Friday, February 3, 2023

Kilauea and Volcano National Park


 Our first day on the Big Island was dedicated to Volcano National Park, about an hour from Hilo.  With our Golden Pass, it was free to enter, and we drove all the way up the crater to the best overlook for catching some bubbling lava.  The volcano has changed so much since we saw it five years ago. It had a 2018 eruption just after we left last time that destroyed many homes, closing several paths and roads.  The cauldron also changed, as the lava is much higher--last time all we could see were steam vents, but this time we could see freshly hardened lava and more molten lava bubbling up in the caldron bottom, shown above.

We drove down the many caldrons road to the coastline, showing Laura the lava fields of aa and pahoehoe, with primary succession well illustrated (seems to be small ferns).



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