I was excited to experience the volcanoes that have been creating the islands of Hawaii since I arrived. This was why I dedicated a fair bit of time to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park (25USD entry per car for 7 days).
On the way towards the visitor’s centre is a turn off to see the tree moulds. These are created when lava hits trees that have a high moisture content. The lava has a little time to harden around the tree, creating a mould of the trunk, before the tree eventually goes up in flames and leaves the mould.
On my first afternoon I spent time in the visitors centre and watched a short video on the most recent series of eruptions in 2018 of Kilauea. The following is a summary point of the facts and events that took place. Lots of information is also available on USGS (US Geological Survey) website https://volcanoes.usgs.gov. There is also a sign at the door that informs us that there is NO visible lava flow anywhere in the park or on the island at his moment (so I was not going to have another exciting helicopter ride as planned).
Mid March increased pressure
26 April lava overflowed
30 April crater floor collapsed
Summit lava lake drops
3 May 1st fissure opened
Within 1 week 10 fissures opened
15 May 20 fissures opened
19 May lava flows towards ocean
23 May ocean entry
29 May from fissure 8 moving NE
KAPOHO BAY massive flow -700 homes damaged in total
In the 2 months created lava delta added 3.5km2 to island
Summit subsidence
Collapse events
June caldera floor collapses rapidly
May to Aug 60,000 earthquakes
62 major collapse events
65m to 488m depth change
> Double diameter
This collapse in crater has caused some havoc in the Park. It has sucked up a large portion of the Crater Ring Road and has eaten up the 500 car parking lot on the opposite side of the Volcano Hotel. There is also a museum and research station on the rim which had to be evacuated and personnel relocated due to the building cracks with all the earthquakes and subsidence.
Early Aug decreased activity in fissure 8 and event was defined as completed in September.
After my time gaining info at the visitors centre I headed to the Volcano Hotel for a great view of the now massively enlarged caldera. There was also a tour in progress so I listened in on the facts and the really small amount of time that this huge change had occurred over.
I also visited the Volcano Art Gallery. It is interesting in that it is hosted in the old original building that was one of the first official accommodation set ups in this area. Viewing splattering lava was a tourist past time since the late 1800s. The hotel had 6 rooms (really quiet small) and the brochures advertise that it slept up to 18 people.
After a bit more exploring on foot I decided to head to my place for the night and come back to explore the next day- where the Craters Road was on the agenda.
This road is 50km in length one way and has multiple stops and lookouts to view the various craters, lava flow events and follow the lava all the way down to the coast. The multiple layers of lava are noticeable in that there are different types of lava that sit on top of one another- pahoehoe (ropy lava) on top of a-a and vice versa. You can also note the different events by colour.
The view is quiet out of this world for someone who is not from a volcanically active area. It is also amazing as to how relatively quickly vegetation is able to take on the lava once it has cooled. The first plants to take root are actually trees, the native ‘ohi’as. They have spiky pompom type flowers. Their roots break up the lava and start the creation of soil for other plants.
It is quiet common that you can be driving through lush tropical forest and then bam- barren lava flows for a few miles. Some of the large pahoehoe lava flows glisten a near bronze in the sunlight- its rather pretty.
I did two short walks along this route- quite a few are out of bounds. The 1st was Devastation Trail which goes past and alongside the large hill created after Kilauea Iki’s explosion. The lava spurted out to a height of 579m!!! The explosion occurred on 14 Nov 1959. The explosion lasted for 37 days, in which approx. 102 million cu meters of lava erupted- more than half of which flowed back into the crater. Part of the new hill that was created (Gushing Hill) fell into the lava lake and now creates the uneven mounds at the bottom of the crater.
The trail also passes through an ‘ohi’a forest. So there is devastation on one side and a thriving forest on the other. ‘Ohi’as actually adapt to environments of poor air quality (such as during explosions) and grow roots from their branches if necessary.
The 2nd walk is a short trail (Napau) in the area where fissure 8 opened up and caused such devastation in 2018. There are great geological features here and I’m really careful and aware of where I am stepping as I don’t want to fall into lava tunnel that has a thin ceiling.
As you drive down towards the coast you pass the multitude of lava flows as they headed down towards the ocean and cascaded down multiple levels. It is like a frozen, multi coloured solid lava flow. There is also a place you can stop and see where the lava took over the old road. A reminder, again, how nothing in this park is too permanent.
The road used to carry on along the coast for a few more miles after what is now the ultimate stop and viewpoint- of the arch. However, some of the road has also been sacrificed to the lava. This has been the entry point for the lava flow from many fissures/ volcanoes of the past, the iconic photos of lava flowing into the ocean would have been taken here.
One reply on “Volcanoes National Park”
This post is so, so interesting, so much information and brilliant photos. Definitely you are very happy that you went there, absolute ‘must’