The original burning ring of fire.

Today was utterly amazing. I went with one of HVO’s Kilauea research geologists to the active lava flow field to map the new surface flows, perform a hazard assessment, and collect a sample. After we made the hour drive to the flow field we hiked across some of the miles of lava flows near the lava’s ocean entry. We were greeted with this:

That’s a skylight, which is essentially a hole with a view into a lava tube. Here’s a close up.

It’s hard to discern in this picture, but there was a veritable river of lava rushing past. The bright orange at the center is, in fact, lava. The area surrounding the tube is all flow that has issued within the last day or so.

That wasn’t enough lava for us, however. We continued hiking across the flow field until we found an active surface flow. That’s when things turned violent…for the lava, that is.

Hey, I had to attack it with a hammer before it attacked me, right? In actuality, this is how we collect samples from slow-moving surface flows. After you use the rock hammer to grab some lava, you toss it in a bucket with some water to quench it and make it safe to handle.

That picture is unfortunately a bit blurry, but it demonstrates the elasticity of the molten lava. The lava that I’m up close and personal with in these pictures is approximately 1000 degrees Celsius. That translates to 1832 degrees Fahrenheit for those of us from the United States. The extreme heat radiating from the flow is the reason I’m wearing those silver gloves and the stylish balaclava. I have my hand up to my eyes to shield them from the heat as well. It was like nothing I’ve ever felt before. Every atom of my body was enveloped by the invisible heat waves from that molten rock. Incredible.

This shot gives a better perspective of the shapes a pahoehoe flow can take.

I decided that the lava was ready for its close up.

After the necessary sample was safely quenched and packed away for later analysis, we hiked back across the flow field in order to map the newest surface flow with potential to threaten people. We used GPS to map it, and then headed into the forested kipuka. I probably ought to mention that the lava had was flowing through the kipuka and burning the forest.

The lava was setting fire to everything in its reach, and the flames were travelling up downed tree branches and grasses. Small methane explosions were nearly constant, so we couldn’t get too close to the kipuka flows. This begs the question of what to do when you encounter a lava flow that is in the process of burning a forest. Well, I am happy to report that I have the answer.

Why, you poke it with a stick of course! Nothing teaches unruly lava to behave quite like jabbing it with a stick.

I think it’s safe to say that this was one of the greatest days of my life.

Day of exploration.

Yesteday was gorgeous on the island. I did some necessary grocery shopping in Hilo and then headed to Chain of Craters Road to explore the park a bit. I’m living at the USGS dorm while I’m here, so that was my post-grocery starting point.

Chain of Craters Road runs through lava field of varying ages. The lava is often cracked and deformed. This is a Pahoehoe lava flow that has fractured.

As I continued to the end of Chain of Craters, I came across something ominous:

If that’s the road sign, then where’s the road? Oh, right.

At any rate, I decided to get a closer look at all of this lava. It’s actually very interesting up close.

The small holes in the lava are called vesicles, which makes this a vesicular basalt. The more large vesicles present, the slower the lava cooled. Rapidly-cooled lava won’t have vesicles. The vesicles are formed by gas escaping from the molten lava. This one is my favorite.

From the end of Chain of Craters I was south of the current eruption’s ocean entry point. I’ll go around closer soon, but for now here’s the sulfur dioxide plume caused by the lava’s contact with water.

Finally, I headed back towards the dorm. On the way back I stopped at Thurston Lava Tube. These are cave-like structures formed when lava moves beneath the surface of a flow. When they’re extinct, they look like this:

I went up to HVO last night around midnight to see the glow from Halema`uma`u’s vent. It faded in and out due to the shifting of the wind, but it’s still enthralling to watch glowing from the earth’s depths. Today is a day for relaxing, as tomorrow I leave at 6AM to drive to Mauna Loa’s summit for my first day of field work. Wish me luck!