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Hawaiian volcanoes In November 2006 my brother and his wife, my wife and I visited the large island of Hawaii. While there we visited Hawaii volcanoes national park and the visitor’s center at volcano village and the volcanic caldera Kilauea. A large recently active volcano. We visited the Jagger museum at the caldera rim and learned about the rocks and geology of the area. We then drove through the caldera noting the many different lava flows from past years within the caldera. Inside the Kilauea caldera there is a smaller crater named halema’uma’u with steam vents spewing up through the surface. A short hike from the parking lot takes you over warm and steaming rocks to the smaller crater edge. Many of the Hawaiian people leave flowers, leis and other offerings to the volcanic Goddess Pele whom they believe dwells with in this crater. After we drove through the caldera we visited the Thurston lava tube. A short hike down into to a small crater filled with large ferns brought us to the entrance of the lava tube, because the lava tube is about 40 or 50 feet under ground water is dripping down and around the entrance and all through the lava tube. Lots of green moss grows allover and around the entrance. When your there you feel like your in a Tarzan movie or something . The lava tube is about 20 or 30 feet in diameter and is rounded all but the bottom were the park service had flattened the bottom and removed debris to make it easier for people to walk through. The lava tube at one time had molten hot lava flowing thought it, but as the lava cooled and source of the lava was cut off the remaining hot lava flowed out of the tube as the side walls cooled down. We walked about a quarter of mile inside the lava tube and exited from it after climbing some stairs. We then drove down a road called “chain of craters road” about 20 miles to the sea. On the way were many acres of basaltic lava fields tossed or thrown up or heaped up and down and contorted into to many different shapes, mostly black some grey and some red. We noted many more craters as we drove down the road. In the distance near the sea we could see two large white steam clouds billowing up from the sea. This is were the lava meets the sea after flowing in and out of the lava tubes after leaving Pu'u'O'o crater. Near the road were the sea and lava fields meet there is a drop off of about 100 feet or so straight down to the sea. At times in the past huge areas of many acres fall off into the sea because the lava is new and very unstable and very brittle and is under cut by the sea. Some people in the past have been killed while standing on this lava rock when it slumped off into the sea. A few days later after our ground tour we took a helicopter ride around the island of Hawaii beginning on the north west side of the island about 20 miles north of Kailua. Our hosts were Blue Hawaiian helicopters . This was the first time my brother and his wife were to fly in a helicopter and were a little hesitant about the helicopter ride. As the helicopter rose from the ground the pilot turned it toward Mauna Kea to the north, the tallest mountain on earth if you measure from the bottom of the ocean. We then headed for the saddle or low valley between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa to the south, the most massive volcano on earth. Both of these volcanoes are of the shield type because of the low viscosity of the lava flowing from them they form low broad shields cones rather than high steep cones like strato volcanoes. As we flew through the saddle the helicopter was da warfed by the huge volcanoes. We saw many smaller volcanic cones and craters in this valley. Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa at there summits house many of the world’s largest telescopes used to observe the universe that this great planet we was born in. After we flew through the saddle we came to the Kilauea caldera. This is a very impressive sight to see such a large crater or caldera. We continued over the caldera We then flew over the lava fields As we approached the place were the lava was dumping into the sea many steam clouds rose high it the air. At one point a huge o ring formed and the pilot who had seen this many times before said this was the first o ring he had seen. The site was spectacular with the deep blue ocean and the red to brown to black hardened lava the bright orange and red hot lava and the huge tall steam clouds rising into the air. We then flew south to see another place the lava was entering the sea. From that point we flew north to Hilo bay and the town of Hilo here two times the town of Hilo was devastated when two tsunamis hit the town of Hilo. We then flew to the base of Mauna Kea to see the large water falls on the flank of the volcano from there we flew out to sea and hugged the coast of the island here we could see evidence of the recent earthquake that centered near the town of Kawaihae near the north west side of the island. We then flew over the town of hawi after flying up and over a huge canyon formed on the north west point of the island near here King Kamehmeha was born at which point we headed south past the historic Pu’ukohola Heiau national historic site a old hawaian temple dedicated to the whale we then landed and our adventure was over. My bother and his wife were relived to get back on the ground.
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and many other calderas came into view ahead of us. We could see to the north of us a large volcanic caldera and crater called pu’u’O’o from which large amounts of blue and white smoke were being emitted. As we reached the volcanic peak a rather large crater could be seen. Inside large amounts of supper heated orange and red lava could be seen. The lava was exploding into the air with in the crater. The whole crater was orange and red and glowing and when the lava was not spewing it formed a large lake of red hot lava. The pilot circled the volcano many times to give us a good view. What a fantastic and primal site to see ! I have always wanted to see this and I finally did.
towards the sea were the lava was spewing into the sea a place we had seen from a distance some days earlier. As we flew down to the blue sea we followed many lava rivers flowing in and out of view as they flowed through the lava tubes under the ground. In many places you could see were the lava surfaced and was bright orange and red steaks till it dived again under ground on its way to the sea.
