U. S. Geological Survey Radiocarbon Dates III

Rubin, Meyer; Suess, Hans

W-201 2500 ± 250 Kilauea, Hawaii. Fern mold from fern forest killed by blanket of hot basaltic pumice; uncovered during excavation for the north wing of Volcano House Hotel on the northeast rim of Kilauea caldera on the island of Hawaii. Date of sample fixes the approximate end of a major cycle of vigorous lava output (3-K of Powers, 18) and the beginning of a cycle of crateral collapse that ended in 1790. The eruption that buried the fern forest probably represents a fountaining of Kilauea lava lake to a height that has rarely been equaled since. Collected by H. A. Powers, U.S. Geological Survey, Denver, Colo. W-250 >32,000 W-251 >32,000 Oahu, Hawaii. Limestone from tuffs dating from a later eruption of the Coco Head-Coco Crater complex on the south coast of Oahu. Collected by P. E. Cloud, Jr. W-250: coral head from tuffs on the seaward flanks of Coco Crater east of Hanauma Bay. The coral presumably grew along the flanks of the volcano while the volcano was in eruption. W-251: pieces of limestone from nearly contemporaneous tuffs along the shore road west of Highway No. 1 at the Hanauma Bay turnoff. May be from an older limestone that was broken through by eruption and mixed thereby with the pyroclastics.

U. S. Geological Survey Radiocarbon Dates III

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