“Alika was a man and Hina was his wahine, and their occupation was farming. Before they would begin farming, they would vow that should their crops mature, they would consume it along with Pele, the god. But when the crops reached maturity, the two of them didn’t carry out their promise, and the day that they ate of their crops, that was when they soon died.”
“This is how it happened: Hina urged Alika to eat sweet potato, and so Alika went to dig up some, and after finding some, he baked it in the umu¹ until done and then they ate it all; then the forest began to speak as if it were a man, echoing all about them.”
“During which time, the man soon thought of their vow. Alika said to Hina, “We will die because of you,” and before he was done speaking, lava soon flamed forth and they perished.”
“And it is for this man that this land is called by that name until this day; if you look at the aftermath of the lava, in this area, the burnt homes of Kaupo stand jagged because of the spreading flames²; the land is horrid in appearance in every way; but the kamaaina love it here, and it is only the malihini who disparage it.” (Zalika, South Kona, Kuokoa, 8/7/1886)
“The greatest volcanic event in Hawaii for the year 1919 was the activity of Mauna Loa itself. It was no surprise to the unsleeping keeper of Kilauea and the Long Mountain.”
“That autumn, with its unruly flock of seismic disturbances, was a busy one for Professor Jaggar, who made more than one lofty ascent to the flaming pastures of his charge.”
“Back at Kilauea observatory, [Jaggar] noticed the fume and glow from Mauna Loa’s 13,675-foot crater, Mokuaweoweo, spreading to the southward along a route he knew well.”
“By telephone he warned Kapapala and the other districts in the course the flow would take. Many is the account I have listened to from residents of those sections who saw destruction looming far above, and who hurried to pack their belongings in preparation for flight.” (Charmian London)
On September 26, 1919, a vent high on Mauna Loa’s Southwest Rift Zone erupted for just a few hours. Three days later, a breakout lower on the rift zone erupted fountains of lava up to 400 ft high and sent a river of lava down the volcano’s forested slopes.
Within about 20 hours, an ‘a‘ā flow several hundred meters (yards) wide crossed the circle-island “Government Road” (predecessor of Highway 11), burying the small village of ‘Ālika (north of Miloli‘i). This flow can be seen today at Highway 11, mile markers 90–91. (USGS)
“Some thought they would go grey in a night, through the freaks played by the fluid avalanche, which would seem to skirmish in avoidance of an obviously doomed home. And I noticed a hesitance among these, as well as other island visitors who rushed to the ten-days’ wonder, about telling what they had seen.” (Charmian London)
“‘It’s like this,’ they faltered. ‘We saw things that nobody would believe. How do we know? We tried it out when we got home. The thing was too big, too terrible, to impress those who had not seen it – in spite of the great smoke and glare that hid Hawaii from the other islands for days and days.”
“Why, I stood on the hot bank of that burning cascade, and saw bowlders as big as houses, I tell you, perfectly incandescent, go rolling down to the sea; and-but there I go. I don’t think you’d believe the things I could tell you.’” (Charmian London)
“The lava is creeping very slowly, but it is wiping out the koa forests and the ohia in its path; and the fine grazing lands are being covered, and the ranch land where the animals of a Portuguese man of Keei are kept, and whose name is John Deniz, is half covered over by blazing lava; the land owned by Mrs. Carrie Robinson of Honolulu also is land greatly covered by blazing lava.”
“In the estimation of Tom White and those who went up with him, the branch flowing to the sea of Opihali is almost 13 miles from the government road, and the branch flowing to the sea of Kaapuna is about eight miles from the government road, and the branch flowing to the sea of Papa of Honomalino perhaps has not at all reached the area called Puu Keokeo.”
“Because of the branching of the lava flow into three branches is one of the reasons for the great weakening of the flow, even if the flow from the caldera from the mountain side is very powerful.” (Hoku o Hawaii, 10/23/1919)
When the flow reached the ocean, “Noises were heard underwater of seething and of tapping concussions. The uprush of steam where the lava made contact with the sea carried up rock fragments and sand and built a black sand cone.”
“The lava ‘rafts’ or blocks of bench magma which rolled down the live channel, were seen to bob up, make surface steam, and float out some distance from the shore without sinking at first, as though buoyed by the hot gas inflating them. Lightnings were seen in the steam column.”
“There was much muddying of the water and fish were killed in considerable number…. For 50 or more feet out to sea from the base of the great column of vapor which was rising opposite the lava channel somewhere beyond …”
“… the water was dotted with small jets and sometimes a swirling “steam spout” or tornado effect, a foot or two in diameter, would rise from the water a few feet away from the main steam column and join the cloud above.”
“Sometimes a shower of small rock fragments each two or three inches in diameter would be jetted up from a place in the water close to shore, each projectile followed by a tail of vapor, to heights 15 or 20 feet above the sea.” (Jaggar, Moore & Ault))
“… the high fountains of lava, the great detonations of explosions, the lake of fire on the mountain, and the final plunge of the melt over old lava bluffs into the sea in a river speeding five to ten miles an hour. This red torrent coursed for ten days.”
“The heat of the stilled lava was not yet gone when, four months afterward, I motored upon it where it had crossed, a hundred yards wide, the highway in Alika district – a waste of aa as upstanding as the wavelet of a tide-rip, kupikipikio.”
“It had swept everything in its path, causing suffering, fear and death among the herds.”
“A temporary restoration of the highway was begun as soon as the heat had sufficiently cooled; but it made one nervous, in an inflammable vehicle, to see how a light shower caused the lava to steam, and to feel warmth still rising from crevices. ….”
“During the eruption there was a succession of short-period, shallow tidal waves ranging from three to fourteen feet in height. These kept in trepidation the passengers on vessels of all classes that swarmed off shore.”
“An authentic tale is told of the wife of an islander being swept some distance off-shore by a subsiding tidal wave. Fortunately she was a swimmer.” (Charmian London)
The 1919 ‘Ālika lava flow advanced 11 mi in about 24 hours, reaching the sea north of Ho‘ōpūloa, where it poured into the ocean for 10 days. The eruption then slowly waned until November 5, when all activity ceased. (USGS)
