Hawaii Day 2 - Volcano NP (19.73, -155.07)

There are currently two locations with volcano activity. One is on the Halema’uma’u Crater in the Kilauea Caldera which is actively emitting toxic sulfur dioxide and other harmful gasses and has a lava lake about 400 ft below the crater surface. The park ranger said there has been lot of exciting activity on the crater in the last two weeks. It has swelled and deflated well outside the normal motions of the caldera. When you think of the thousands of meters that the lava has already traveled to get to the top of Kilauea, another 400 ft is nothing. During the day you can only see the toxic plume of gas emanating from the depths, but at night, the subsurface lava lake lights up the plume with an eerie red glow. It is a very humbling site.  

Halema’uma’u Crater in the Kilauea Caldera during the day.

Halema’uma’u Crater in the Kilauea Caldera at night (zoomed in).

In addition to the activity at Kilauea Caldera, there is a subsurface lava flow that has made it to the sea. We were not able to get close enough to see the actual lava, but you could see the steam cloud it created by vaporizing seawater as it plunged into the icy sea from miles away.

Vapor plume from magma plunging into the sea.

Lava is currently flowing beneath this lava field. We got to walk on Earth that is younger than we are. There are not many places in the world where you can say that.

Local saying.

Black sand beach created by current lava flow.

We also had the chance to walk across a solidified lava lake. The Kilauea Iki crater violently erupted and formed a lava lake in the '60s. The trail took us through extreme contrasts in terrain: lush wet (it was raining this day) rain-forest cross-cut by desolate lava flows.

Top of Kilauea Iki Crater, looking down on solidified lava lake.

This is what the Halema’uma’u Crater will look like if it does not have any further activity. Take note of the small white clouds on the lava lake floor. When rainwater permeates through the ground, it reached depths of high temperatures (even thought the lava lake has solidified, there is still a lot of trapped heat at depth) and is vaporized. The steam escapes out vents all over the lava lake surface and did a great job of keeping us warm and toasty as we walked across the lake in cold and rainy weather.

Lava lake surface.

Example of green olivine crystals stuck in lava - this is where the green sand comes from.