--- title: The Crack in the Floor of the Pacific — Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology) · full text with trees description: The Crack in the Floor of the Pacific, «Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology)» by W. D. Westervelt: the whole chapter, every sentence with its dependency tree and pragmatics. It begins: A geological or earthquake map of the Pacific shows that the ocean is bordered by ranges of volcanic mountains --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66516/25/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mytholo…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66516/) / The Crack in the Floor of the Pacific # The Crack in the Floor of the Pacific The Crack in the Floor of the Pacific of «Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology)» by W. D. Westervelt: the whole text, 27 sentences and 853 words. The small number after every sentence leads to its own page with its syntax tree and pragmatics, parsed by Mova itself. A geological or earthquake map of the Pacific shows that the ocean is bordered by ranges of volcanic mountains on the American side, and by a long chain of volcanic islands, such as the Aleutian, Japanese, and Formosa islands along the coast of Asia.[1](1/ "tree and pragmatics") It is also clear that between America and Asia connected islands built up by volcanic action follow what appear to be cracks in the floor of the Pacific.[2](2/ "tree and pragmatics") It is interesting to note the fact that all along the western coast of North and South America there is only a comparatively narrow strip of land between the mountain ranges and the sea, and that from the edge of this narrow seacoast there is a rapid descent in the ocean bed until it becomes one of the most profound oceanic depressions on the globe.[3](3/ "tree and pragmatics") The depth of the floor of the ocean is greater than the enormous elevation of the mountain ranges along its edge.[4](4/ "tree and pragmatics") “The Challenger” surveyors give the average depth of the Pacific Ocean as about 2,400 fathoms, while between the Caroline and Ladrone groups of islands lies a valley whose ooze-carpeted floor can be reached only by a sounding line about 25,000 feet long, and near Japan about 30,000 feet of line is needed to reach the bottom of one of the deepest pits on the globe.[5](5/ "tree and pragmatics") The German survey ship “Planet” has made the deepest sounding thus far taken.[6](6/ "tree and pragmatics") About forty sea miles off the north coast of Mindanao, the largest and most southerly of the important islands of the Philippines, the “Planet” found a depth of 32,078 feet.[7](7/ "tree and pragmatics") In other words, the Pacific Ocean where the sounding was taken has a depth of 6.07 miles, exceeding by 482 feet the greatest depth hitherto known.[8](8/ "tree and pragmatics") In 1901 the United States survey ship “Nero,” while studying out a route for a cable line to the Philippines, made a sounding some distance to the southeast of the island of Guam of 31,596 feet, which beat the world’s record for sea depth up to that time.[9](9/ "tree and pragmatics") This is a depth of 5.98 miles, and is known as the “Nero” deep.[10](10/ "tree and pragmatics") The surpassing sea depth now discovered may appropriately be named the “Planet” deep.[11](11/ "tree and pragmatics") Out of these awful ocean depths have come the chains and groups of islands which form Polynesia.[12](12/ "tree and pragmatics") It seems absolutely necessary to recognize the cracks in the floor of the ocean through which the vast floods of lava were forced for the upbuilding of these islands.[13](13/ "tree and pragmatics") Even the coral polyps had to have the edge of a crater to work on while building the innumerable coral reefs of the Pacific.[14](14/ "tree and pragmatics") No one knows what mighty conflicts were fought between the two eternal enemies, fire and water; nor does anyone know how long they fought while these islands were being built into mountains, but there must have been ages when the skies were filled with rolling masses of clouds of steam sent up through boiling, turbulent waters with awful explosions of escaping gases before the dry land appeared on the face of the deep.[15](15/ "tree and pragmatics") It has been the modern story of creation.[16](16/ "tree and pragmatics") There were boiling seas and skies always covered with vast masses of steam clouds, then ages of mountain building at the hands of chaotic fire-rock, and the subsequent ages of the disintegration of lava, forming soil for the coming of plant and animal life.[17](17/ "tree and pragmatics") The building of these islands has been a most stupendous task, and the chains of islands resulting from the tremendous volcanic energy still exhibit immense activity.[18](18/ "tree and pragmatics") The volcanic outbreaks and earthquakes of the Japanese islands from Nippon to Formosa are so frequent as to afford an excellent field for study.[19](19/ "tree and pragmatics") The New Zealand islands have a volcanic region around Roturua which is visited by numbers of tourists every year.[20](20/ "tree and pragmatics") Islands appear and disappear in the Western Pacific.[21](21/ "tree and pragmatics") None of the islands have so good a tradition of these turbulent times as the Hawaiian group, and they have only a statement made by William Ellis in his book, “A Tour through Hawaii,” published in 1826.[22](22/ "tree and pragmatics") He says that while on this tour around the island Hawaii, he stopped with John Young, who is now stated to have been an American sailor and a close friend of the great king Kamehameha I. “Mr. Young said that among many traditionary accounts of the origin of the island, one was that in former times, when there was nothing but sea, an immense bird settled on the water and laid an egg which soon bursting produced the island Hawaii.”[23](23/ "tree and pragmatics") It must be remembered that the Hawaiians also have the pulling up of the islands with a fish-hook by the demi-god Maui, who fished up many islands in Polynesia.[24](24/ "tree and pragmatics") It has been nearly a hundred years since Ellis made the brief reference to the production of an island by the explosion of the egg, and now it is impossible to secure any enlargement of the legend.[25](25/ "tree and pragmatics") The story stands as an ancient memory of volcanic activity so mighty and so extensive as to produce islands in the time of human experience.[26](26/ "tree and pragmatics") II[27](27/ "tree and pragmatics") - ← previous: [Geological Facts](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66516/24/) - next →: [Hawaiian Volcanoes](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66516/26/) - ↑ back to [Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66516/)