Monday - Keeping Pele Happy

Monday is volcano day. We started off the day early with our host ‘Aunty’ Claudia after our big buffet breakfast at the Hilo Hawaiian. Breakfast included a lot of great stuff – fresh pineapple and papaya, guava juice, eggs, sausages, pancakes, etc. etc. – so they all got loaded up after the two days of travel. Aunty Claudia gave us an idea of what we were going to do for the day showing us a map.

A quick picture under the Banyan tree (see its new roots that come down from its branches)

Then we boarded the bus and off the Kileaua and drove up the hill by ‘Aunty’ Vicky. We were exceptionally lucky – Kileaua blew a hole in the ground about 50 m across in March and it was venting gases like crazy – tonnes and tonnes of SO2 per day were going up. This is actually causing air quality problems and again we were a bit lucky as the plume was blowing to the SW away from us so we were allowed to visit the museums and to have lunch at the Volcano House. Aunty Claudia talked about the earthquakes and the hot spot that makes Hawaii (actually, we still do not understand that much about it).

Then before we head back down the hill we explored the Thurston Lava Tube. The whole island is basically riddled with these lava tubes – the lava runs through them and after the source quits it is so hot that it keeps flowing and just empties out. You could see roots coming from the ceiling and previous marks on the walls where the lava had run.

In the early afternoon we headed back down to the Hotel to collect ourselves. Then back on to the bus to go for a hike. The magma is running all the way down the mountain right now – but most of it is not running on the surface – it is lava tubes and they were emptying right into the ocean. They would not allow us to get very close (this was hard for Dr. Schmitt who had ‘played’ in the stuff years ago). But is was still impressive – a big toxic plume of glass shards, HCl (from the mixing with the salty ocean water), and steam! The county had it well organized and there was a trail across the Pahoehoe (the smooth lava that is easy to walk across as opposed to the A’A which cuts your shoes and feet up!). We had our picnic of a bento box that had rice, a bit of fish, teriyaki SPAM (yes, really), and beef.

We could all see the liquid lava pouring right into the ocean. Every once in a while we could see
an explosion of steam sending rocks and debris around. It was pretty impressive even if we were quite far away. Suzanne actually captured Pélé, the goddess of the volcano. Take a close look at her picture to fine here eyes, nose, and mouth! Pélé pretty much gets what she wants on Hawaii!

The sun went down then we could really see the lava pouring into the sea. We hiked back out with our light sticks, got on the bus, and went straight to bed.