Lava (Again!!!) But this time, there is new stuff.....

The biggest lure of Volcano National Park was the possibility of seeing new lava, so we set out to do that today.

To set the scene, there used to be a long circular road that allowed people to drive from the height of the Kilauea Caldera down to the ocean and along the water for some distance before turning north and back.  That changed in 1983 when Kilauea started erupting big time, taking out a fair stretch of the road along the sea.  That activity continues to today, which has put a hold on road reconstruction.

We had to drive a long descending drive called the Chain of Craters road, and we stopped partway along the way to start getting a perspective on larger lava flows.

You could see areas where there was fresh lava, right next to forested areas that had been missed.

The road descended a long way.

Once we got to the trail head, we started to get into areas where there was much more lava than greenery, although a coconut grove stuck out like a sore thumb.  We needed to walk 5.5 miles along a bit of paved road, a lot of gravel road, and then a lot of lava field.  Teh good news was that is was a beautiful sunny day.  The bad news was that it was a HOT sunny day.

The beacon was a plume of steam where lava was entering the sea.

Once we left the gravel road, we had to walk over a relatively fresh lava field, away from a roped area which is called a lava bench.  Lava benches are notorious for falling off into the sea, and we were more than pleased to follow the guidelines.  Walking on lava is quite the experience.

 There are other hazards.

After 2 ½ hours of walking, we finally reached a viewpoint to see the plume.  Although we couldn’t see the red colour of the lava, we could see rock explosions like fireworks, and the turbulence of the water below.  With binoculars, you could see the water at the base looking gold-coloured.  Sightseers could book boat trips to see the lava fall.

At this point, we asked a tour guide about the possibility of seeing fresh lava, and he indicated the flow was low today, but we could proceed a certain direction.  We were supposed to look for heat shimmers.

We scrambled to a point where it was suddenly very warm.  Apparently, new lava is silvery in colour, and we watched something (not sure) and then saw the colour red.

This lava flow was very gentle for a few minutes and then wow!  it started to get a little momentum.  At no time were we in any danger, but damn it was hot.

A surprising part of the lava flow was the sound of snapping and crackling.  The surface cools very quickly, forming a thin crust, which is full of holes and shiny with colour.  As the lava moves forward, pieces of crust snap off in all directions.

Fast cooling lava creates all kinds of neat things.  “Pele’s Hair’ is thin, fragile threads of golden lava blasted skyward at hundreds of miles an hour, spinning it into golden threads.  We found it all over the ground near the plume, as well as shiny flakes of golden shiny lava. 

Much of this field of volcanic rock was Pahoehoe lava, with its distinctive smooth, folded ropy texture formed by lava cooling at a relatively slow pace.  What I didn’t expect was how shiny it was was everywhere—it glowed in the sunlight.

Today has been a life experience for both of us.