“In the afternoon, Messrs. Thurston and Bishop walked out in a NW direction, till they reached the point that forms the northern boundary or the bay, on the eastern side of which Kairua (Kailua) is situated. It runs three or four miles into the sea; is composed entirely of lava …”
“… and was formed by an eruption from one of the large craters on the top of Mouna Huararai, (Hualālai,) which, about twenty-three years ago, inundated several villages, destroyed a number of plantations and extensive fish-ponds, filled up a deep bay twenty miles in length, and formed the present coast.”
“An Englishman, who has resided thirty-eight years in the islands, and who witnessed the above eruption, has frequently, told us he was astonished at the irresistible impetuosity of the torrent. Stone walls, trees, and houses, all gave way before it ….”
“Numerous offerings were presented, and many hogs, thrown alive into the stream, to appease the anger of the gods, by whom they supposed it was directed, and to stay its devastating course. All seemed unavailing, until one day the king Tamehameha (Kamehameha) … as the most valuable offering he could make, cut off part of his own hair, which was always considered sacred, and threw it into the torrent.”
“A day or two after, the lava ceased to flow. The gods, it was thought, were satisfied; and the king acquired no small degree of influence over the minds of the people, who, from this circumstance, attributed their escape from threatened destruction to his supposed interest with the deities of the volcanoes.” (Ellis, 1823)
Others did the same in offering hair to Pele. “This volcano, which has the name of Peli (Pele) from the goddess supposed to inhabit it, is also called by the natives, Kairauea Nui (Kilauea,) or the greater, and the extinguished crater, Kairauea in, or the little …”
“Night increased the magnificence, perhaps the horror, of the scene. The volcano caused … ‘a terrible light in the air.’ The roar occasioned by the escape of the pent up elements, and the fearful character of the surrounding scenery, suited with that light; and all impressed us with the sense of the present Deity …”
“No wonder, then, that the uninstructed natives had long worshipped, in this place, the mysterious powers of nature. Here it was that they supposed the gods of the Island had their favourite abodes, and that, from this centre of their power, they often shook the land, when it pleased them to pass under ground to visit the sea, and take delight in open places.”
“The first pair who arrived at the Island, with the animals and fruits necessary for their subsistence, met the fire gods, say they, on their first landing, and propitiated them by offerings of part of their provisions. …
“Hence no ohelo berry was eaten on Peli, till some had been offered to the goddess of the same name: the sandal-wood was not cut, nor the fern roots dug, without propitiating her by locks of hair, and often more precious things.”
“Frequently the hog and the dog were sacrificed to procure her favour; and never was the ground disturbed or any thing carried away from Kairauea.” (Byron, 1825)
But these offerings of hair to Pele are not the focus of this summary; this is about Pele’s Hair – a volcanic phenomenon that internationally carries the name of ‘Pele.’
Missionary Titus Coan describes Pele’s Hair: “All at once the scene changes, the central portion begins to swell and rise into a grayish dome, until it bursts like a gigantic bubble, and out rushes a sea of crimson fusion …”
“… which pours down to the surrounding wall with an awful seething and roaring, striking this mural barrier with fury, and with such force that its sanguinary jets are thrown back like a repulsed charge upon a battle-field, or tossed into the air fifty to a hundred feet high, to fall upon the upper rim of the pit in a hail-storm of fire.”
“This makes the filamentous vitrifaction called ‘Pele’s hair.’”
“The sudden sundering of the fusion into thousands of particles, by the force that thus ejects the igneous masses upward, and their separation when in this fused state, spins out vitreous threads like spun glass.”
“These threads are light, and when taken up by brisk winds, are often kept floating and gyrating in the atmosphere, until they come into a calmer stratum of air …”
“… when they fall over the surrounding regions, sometimes in masses in quiet and sheltered places. They are sometimes carried a hundred miles, as is proved by their dropping on ships at sea.”
“This ‘hair’ takes the color of the lava of which it is formed. Some of it is a dark gray, some auburn, or it may be yellow, or red, or of a brick color.” (Titus Coan)
Scientists say Pele’s hair is “volcanic glass that has been stretched into thin strands by the physical pulling apart of molten material during eruptions. Most commonly it forms during fire fountain activity.” (Batiza)
Thin strands of volcanic glass drawn out from molten lava have long been called Pele’s hair, named for Pele, the Hawaiian goddess of volcanoes.
A single strand, with a diameter of less than 0.5 mm, may be as long as 2 m. The strands are formed by the stretching or blowing-out of molten basaltic glass from lava, usually from lava fountains, lava cascades, and vigorous lava flows (for example, as pāhoehoe lava plunges over a small cliff and at the front of an ‘a‘a flow.)
Pele’s hair is often carried high into the air during fountaining, and wind can blow the glass threads several tens of kilometers from a vent. (USGS)
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