Was Keanakakoi the vent for the tephra?
No. The tephra should be thickest close to the vent and thinner at increasing distance away from the vent. At Keanakakoi, the tephra is less than one foot and greater than one-tenth of one inch, and the greatest thicknesses are to the northeast. The source was probably to the northeast of Keanakakoi. • Could Keanakakoi be the vent if the wind first blew the tephra to the northeast and later shifted and blew the tephra to the southwest? No. If the wind blew to the northeast and then to the southwest, it might distribute the tephra in the observed pattern. However, the thickest deposit should be closest to Keanakakoi Crater, not to the northeast. • Was the vent near Kilauea Iki Crater? Yes. Puu Puai, or Gushing Hill, is a cinder cone. It is the thickest deposit near the crater and was produced in 1959 by a high lava fountain. The thickness of the deposit also decreases uniformly to the southwest. • Why does the tephra become thinner to the southwest? During the Kilauea Iki eruption, the
