In today’s age of aerial photography, satellites and drones, bird’s-eye views of geologic features are taken for granted. A century ago, such depictions posed enormous challenges.
In today’s age of aerial photography, satellites and drones, bird’s-eye views of geologic features are taken for granted. A century ago, such depictions posed enormous challenges.
At first glance, the attached images appear to be aerial photographs of Kilauea Volcano’s summit caldera, but these photos were taken six years before the first airplane overflight. The images actually show a model of the volcano displayed at a Harvard University museum for many decades.
So, how was the model constructed? And who made it?
The story began in March 1913, when George Carroll Curtis, an artist, geologist, geographer and expert in the production of relief models, traveled to the Hawaii Island to make a careful survey of the caldera at the summit of Kilauea. He established a network of survey flags and took photographs at each using a revolving panoramic camera that provided a complete view of the caldera. But progress constructing the model was slow because Curtis lacked a high-altitude perspective of Kilauea’s summit.
To solve this problem, Curtis encouraged J.F. Haworth, a wealthy businessman from Pittsburgh, to go to Kilauea and pursue his hobby of flying kites. But these were no ordinary kites.
Each box kite was more than 11 feet (3.4 meters) long and 9 feet (2.7 meters) wide. Instead of string, Haworth used a motorized reel of piano wire to launch and tether the kites, which were capable of lifting a payload of about 100 pounds (45 kilograms). For the Kilauea study, the payload was a camera positioned on a wire line several hundred feet (about 60 meters) below the kite. A small device was sent up the piano wire to trip the camera shutter for each photograph.
When Haworth arrived at Kilauea in 1915, he found that kite photography was no picnic on a volcano. High winds at the summit repeatedly dragged the photographer over sharp lava, leaving him bruised and battered. But he finally succeeded in taking a series of photos of Kilauea Volcano’s summit from various altitudes. These aerial photographs enormously speeded up the work of Curtis on his model.
In 1917, the relief map finally was installed at the Mineralogical and Geological Museum at Harvard and opened for public viewing. The circular model was 14 feet (4.3 meters) in diameter, and it was built with a scale of 125 feet to an inch (38 meters to 25 millimeters), so there was no vertical exaggeration.
At this scale, Curtis was able to depict minute details of the summit. The model shed light on many geologic features that had not been observed before, such as the elaborate drainage system on the south side of the caldera. Photographs of the model are useful even today to locate historic sites, including roads and other structures that are long gone.
This huge model remained at the Harvard museum until the mid-1970s, when building renovations required that the exhibit be moved. Unfortunately, the size of the model made relocation impractical, so it was dismantled.
We have searched, without success, for the original summit photographs taken by Curtis and Haworth. Our hope is that they still exist somewhere, preserved in an archive or personal collection of photos. If so, we would love to see them. Images by these intrepid photographers from a century ago could shed new light on features that are the subject of current volcano research.
If you know of these images, or have other historical photographs of Hawaiian volcanoes, HVO would like to hear from you. Email us at askHVO@usgs.gov.
Volcano Activity Updates
This past week, Kilauea Volcano’s summit lava lake level fluctuated with summit inflation and deflation and ranged about 32-37.5 meters (105-123 feet) below the vent rim. On the East Rift Zone, the 61g flow remained active, with surface breakouts downslope of Pu‘u ‘O‘o and lava entering the ocean near Kamokuna. The 61g flows do not pose an immediate threat to nearby communities.
Mauna Loa is not erupting. During the past week, small-magnitude earthquakes continued to occur beneath the summit caldera and upper Southwest Rift Zone, primarily at depths less than 5 kilometers (3 miles). Small earthquakes also were scattered beneath the upper western and northern flanks of the volcano. GPS measurements continue to show deformation related to inflation of a magma reservoir beneath the summit and upper Southwest Rift Zone. No significant changes in volcanic gas emissions were measured.
Three earthquakes were reported felt on Hawaii Island during the past week. At 4:25 a.m. Oct. 3, a magnitude-2.9 earthquake occurred 12 kilometers (7 miles) southeast of Honokaa at 12 kilometers (7 miles) depth. At 10:33 a.m. Sept. 30, a magnitude-3.5 earthquake occurred beneath Pahala at 36 kilometers (22 miles) depth, and at 5:50 p.m., a magnitude-3.0 earthquake occurred 12 kilometers (7 miles) west of Kalaoa at 34 kilometers (21 miles) depth.
Visit the HVO website (https://volcanoes.usgs.gov/hvo) for past Volcano Watch articles, volcano updates and photos, recent earthquake info and more. Call for summary updates at 967-8862 (Kilauea) or 967-8866 (Mauna Loa). Email questions to askHVO@usgs.gov.
Volcano Watch (http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/volcanowatch/) is a weekly article and activity update written by U.S. Geological Survey Hawaiian Volcano Observatory scientists.