Water and volcanic activity

Green’s View that the Kilauea Emanation is Anhydrous In a book, 1 now little known and rare, William Lowthian Green, a distinguished Englishman, long in the service of the native government of the Hawaiian Islands, writes as follows : “What we mainly wish to contend for and to Impress upon geologists—for re-consideration, at least—is, that it may be a mistake to assert, as is so often done in the most positive manner that water and steam are inseparably connected with volcanic action. On the contrary it would appear that elastic vapors have nothing to do with the liquidity of the Hawaiian basic lavas, and that as a matter of fact they do not seem to come up with them from below, whilst the basic minerals themselves give no indications in the main eruptions, of having been in contact with water, highly susceptible as they are, to such an influence.” Mr. Green . . .