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  3. TRAVEL: 2007 through 2011
  4. Hawaii, February and March, 2009

BIG ISLAND #5: KILAUEA

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'Nuther type of fern fiddlehead.
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'Nuther type of fern fiddlehead.

fiddlehead

  • Behind Bev, through the trees, is the Kilauea Caldera. The sign here says "Steam vents are scattered over this fault-bounded block that has partially slumped into Kilauea Caldera. Rainwater sinks through the ground and is heated by rocks which carry heat from the liquid rock below. Hot water then rises through fissures to condense in the chilled air." So, we are standing up on a high ridge which has already "partially slumped," and which is riddled with holes penetrating down to the heated rock below. Fine with me if there is no further "slumping" today!
  • Kilauea Caldera. As recently as the late 1800's, the bottom was twice as deep as it is today (about 500 feet today) and one could see lakes and fountains of molten lava churning. It solidified roughly in the configuration seen today in about 1905. However, there has been occasional seepage of lava through fissures, forming lava flows as recently as the 1970's. The hole you see in the distance (with the large steam plume) is Halema'uma'u, the central crater of the caldera. As recently as 1924, it contained a molten lava lake. Now, the rock is thought to be solid down to a depth of about 2 miles below the surface.
  • Halema'uma'u is considered to be the mythical home of Pele, goddess of fire, goddess of the volcano.
  • ʻōhiʻa lehua (Metrosideros polymorpha), the most common tree native to Hawaii. Actually, the tree is referred to as ʻōhiʻa, the flower as Lehua. ʻōhiʻa was a prince on whom Pele developed a huge crush. He loved a commoner woman (Lehua). When Pele demanded ʻōhiʻa's hand in marriage, he told her that he was in love with Lehua. To this news, Pele became enraged, and she turned him into the tree. Once Lehua learned about this, she was tremendously distraught. The gods took pity on her. Apparently unable to reverse Pele's spell, they instead chose to turn Lehua into the beautiful blossom, so that she and ʻōhiʻa would forever be together. According to the myth, whenever one picks one of these flowers, the heavens rain with the tears of these two separated lovers. Even today, local rangers say that, if one picks this flower, there will be at least a 70% chance that it will rain sometime during that day. Of course, the same is true in this area if one respects these lovers' wishes, also.
  • ʻōhiʻa tree prior to blooming.
  • This is in a museum on the rim of the caldera. Amazing that lava rock can take such a form.
  • We are on the north portion of the rim, looking south. You can see a trail down on the rock below. Usually, people are allowed to walk all the way out to the top of the Halema'uma'u crater. However, when we were there the geologists were a bit nervous about some unusual seismic activities. They closed off the trail.
  • Untitled photo
  • Bev and Bernie on the rim of Kilauea Iki crater (west of the main caldera).
  • Kilauea Iki crater entered an eruptive phase in which it had 16 episodes in November and December, 1959. Mysteriously, magma would flow up here and form spectacular fountains, then would reverse its flow, quickly drain away, and disappear. For more, see <a href="http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/kilauea/history/1959Nov14/#episodes">http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/kilauea/history/1959Nov14/#episodes</a>
  • You can see what kind of foliage is possible in places where it rains, at least for a while, on 70% of the days. We are walking to Thurston Lava Tube.
  • As lava flows, the upper surface (in contact with air), cools and tends to harden. Contact with other things can also cause uneven cooling within the flow, causing it to harden into walls. This can then form a conduit, allowing the rest of the lava to flow rapidly through. Once the molten lava is gone, the hardened rock remains and forms a lava tube.
  • Untitled photo
  • With the light of the camera flash, it looks amazingly like a snow tunnel (albeit a very dirty one)!
  • Fern fiddlehead.
  • 'Nuther type of fern fiddlehead.
  • Back on the rim of Kilauea Iki. There is a trail on its floor, which was open while we were there (apparently the unusual seismic activity was limited to the main caldera).
  • Can you see the people on the crater floor? If you look at the horizontal part of Bernie's jacket stripe and visually extrapolate it to your right, just before you get to the leaves you will see some small, light dots. Those are people.
  • Here you can see them a little better.
  • Bev and I decided we didn't have the time to hike down to the floor of the crater. Probably from me taking too much time to take photos of the Lehua blooms.
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