Volcano show time on the Big Island - Hawaii Volcanoes National Park

Sunset, Feb, 1988

Volcano show time on the Big Island

Rivers of fire are flowing once again on the Big Island of Hawaii.

At our press deadline, molten streams of glowing lava were intermittently flowing over Chain of Craters Road, in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, and steaming into the sea near the Wahaula Visitor Center (see map on page 73). It was the latest phase in Kilauea's eruption at Puu Oo--an eruption that was five years old in January.

Last Thanksgiving, we took an easy 1/2-mile walk to watch Pele, Hawaiian goddess of the volcano, at work. It was dusk, and orange fingers of lava oozed like toothpaste over the older flows and into the waves. Clouds of steam smelling faintly of sulfur poured out of the sea, glowing by the light of the lava. As we approached the flow, the heat pushed out like a wall. Even the older lava was still warm enough underfoot to evaporate raindrops from a passing shower.

Depending on the course of the continually changing flow, visitors could accompany a ranger to within a few yards of the molten streams. Helicopter charter outfits were also offering spectacular flights over a remote lava lake that had formed near the Puu Oo cinder cone.

While volcanologists stress that they can't predict what will happen from one day to the next, the current eruptive phase has shown no sign of diminishing.

We don't recommend that you jump a jet to the the Big Island solely on the chance of catching Pele's latest hot act. But if you're already planning a trip, now may be as good a time as ever to see her island-building process in action.

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park is well worth a visit for its own sake. You shouldn't miss hikes around steaming Kilauea Caldera, two spectacular park drives, and a fine new museum.

We've been here before

In September 1971, Sunset reported on similar activity at nearby Mauna Ulu--a five-year eruption that obliterated a section of the old Chain of Craters Road before the fireworks stopped in 1974.

A follow-up report in October 1979 announced the reopening of the newly routed Chain of Craters Road. At that time, a park geologist admitted, "Even the best design would be meaningless in the face of another full-scale eruption, and that could happen tomorrow.'

Puu Oo is certainly full-scale. This March it will become Hawaii's second longest continuous eruption in recorded history. A steady magma outflow of some 650,000 cubic meters (about 850,000 cubic yards) per day is the largest eruption of this century. Chain of Craters Road was closed once again, in November '86, at Wahaula.

But unlike the other recent eruptions, Puu Oo has taken a tragic toll: flowing lava has consumed 57 houses near the park's eastern boundary. Several popular natural attractions have also been buried, including a seafront blowhole and a fresh-water pool near Kalapana.

Tracking the "hot spot'

While this eruption has been costly, it has also become a spectacular and easily-- and safely--accessible example of rarely viewed volcanic activity.

But to understand what is happening here, you have to understand how Hawaiian volcanoes work.

The island of Hawaii is the latest of a long chain of islands being built over a geological phenomenon called the Hawaiian hot spot. Essentially an immense reservoir of molten rock just 40 miles beneath the surface of the Pacific Plate, the hot spot forces magma up through cracks in the plate, which is creeping by at some 2 inches per year, about the same rate as fingernails grow.

This adds up. In 6 million years, the hot spot built the Hawaiian Islands; over some 70 million years, it has strung a chain of submarine mountains from Hawaii to the tip of the Aleutian Islands.

Unlike most other volcanoes, including Cascade Range peaks like Mount St. Helens, Hawaii's volcanoes are seldom explosive. Their magma tends to be fluid and low in gas, resulting in relatively gentle, spreading flows that build a shield-shaped mountain. The results can be impressive. Mauna Kea--one of the island's other volcanic mountains--is the tallest mountain on earth, rising nearly 33,000 feet above the ocean floor.

Around the caldera: a steaming crater, lava tube, devastated trail, new museum

Whether or not the lava is flowing, this island-building process is highly visible in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. You can sample the major attractions in a day from Hilo, but the park is big enough-- with several good hikes--that you may want to plan a longer stay.

First stop should be the visitor center at the entrance ($5 per car) near the village of Volcano, about an hour's drive southwest of Hilo; it's open daily from 7:30 to 5. Rangers can give you a map and information on current volcanic activity and special interpretive programs. Ask where you can rent cassette tape guides to the park by historian Russ Apple.

When lava is flowing, go to see it immediately; eruptions may last only an hour or two. If nothing is happening, your best introduction to the park is the 11-mile Crater Rim Drive around the edge of the Kilauea Caldera.