Chapter I: Front Matter

_My Experiments With_

Volcanoes

_January 24, 1871--January 17, 1953_]

_My Experiments With_

Volcanoes

THOMAS A. JAGGAR

“_Through faith we understand
That the worlds were formed
By the word of God,
So that things which are seen
Were not made of things which do appear._”

MCMLVI
HAWAIIAN VOLCANO RESEARCH ASSOCIATION
HONOLULU

Copyright, 1956, by the
Hawaiian Volcano Research Association

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA BY
THE COMMERCIAL PRINTING DIVISION OF THE
ADVERTISER PUBLISHING CO., LTD., HONOLULU

_Thomas Augustus Jaggar, Jr._

_January 24, 1871_

_January 17, 1953_

_It is the wish of the members of the Hawaiian Volcano Research Association to share with others the experiences they have enjoyed in their association with a truly great man._

_On October 5, 1911, through the efforts of Thomas Augustus Jaggar, Jr., the Hawaiian Volcano Research Association was organized to assist in the support of the newly created Hawaiian Volcano Observatory at Kilauea, Hawaii. Accepting Dr. Jaggar’s sincere belief that a systematic and continuous study of volcanoes would result in the protection of life and property, the motto the Hawaiian Volcano Research Association adopted was “Ne plus haustae aut obrutae urbes.”_

_Dr. Jaggar arrived in Hawaii to take up his work at the Observatory on January 17, 1912--exactly forty-one years before the day of his death on January 17, 1953._

_Dr. Jaggar spent the last years of his life writing the history of his sixty years of intensive, rugged, and hazardous scientific achievements. During many of these years, and up to the completion of his life’s history, it has been well stated that one of his most valuable co-workers was his wife, Isabel, who shared with him the disappointments, the joys of discovery, and much of the physical work. It is the privilege of the officers, directors and members of the Hawaiian Volcano Research Association to present in book form this story of Dr. Jaggar’s life._

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. YOUNG SCIENTIST 3

II. IMITATING RIPPLEMARKS 32

III. EXPEDITION DECADE 55

IV. LIVING WITH VOLCANOES 85

V. EXPANSION DECADE 114

VI. PROPHECY AND HOPE 151

VII. ENVOI 177

ILLUSTRATIONS

FACING PAGE

Thomas A. Jaggar _Frontis_

1. Experimental Geology Laboratory, Harvard
University, 1900 40

2. Fountain at edge of lava lake, May 17, 1917 41

3. Explosion cloud rising from Halemaumau, May 13, 1924 56

4. Crag in lava lake, January 23, 1918 57

5. Scientists of Technical Expedition to Aleutians, 1907 72

6. Captain George Seeley of the _Lydia_, 1907 73

7. Volcano House from Observatory, 1913 88

8. Island in Halemaumau lava lake, 1911 88

9. Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, 1912 89

10. Jaggar in seismograph vault beneath Observatory, 1916 89

11. Lava lake, showing bench, March 30, 1917 92

12. Halemaumau, showing lava lake and crags,
December 8, 1916 92

13. Jaggar holding pipe for sounding lava lake, 1917 93

14. River of Alika flow, Mauna Loa, October 6, 1917 100

15. Lava streaming into a sinkhole in Halemaumau lava
lake, July 7, 1917 100

16. Sakurajima Volcano, Japan, 1914 101

17. Fountain in lava lake, March 19, 1921 101

18. Isabel and Tom Jaggar in woods on Kilauea Volcano,
1923 120

19. Lava lake, fountains, and crags, March 20, 1921 121

20. Footprints in ash west of Mauna Iki 121

21. The _Honukai_ on Alaska beach, 1928 136

22. The _Ohiki_, first amphibian truck, 1928 136

23. Lava flow entering village of Hoopuloa, 1926 137

24. Lava flow of 1926 Mauna Loa eruption approaching
Hoopuloa 137

25. Jaggar in office of Observatory in “Tin House,” 1937 152

26. Bomb bursting on lava flow, December 27, 1935 153

27. Fountain in Halemaumau lava lake, May 23, 1917 168

28. Rare dome fountain, Kilauea Crater, March 20, 1921 169

29. Lava stream near rim of Halemaumau, February 9, 1921 169

CHARTS

Fluctuations of Halemaumau 113

Diagram of hypothetical globe section 179