Amazing Volcano Viewing: Pele Glowing in the Night Sky (15 FEB 2009)

Aloha,

while hiking toward the active volcano on this evening, we snapped this photo of 'Optimism':

It is a fern emerging from a fairly fresh layer of new lava landmass. Ferns are some of the first growths you'll see in a new bed of hardened lava. Then come the o'hia lehua trees with the beautiful red hairy flowers, etc.

We are on our way out to see the highly publicized recent eruption from the rather lucky vantage point just four miles from the action (yes, that's plenty close!). It can be both tough and tricky to get close enough to a volcano - let alone an actively erupting one. But for a few recent months, the flow has been steady and the direction favorable to easy access, so only a 15-20 minute hike over undulating, jagged, and cracked lava (at night) is required to view this spectacle (photo below is a little fuzzy. Se videos further down for a better 'feel'):


Getting to the trail head involved driving over salvaged pieces of old two-lane old road from back when Kalapana was still a town nearly two decades ago (now it is buried under lava!). These nice road sections are apruptly interrupted by much rougher one-lane sections where you are basically driving on top of the old flow that, by 1992 had totally buried Kalapana. You get lava-rocky sections, somewhat broken sections, patched sections, and curvy sections, but eventually, you do reach the start of the trailhead for the current viewing area.

For reference, at the moment we are staying half-way between Kalapana and Pahoa right out by the ocean. It isn't too hard to imagine what could happen to this area, in time, should the volcano decide to turn its attention a little more northward. Anyway, here is an interesting map link to the flow that buried Kalapana, which also shows the current flow.

http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/kilauea/update/archive/2009/Jan/J21Erup_Overview_090129_L.jpg

This one has a little more detail on the currently active flow:
http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/kilauea/update/archive/2009/Jan/J21Eruption_090129_L.jpg

And, now, a couple of videos of the real deal. Mind you, that the media rendition of the spectacle is about 25% of the quality of the actual experience. It is just tough to film dark distant objects, so keep that in mind as you watch. It was so good we'll definitely be back down here in a few days!

Pele's Powerful Plumes #1 (The hike out plus the start of lava viewing):



Pele's Powerful Plumes #2 (Lava viewing - including holding camera to the binos at approximately 3:30 in this video. Music is by Lono: http://www.lonomusic.com/index.html


And who IS Pele? She is the very powerful and much respected Hawaiian goddess of fire and thus volcanoes. To this day, she reigns over the Big Island - especially the southern portion:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pele_(deity)

Fiery Hot Aloha,
Kepani & Kamila