fields that form on lowangle slopes.     

The complex filling of alae crater,Kilauea Volcano,Hawaii

Since February 1969 Alae Crater, a 165-m-deep pit crater on the east rift of Kilauea Volcano, has been completely filled with about 18 million m³ of lava. The filling was episodic and complex. It involved 13 major periods of addition of lava to the crater, including spectacular lava falls as high as 100 m, and three major periods of draining of lava from the crater. Alae was nearly filled by August 3, 1969, largely drained during a violent ground-cracking event on August 4, 1969, and then filled to the low point on its rim on October 10, 1969. From August 1970 to May 1971, the crater acted as a reservoir for lava that entered through subsurface tubes leading from the vent fissure 150 m away. Another tube system drained the crater and carried lava as far as the sea, 11 km to the south. Much of the lava entered Alae by invading the lava lake beneath its crust and buoying the crust upward. This process, together with the overall complexity of the filling, results in a highly complicated lava lake that would doubtless be misinterpreted if found in the fossil record.     

Anomalously high b-values in the South Flank of Kilauea volcano, Hawaii: evidence for the distribution of magma below Kilauea's East rift zone

The pattern of b-value of the frequency–magnitude relation, or mean magnitude, varies little in the Kaoiki-Hilea area of Hawaii, and the b-values are normal, with b=0.8 in the top 10 km and somewhat lower values below that depth. We interpret the Kaoiki-Hilea area as relatively stable, normal Hawaiian crust. In contrast, the b-values beneath Kilauea's South Flank are anomalously high (b=1.3–1.7) at depths between 4 and 8 km, with the highest values near the East Rift zone, but extending 5–8 km away from the rift. Also, the anomalously high b-values vary along strike, parallel to the rift zone. The highest b-values are observed near Hiiaka and Pauahi craters at the bend in the rift, the next highest are near Makaopuhi and also near Puu Kaliu. The mildest anomalies occur adjacent to the central section of the rift. The locations of the three major and two minor b-value anomalies correspond to places where shallow magma reservoirs have been proposed based on analyses of seismicity, geodetic data and differentiated lava chemistry. The existence of the magma reservoirs is also supported by magnetic anomalies, which may be areas of dike concentration, and self-potential anomalies, which are areas of thermal upwelling above a hot source. The simplest explanation of these anomalously high b-values is that they are due to the presence of active magma bodies beneath the East Rift zone at depths down to 8 km. In other volcanoes, anomalously high b-values correlate with volumes adjacent to active magma chambers. This supports a model of a magma body beneath the East Rift zone, which may widen and thin along strike, and which may reach 8 km depth and extend from Kilauea's summit to a distance of at least 40 km down rift. The anomalously high b-values at the center of the South Flank, several kilometers away from the rift, may be explained by unusually high pore pressure throughout the South Flank, or by anomalously strong heterogeneity due to extensive cracking, or by both phenomena. The major b-value anomalies are located SSE of their parent reservoirs, in the direction of motion of the flank, suggesting that magma reservoirs leave an imprint in the mobile flank. We hypothesize that the extensive cracking may have been acquired when the anomalous parts of the South Flank, now several kilometers distant from the rift zone, were generated at the rift zone near persistent reservoirs. Since their generation, these volumes may have moved seaward, away from the rift, but earthquakes occurring in them still use the preexisting complex crack distribution. Along the decollement plane at 10 km depth, the b-values are exceptionally low (b=0.5), suggesting faulting in a more homogeneous medium.     

Rheology of the 1983 Royal Gardens basalt flows,Kilauea Volcano,Hawaii

Ten carefully surveyed topographic profiles across a 1983 Royal Gardens basalt flow from the East Rift of the Kilauea Volcano were matched to digitally derived preflow profiles to construct accurate flow cross sections. Geometric parameters measured on these sections were then used to compute yield strengths and viscosities by means of several rheologic models. Calculated yield strengths (1.5–50 × 10³ Pa) and viscosities (0.2–8.2 × 10⁶ Pas) are comparable to earlier field estimates and slightly higher than laboratory determined values for aa basalt. Both yield strength and viscosity increased systematically downstream. The maximum observed temperature drop of 30 °C is insufficient to account for the 30-fold increase in yield strength, but could explain the three-fold order-of-magnitude increase in viscosity. The yield-strength increase downstream is more likely due to increasing crystallization and brecciation with time. For any cross section, calculations of rheologic parameters based on flow-margin depths generally gave lower values than those based on the dimensions of levees. This relationship may be attributed to the earlier formation and less complex evolution of the margins. The various equations gave more consistent results for upstream profiles, suggesting that calculations for remotely observed flows should avoid measurements near flow termini.     

Temperature of an active lava channel from spectral measurements,Kilauea Volcano,Hawaii

A narrow band spectroradiometer was used to determine the characteristic temperatures of a very active channeled lava flow for the phase 50 eruption of Pu'u 'O'o on the East Rift Zone of Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii. During the twilight of 19 February 1992, 14 spectra of this activity were acquired over a 51 minute interval [18.29 to 19.20 Hawaiian Standard Time (HST)], from which the thermal distribution of energy of two 18 m² areas, one near the center and one near the margin of the flow, may be investigated. A twocomponent thermal mixing model applied to the data taken of the center of the channel gave, in the most powerful instance (1.8x10⁵ W/m²), a crust temperature of 940° C, a hot component temperature of 1120°C and a hot radiating area of 60% of the total area. A simultaneous spectrum acquired near the channeled flow margin yielded a crust temperature of 586° C and a hot area of only 1.2% of the total area radiating at 1130° C. Average radiant flux densities recorded for the center of the lava channel (1.3x10⁵ W/m² average) are much greater than previous measurements of lava lakes (4.9x10³ W/m²) or recently emplaced lava flows (maximum of 7.2x10⁴ W/m²). The energetic nature of this eruption is shown by satellite measurements made at 02.33 HST on 22 February 1992 by the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer in Band 2 (0.72–1.10 m). These show the utility of using existing satellites with moderate resolution (1 km x 1 km pixels) and high temporal coverage (eight overpasses each day for Hawaii) as potential thermal alarms for rapidly assessing the hazard potential of large volcanic eruptions.     

Origin of differentiated lavas at Kilauea Volcano,Hawaii: Implications from the 1955 eruption

Kilauea's 1955 eruption was the first major eruption (longer than 2 days) on its east rift zone in 115 years. It lasted 88 days during which 108 × 10⁶ m³ of lava was erupted along a discontinuous, 15-km-long system of fissures. A wide compositional range of lavas was erupted including the most differentiated lavas (5.0 wt% MgO) from a historic Kilauea eruption. Lavas from the first half of the eruption are strongly differentiated (5.0–5.7 wt% MgO); later lavas are weakly to moderately differentiated (6.2–6.7 wt% MgO). Previous studies using only major-element compositions invoked either crystal fractionation (Macdonald and Eaton 1964) or magma mixing (Wright and Fiske 1971) as models to explain the wide compositional variation in the lavas. To further evaluate these models detailed petrographic, mineralogical, and whole-rock, major, and trace element XRF analyses were made of the 1955 lavas. Plagioclase and clinopyroxene in the early and late lavas show no petrographic evidence for magma mixing. Olivines from both the early and late lavas show minor resorption, which is typical of tholeiitic lavas with low MgO contents. Core-to-rim microprobe analyses across olivine, augite, and plagioclase mineral grains give no evidence of disequilibrium features related to mixing. Instead, plots of An/Ab vs distance from the core (D) and %Fo vs (D)^4.5 generated essentially linear trends indicative of simple crystal fractionation. Least-squares, mass-balance calculations for major- and trace-element data using observed mineral compositions yield excellent results for crystal fractionation (sum of residuals squared <0.01 for major elements, and <5% for trace elements); magma mixing produced less satisfactory results especially for Cr. Furthermore, trace-element plots of Zr vs Sr, Cr, and A1₂O₃ generate curved trends indicative of crystal fractionation processes. There is no evidence that mixing occurred in the 1955 lavas. Instead, the data are best explained by crystal fractionation involving a reservoir that extends at least 15 km along Kilauea's east rift zone. A dike was intruded into the rift zone from the summit reservoir eight days after the eruption started. Instead of causing magma mixing, the dike probably acted as a hydraulic plunger forcing more of the stored magma to be erupted.     

The relationship between earthquake swarms and magma transport: Kilauea volcano,Hawaii

A detailed investigation of earthquake locations and focal mechanisms for swarms associated with intrusive events at Kilauea volcano, Hawaii, further illuminates the relationships among stress state, faulting, and magma transport. We determine the earthquake locations and mechanisms using a three-dimensional crustal model to improve their accuracy and consistency. Swarms in Kilauea's upper east and southwest rift zones, from the years 1980 through 1982, provide clear evidence for the propagation and/or dilation of dikes. Focal mechanisms are predominantly strike-slip, and the faulting and inferred dike orientations can be interpreted quite consistently in terms of the model ofHill (1977). Stresses induced by the summit magma reservoir system strongly control faulting and magma transport in the rift zones close to the summit.     

A geomorphological reconnaissance of the submarine part of the East Rift Zone of Kilauea Volcano,Hawaii

More than half of the intensely active East Rift Zone of Kilauea Volcano crops out underwater along the crest of the submarine Puna Ridge. I present multibeam bathmetry of the entire ridge, near-bottom photographic and sonar observations of the plunging crest of its deeper distal half, and seismic profiles across the ridge tip and the adjacent structural moat. Analysis of large-scale relief, small-scale topography, and superficial rock types indicates that the rift zone is actively propagating across the moat but is probably a superficial structure that does not penetrate the underlying oceanic crust, that its tip is covered with large lava flows erupted at high rates and is surrounded with extensive debris flow deposits, and that the axial topography at depths of 2–4 km is dominated by gaping fissures and collapse pits, showing a preponderance of intrusive rather than extrusive events. Some aspects of this central-volcano rift zone, such as its geometry at small lateral offsets, resemble those at interplate rift zones along fast-spreading mid-ocean rises, but the great contrast in lithosphere thickness results in fundamental structural differences.     

Development of lava tubes in the light of observations at Mauna Ulu,Kilauea Volcano,Hawaii

During the 1969–1974 Mauna Ulu eruption on Kilauea's upper east rift zone, lava tubes were observed to develop by four principal processes: (1) flat, rooted crusts grew across streams within confined channels; (2) overflows and spatter accreted to levees to build arched roofs across streams; (3) plates of solidified crust floating downstream coalesced to form a roof; and (4) pahoehoe lobes progressively extended, fed by networks of distributaries beneath a solidified crust. Still another tube-forming process operated when pahoehoe entered the ocean; large waves would abruptly chill a crust across the entire surface of a molten stream crossing through the surf zone. These littoral lava tubes formed abruptly, in contrast to subaerial tubes, which formed gradually. All tube-forming processes were favored by low to moderate volume-rates of flow for sustained periods of time. Tubes thereby became ubiquitous within the pahoehoe flows and distributed a very large proportionof the lava that was produced during this prolonged eruption. Tubes transport lava efficiently. Once formed, the roofs of tubes insulate the active streams within, allowing the lava to retain its fluidity for a longer time than if exposed directly to ambient air temperature. Thus the flows can travel greater distances and spread over wider areas. Even though supply rates during most of 1970–1974 were moderate, ranging from 1 to 5 m³/s, large tube systems conducted lava as far as the coast, 12–13 km distant, where they fed extensive pahoehoe fields on the coastal flats. Some flows entered the sea to build lava deltas and add new land to the island. The largest and most efficient tubes developed during periods of sustained extrusion, when new lava was being supplied at nearly constant rates. Tubes can play a major role in building volcanic edifices with gentle slopes because they can deliver a substantial fraction of lava erupted at low to moderate rates to sites far down the flank of a volcano. We conclude, therefore, that the tendency of active pahoehoe flows to form lava tubes is a significant factor in producing the common shield morphology of basaltic volcanoes.     

Submarine basalts from Kilauea rift,Hawaii: nondependence of trace element composition on extrusion depth

Four tholeiites dredged from 500 to 5000 meters on the east rift of Kilauea were analyzed for K, Rb, Cs, Sr, Ba, Ni and⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr. No effects were found which relate to extrusion into sea water at depth.     

Deformation measurements on Kilauea volcano,Hawaii

Repeated electronic distance measurements across Kilauea Caldera with Tellurometers and Geodimeter show definite horizontal expansion related to the vertical uplift and outward tilting of the summit prior to an eruption, and contraction during and after a flank eruption. Measurements started in October 1964, along a 3098 meter line between Uwekahuna and Keanakakoi, indicate a relatively uniform lengthening of 12 centimeters during the interval October 22, 1964 to March 1, 1965. Rapid shortening of the line by 28 centimeters was measured 4 days after the beginning of a flank eruption which involved emission of approximately 29 million cubic meters of lava during the period March 5 to March 15, 1965. During the expansion, the standard deviation of 10 Tellurometer measurements from a least-squares srtaight line solution is ± 2.0 centimeters (6.5 ppm) whereas 9 Geodimeter measurements have a standard deviation of ± 1.1 (3.6 ppm) centimeters. Absolute distance readings between the two instruments differ by 4 centimeters (13 ppm), but relative changes in distance were the same on both instruments. Changes in distance across Kilauea Caldera can, therefore, be easily measured to accuracies of 4 to 7 parts per million with standard electronic distance measuring systems. On active volcanoes where ground surface deformation exceeds 10–100 parts per million with changes in subsurface magma pressure or volume, repeated horizontal distance measurements can be a most useful technique.     

Storage, migration, and eruption of magma at Kilauea volcano, Hawaii, 1971–1972

The magmatic plumbing system of Kilauea Volcano consists of a broad region of magma generation in the upper mantle, a steeply inclined zone through which magma rises to an intravolcano reservoir located about 2 to 6 km beneath the summit of the volcano, and a network of conduits that carry magma from this reservoir to sites of eruption within the caldera and along east and southwest rift zones. The functioning of most parts of this system was illustrated by activity during 1971 and 1972. When a 29-month-long eruption at Mauna Ulu on the east rift zone began to wane in 1971, the summit region of the volcano began to inflate rapidly; apparently, blockage of the feeder conduit to Mauna Ulu diverted a continuing supply of mantle-derived magma to prolonged storage in the summit reservoir. Rapid inflation of the summit area persisted at a nearly constant rate from June 1971 to February 1972, when a conduit to Mauna Ulu was reopened. The cadence of inflation was twice interrupted briefly, first by a 10-hour eruption in Kilauea Caldera on 14 August, and later by an eruption that began in the caldera and migrated 12 km down the southwest rift zone between 24 and 29 September. The 14 August and 24–29 September eruptions added about 10⁷ m³ and 8 × 10⁶ m³, respectively, of new lava to the surface of Kilauea. These volumes, combined with the volume increase represented by inflation of the volcanic edifice itself, account for an approximately 6 × 10⁶ m³/month rate of growth between June 1971 and January 1972, essentially the same rate at which mantle-derived magma was supplied to Kilauea between 1952 and the end of the Mauna Ulu eruption in 1971.The August and September 1971 lavas are tholeiitic basalts of similar major-element chemical composition. The compositions can be reproduced by mixing various proportions of chemically distinct variants of lava that erupted during the preceding activity at Mauna Ulu. Thus, part of the magma rising from the mantle to feed the Mauna Ulu eruption may have been stored within the summit reservoir from 4 to 20 months before it was erupted in the summit caldera and along the southwest rift zone in August and September.The September 1971 activity was only the fourth eruption on the southwest rift zone during Kilauea's 200 years of recorded history, in contrast to more than 20 eruptions on the east rift zone. Order-of-magnitude differences in topographic and geophysical expression indicate greatly disparate eruption rates for far more than historic time and thus suggest a considerably larger dike swarm within the east rift zone than within the southwest rift zone. Characteristics of the historic eruptions on the southwest rift zone suggest that magma may be fed directly from active lava lakes in Kilauea Caldera or from shallow cupolas at the top of the summit magma reservoir, through fissures that propagate down rift from the caldera itself at the onset of eruption. Moreover, emplacement of this magma into the southwest rift zone may be possible only when compressive stress across the rift is reduced by some unknown critical amount owing either to seaward displacement of the terrane south-southeast of the rift zone or to a deflated condition of Mauna Loa Volcano adjacent to the northwest, or both. The former condition arises when the forceful emplacement of dikes into the east rift zone wedges the south flank of Kilauea seaward. Such controls on the potential for eruption along the southwest rift zone may be related to the topographic and geophysical constrasts between the two rift zones.     

Petrology of the hilina formation,Kilauea volcano,Hawaii

The Hilina Formation comprises the oldest sequence of lava flows and tuffs exposed on Kilauea Volcano. These rocks are only exposed in kipukas in younger Puna Formation lavas along cliffs on the south flank of Kilauea Volcano. Locally, tuffs and flows of the Pahala Formation separate the underlying Hilina Formation rocks rom the overlying Puna Formation rocks. Charcoal collected from the base of the Pahala Formation yielded a C¹⁴ age of 22.800±340 years B.P. which defines a minimum age for the Hilina Formation. Hilina Formation lavas crop out over a wide region and probably originated from the summit area and from both rift zones. The Hilina Formation contains both olivine-controlled and differentiated lavas (using the terminology ofWright, 1971). The olivine-controlled lavas of the Hilina Formation are distinguishable mineralogically and geochemically from younger olivine-controlled Kilauea lavas. The younger lavas generally contain discrete low-calcium pyroxene grains. greater glass contents, higher K₂O/P₂O₅ ratios and lower total iron contents. Similar geochemical trends prevail for Manuna Loa lavas, and may typify the early lavas of Hawaiian shield volcanoes. Despite these similarities, the Hilina Formation (and all Kilauea) lavas have higher TiO₂ and CaO, and lower SiO₂ and Al₂O₃ contents than Mauna Loa Lavas. These differences have existed for over 30,000 years. Therefore, it is unlikely that the older lavas of Kilauea are compositionally similar to recent Mauna Loa lavas as was previously suggested. K₂O, TiO₂, Na₂ and Zr contents of lavas from a stratigraphic sequence of Hilina Formation lavas are variable. These variations may be utilized to subdivide the sequence into geochemical groups. These groups are not magma batches. Rather, they represent lavas from batches whose compositions may have been modified by crystal fractionation and magma mixing.     

Noble gas systematics of deep rift zone glasses from Loihi Seamount, Hawaii

We report new noble gas fusion and crushing data for six pillow rim glasses, recovered between 3 and 5 km water depth on the south rift zone of Loihi Seamount, Hawaii. Helium abundances of the glasses vary from 0.3 to 2.3 μcc/g, with ⁴He/³He ratios between 30000 and 27000 (24–27 R_A), similar to previously reported values. The neon data form a correlation line which is similar to the Loihi-Kilauea line reported by Honda et al. [1], but extends to much higher ratios, up to 12.9 and 0.0382 for the ²⁰Ne/²²Ne and ²¹Ne/²²Ne ratios, respectively. This provides conclusive evidence for the suggestion that the Hawaiian plume, thought to originate in the lower mantle, has a solar-like ²⁰Ne/²²Ne composition [1], but a slightly higher ²¹Ne/²²Ne ratio. ⁴⁰Ar/³⁶Ar ratios of the deep rift-zone glasses are as high as 2600, and show a positive correlation with neon isotopic ratios. In contrast to neon and argon, all xenon isotopic compositions are isotopically indistinguishable from air, which either suggests preferential atmospheric contamination of xenon, or could indicate an atmospheric xenon isotopic composition for the lower mantle.     

Crystal size distribution systematics and the determination of magma storage times: The 1959 eruption of Kilauea volcano, Hawaii

The theory of crystal size distribution (CSD theory) is based on a steady-state population balance that monitors the flux of crystals growing into and out of specificed size categories in precipitating solutions. The conservation equation describing this balance permits crystal growth and nucleation rates to be determined directly from crystal size distribution data. In this investigation, it is shown that CSD analysis can alternatively be used to calculate the residence time of crystals in the system - or in volcanologic terms, the magma storage time prior to eruption - if the characteristic crystal growth rate can be independently determined or estimated. The crystal size data needed for storage time determinations are easily obtained from thin sections of glassy eruption samples and the mathematical calculations are relatively simple. Analysis of the errors inherent in this new technique predicts storage estimates accurate to within an order of magnitude.     

Geothermometry of Kilauea Iki lava lake,Hawaii

Data on the variation of temperature with time and in space are essential to a complete understanding of the crystallization history of basaltic magma in Kilauea Iki lava lake. Methods used to determine temperatures in the lake have included direct, downhole thermocouple measurements and Fe-Ti oxide geothermometry. In addition, the temperature variations of MgO and CaO contents of glasses, as determined in melting experiments on appropriate Kilauean samples, have been calibrated for use as purely empirical geothermometers and are directly applicable to interstitial glasses in olivine-bearing core from Kilauea Iki. The uncertainty in inferred quenching temperatures is ±8–10° C. Comparison of the three methods shows that (1) oxide and glass geothermometry give results that are consistent with each other and consistent with the petrography and relative position of samples, (2) downhole thermo-couple measurements are low in all but the earliest, shallowest holes because the deeper holes never completely recover to predrilling temperatures, (3) glass geothermometry provides the greatest detail on temperature profiles in the partially molten zone, much of which is otherwise inaccessible, and (4) all three methods are necessary to construct a complete temperature profile for any given drill hole. Application of glass-based geothermometry to partially molten drill core recovered in 1975–1981 reveals in great detail the variation of temperature, in both time and space, within the partially molten zone of Kilauea Iki lava lake. The geothermometers developed here are also potentially applicable to glassy samples from other Kilauea lava lakes and to rapidly quenched lava samples from eruptions of Kilauea and Mauna Loa.     

Rates of volcanic activity along the southwest rift zone of Mauna Loa volcano,Hawaii

Flow by flow mapping of the 65-km-long anbaerial part of the southwest rift zone and adjacent flanks of Mauna Loa Volcano, Hawaii, and about 50 new¹⁴C dates on charcoal from beneath these flows permit estimates of rates of lava accumulation and volcanic growth over the past 10,000 years. The sequence of historic eraptions along the southwest rift zone, beginning in 1868, shows a general pattern of uprift migration and increasing eruptive volume, culminating in the great 1950 eruption. No event comparable to 1950, in terms of volume or vent length, is evident for at least the previous 1,000 years. Rates of lava accumulation during the historic period were several times higher than the average rate for the preceding few thousand years along the southwest rift zone and adjacent flanks. Rates of lava accumulation along the zone have been subequal to those of Kilauea Volcano during the historic period but they were much lower in late prehistoric time (anpubl. Kilauea data byR.T. Holcomb). Thus, only about 30% of the surface of the southwest side of Mauna Loa has been covered by lava during the last 1,000 years, as contrasted with about 90% of the subaerial surface of Kilauea. Rates of surface covering and volcanic growth have been markedly asymmetric along Mauna Loa’s southwest rift zone. Accumulation rates have been about half again as great on the northwest side of the rift zone in comparison with the southeast side. The difference apparently reflects a westward lateral shift of the rift zone of Mauna Loa away from Kilauea Volcano, which may have acted as a barrier to symmetrical growth of the rift zone.