<P> The next era of Kīlauea's history began with the establishment of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory on the volcano's rim in 1912 . The first permanent such installation in the United States, the observatory was the brainchild of Thomas Jaggar, head of geology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; after witnessing the devastation of the 1908 Messina earthquake near Mount Etna in Italy, he declared that something must be done to support systematic volcanic and seismic study, and chose Kīlauea as the site of the first such establishment . After securing initial funding from MIT and the University of Hawaii, Jaggar took directorship of the observatory and, whilst its head between 1912 and 1940, pioneered seismological and observational study and observation of active volcanoes . After initial funding ran out, the Observatory was successively funded by the National Weather Service, the United States Geological Survey (USGS), and the National Park Service, before settling on the USGS, under whose banner the observatory has been operating since 1947 . The main building has been moved twice since establishment, and today is positioned on the northwest rim of Kīlauea's caldera . </P> <P> The volcano became a tourist attraction from the 1840s onwards, and local businessmen such as Benjamin Pitman and George Lycurgus ran a series of hotels at the rim, including Volcano House which is still the only hotel or restaurant located within the borders of the Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park . In 1891, Lorrin A. Thurston, grandson of the American missionary Asa Thurston and investor in hotels along the volcano's rim, began campaigning for a park on the volcano's slopes, an idea first proposed by William Richards Castle, Jr. in 1903 . Thurston, who owned the Honolulu Advertiser newspaper, printed editorials in favor of the idea; by 1911 Governor Walter F. Frear had proposed a draft bill to create "Kilauea National Park". Following endorsements from John Muir, Henry Cabot Lodge, and former President Theodore Roosevelt (in opposition to local ranchers) and several legislative attempts introduced by delegate Jonah Kūhiō Kalaniana'ole, House Resolution 9525 was signed into law by Woodrow Wilson on August 1, 1916 . It was the 11th National Park in the United States, and the first in a Territory; a few weeks later, the National Park Service Organic Act was signed into law, creating the National Park Service and tasking it with running the expanding system . Originally called "Hawaii National Park", it was split from the Haleakala National Park on 22 September 1960 . Today the park, renamed the Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park, is a major conservatory agency and tourist attraction, and, since 1987, a World Heritage Site . </P> <P> In its early days tourism was a relatively new concept, but grew slowly before exploding with the advent of air travel around 1959, the year Hawai ʻi became a state . Today tourism is driven by the island's exotic tropical locations, and Kīlauea, being one of the few volcanoes in the world in a more or less constant state of moderate eruption, is a major part of the island's tourist draw . Today, Kīlauea is visited by roughly 2.6 million people annually, most of whom proceed up the volcano from the recently revamped Kilauea Visitor Center near the park entrance . The Thomas A. Jaggar Museum is also a popular tourist stop; located at the edge of Kīlauea caldera, the museum's observation deck offers the best sheltered view on the volcano of the activity at Halemaumau Crater . The Volcano House still provides the nearest lodging, and the nearby Volcano Village the most numerous; visitors associated with the military can find lodging at the Kilauea Military Camp . A number of hiking trails, points of interest, and guided ranger programs exist, and the Chain of Craters Road, Hilina Pali Road, and Crater Rim Drive provide access . In 2008, Lava Viewing Area was opened for tourists in Kalapana on the southeastern side of the National Park, accessible only from State Route 130 . </P>

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