Take a Tour of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park
These pictures were taken many years ago when Dr. Alley visited Hawaii. Lava is not always flowing in Hawaii, and the site of greatest activity has moved since then.
The hot spot of Hawaii erupts runny lava to the surface, giving some very interesting features, such as the lava tubes you will see forming in the first vintage video, and formed in the second one. The hike out to the flowing lava was, in the spring of 2007, over three miles across rough, often broken, and glassy lava that solidified from glowing hot flows over the last couple of decades. Whales were spouting offshore when Dr. Alley and his family made the trip. Tag along, and see what they saw way back when.
Video: Hawaii: Night Lava (1:02)
Hawaii Night Lava
Dr. Richard Alley: Hawaii Volcanoes National Park below the east rift Kilauea, this is the lava headed for the sea. It is 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit or so. This is the innards of the Earth turning inside out, building new land that we're sitting on right now. And this is way cool because it's so hot. You just can't imagine what this is like.
Below us, it is fountaining into the sea and jetting up great bursts of steam. New land being born, this is geology in action, this is the real thing. The breeze blowing over us is a little bit sulfurous, it's a little bit warm-- we're going to get out of here fairly quickly. But we're having a lot of fun, I wish you could be here with us. This is an amazing, amazing sight.
Video: Hawaii: Lava Tube (:50)
Hawaii: Lava Tube
Dr. Richard Alley: We're in the rainforest on the side of Kilauea, and behind me is a lava tube. A great lava flow came through here in the past, the top freezes first, the sides freeze, the inside-- glowing hot lava-- comes flowing out, and it drains. And you go inside and there'll be stalactites that were little drips that were falling off the ceiling when they froze. And this is the way a lot of the lava gets to the coast. It's that the top will freeze and the insides will go squirting on out to the sea. And so it's a really interesting place, a very different kind of cave.
Lava was erupting in the Southwest Rift of Kilauea not that long ago. Sometimes, the lava erupts with a little force, throwing pieces that freeze to glass in the air and rain down. Other times, the lava flows even more quietly along the surface. Here, you can see evidence of both.
Video: Hawaii: Southwest Rift (1:07)
Hawaii: Southwest Rift
Dr. Richard Alley: The Southwest Rift of Kilauea on Hawaii. There's a vast and fascinating volcanic history sitting here. Layers of rock that were made of pieces that were tossed through the air. Glass that froze in the air as it was thrown as molten little bits from the volcano, and then other sorts of layers.
Then there's been a great cracking here, probably an inflation from underneath as melted rock is moving underneath that sort of bubbles things up and breaks it. Then an eruption happened at some point, and there was actually sort of a waterfall of melted rock, and it was flowing into the crack. And we can see behind me all these places where this stuff has flown down into the crack. Just a wonderful record of the excitement of the geology of this place.
Lava was erupting in the Southwest Rift of Kilauea not that long ago. Sometimes, the lava erupts with a little force, throwing pieces that freeze to glass in the air and rain down. Other times, the lava flows even more quietly along the surface. Here, you can see evidence of both.
Want to see more?
The following optional vintage videos, and a vtrip are here for your enjoyment (and education, but you won't be quizzed on them.) Volcanoes are just too interesting to leave so quickly, so here are some more looks at these important, and dangerous, pieces of our planet. First, visit Hawaii again, and see some strange things. On the next page, we'll head over to Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument, Arizona, with the CAUSE class. Have fun, and keep your feet cool!
Hawaii: Tree Mold
Hawaii: Tree Mold
Dr. Richard Alley: I am in one of the stranger positions in one of the stranger places you'll ever see. The camera is looking right down on me, and I am sort of lying over the ground. And behind my head is a tree mold in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. There used to be a giant Ohia tree here. A lava flow came in around it, the lava chilled where it hit that tree and was boiling the water away from the bark. Eventually, the tree rotted out, but it left its shell of lava sitting here behind me, and you can see sort of the shape of the bark sitting here in the tree.
Then a new tree has grown and is putting its roots down in the hole where the old one was. But this is the mold that was left from a tree that was hit by a lava flow. And it's really something you can see. There's places in the park where there are footprints that you can see, where people walked in the lava, and here's the mark of a tree.
Hawaiian lava flows engulf whatever is in their way, including trees. What happens when hot lava hits a cold, wet tree? Find out here, your chance to look down on Dr. Alley.
Hawaii: Boiling Cauldrons
Hawaii: Boiling Cauldrons
Dr. Richard Alley: Kilauea, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. Deep beneath us a boiling cauldron of melted rock that wells up from possibly the core mantel boundary on the giant hot spot that is Hawaii. Next to us, the great crater here, fills with magma, with lava, that comes boiling up from below. And then it rifts out, it breaks, and you get cracks in the ground, and the lava flows out, and it is now flowing into the sea and building new pieces of the island just below us down at the coast.
Around me here, you can see swirling-- the fogs, the mists, the steam, the hot sulfurous gases that come off of this volcano. Where the rain from above soaks down through the cracks, it hits a hot rock, it flashes to steam, and it comes boiling out. This is a place where geology lives, where geology is living right now. And it's an amazing place to try to breathe in this.
Kilauea Volcano is a wonderful place to visit. Stay in the lodge on the rim, and you'll wake up to the view shown here behind Dr. Alley.