June 19 Big Island : Hawaii Volcanoes National Park
(Above) At 4000 ft this composite is of the Kilauea Caldera , oh the wind! We wore our jackets and were glad anytime that we could get out of the cool 25mph+ wind. When "discovered" by whites in the 1800s it was filled with molten geysers of lava and the caldera floor was 1000 ft deep. It is currently about 500ft deep and over 3 miles across, so you can see how quickly it is filling. The Caldera has had all kinds of volcanic activity as recent as 1982 in the left part of the photo. Recent eruptions have occurred in 1895, 1919, 1971, 1974, 1982 and 1985.
(Left) The park contains several smaller calderas, this is Keanakaloi
Caldera and it was active in 1974. Much of the activity in this area
occurs not in the craters, but in rifts, cracks that open up and molten
lava pours forth, in what appears then as a curtain instead of a fountain.
(Left) Much of the deposits are in the form of massive flows covering 100s of acres. (or more)
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(Left) These flows run down hill (You can see the path of the flow right of center down the hill.) running as long as fresh lava is supplied.)
(Right) This area is fairly close to the current flows and shows (if
you look closely in the middle of the frame) part of a road covered by
lava. In this flow, over 6 miles of road was covered, in places by in excess
of 100ft of lava. Most of these flows acquire a broken/ jumbled look due
to the cooling of the flow which tends to cause fragmentation.
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(Left) Uneven cooling produces these ribbons of color, here shown where a flow has slumped and broken in two. This particular area contains a great amount of gold coloration which was very pretty in this brief sunny moment.
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(Right) In the distance you see the steam plume rising as molten lava pours into the ocean. The plume is acidic,very similar to battery acid, and is to be avoided. The flow had stopped 4 days prior, after having flowed continuously since 1986. It started flowing again less than 24hrs before our visit to the park. This flow is fed by a "lava tube" from higher elevations. Over 500 acres of new "land" has been formed. The flows breaks off and falls into the ocean repeatedly in the process of forming this "land", had this flow not reached the ocean, it would have covered a MUCH larger area.