Excerpt from The 1949 Summit Eruption of Mauna Loa, HawaiiA new eruptive phase of Mauna Loa began on January 6, 1949. Lava broke out along a series of fissures extending part way across the summit caldera and a short distance down the southwest rift. In the early hours a flow advanced more than 6 miles down the western slope of the mountain, but within 48 hours it became inactive. Within 72 hours lava extrusion was entirely restricted to a short length Of fissure at the foot of the southwest wall of the caldera. There lava fountains as much as 800 feet high built a large cone of pumice and fine cinder, with a small cone of coarse cinder and Spatter in its crater. Lava flooded more than half the floor of the caldera and filled to overflowing a small pit crater adjoining the caldera on the south. A flow Spilled out of the pit crater and moved 4 miles southward.Lava fountaining ceased on February 5, but short periods of quiet lava extrusion probably occurred during the rest of February and March. During late March or early April this quiet outflow became essentially constant and continued until about the end of May, veneering the small cinder-and-spatter cone with lava, building a small lava cone, and sending flows over areas in the southern part of the caldera floor.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.