KILAUEA The Newest Land on Earth <i> photographs by Dorian Weisel text by Christina Heliker (Bishop Museum Press: $12.95) </i>

In January, 1983, two new rift zones, Pu’u ‘O’o and Kupaianaha, appeared on the eastern slope of the Kilauea volcano on the island of Hawaii. The series of eruptions that followed destroyed dozens of homes, incinerated tropical forests--and added more than 100 square acres to the island. Christina Heliker’s minimal text explains the history and geology of the eruptions, including the differences between the two types of Hawaiian lava: ropy, fluid pahoehoe and sticky, rough a’a. Dorian Weisel’s dazzling photographs form a visual paean to the awesome beauty and power of the volcano; his images of lava fountains and rivers of molten rock flowing into a steaming sea make it easy to understand why the native Hawaiians worshiped the goddess Pele, whom they believed inhabited the volcanic craters of the archipelago.