Hawaiian Adventure Part 4: The Living Earth

 

Kilauea's Halema'uma'u crater glows at night.



Halema'uma'u crater during the day.

Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park is a land contrasts.  It is barren lava fields, steaming vents, molten rock, and noxious gases.  It is verdant rain forest of 10-ft tall tree ferns, blossoming ohi'as, koa, and endemic birds.  It is a place of raw power and beauty, history and lore.  Visitors glimpse the earth at its most primordial, as new land is created while the complexion of existing acreage completely changes. 


Natural arch on the coast at the end of Chain of Craters Drive.

Hawai'i's volcanoes are different than those on the continental U.S.  While taller, steeper, strato or composite volcanoes Mount St. Helens, Lassen, and Redoubt explode with violent blasts of superheated rock, gas, and ash moving at hundreds of miles per hour, Hawai'i's volcanoes tend to ooze and dribble from vents along the rift zone of the lower, gently sloping shield volcano.  That is not to say that Hawai'i's volcanoes are any less dangerous.   There are still deadly gas emissions (sulfur dioxide), ejections of tephra, and collapsing deltas or benches at the ocean's edge. 

Our first glimpse of the Halema'uma'u crater was at night.  It was thrilling and amazing to see billowing plumes of volcanic gas light up the night and reflect against the inside rim of the crater.  I thought I could see the faces of a young and an old woman form from the gassy clouds.  We watched this active crater of the Kilauea caldera from the National Park Service's Jaggar Museum Overlook.  The next day, we returned to observe the crater from the same spot, and by daylight everything seemed different.  Several miles away, lava poured into the ocean from the Pu'u O'o vent, and we could see the gas and steam plumes rising over the horizon.
 


A lehua blossom from an ohi'a tree.  Nectar-feeding birds like apapane and i'iwi love this flower.

While at the park, we learned that ohi'a trees can close their pores to sulfur dioxide, sort of like holding their breath, enabling them to survive close proximity discharges of the toxic gas.  We also learned that these are the first trees to sprout on a new lava flow.  Hawai'i as a whole is struggling to save an endangered ecosystem.  The populations of many of its native plants and animals have been decimated by the introduction of invasive species, environmental factors, and development.  The National Park Service is currently working with the U.S. Geological Survey to recover four endangered species:  the Hawaiian goose (nene), the hawksbill turtle (honu 'ea) , the Hawaiian petrel (ua'u), and silversword.

Since our lava boat tour was cancelled due to high ocean swells, we decided to hike Iki Crater.  This was a marvelous hike through rain forest, then across a'a lava to the smoother, hardened lava lake, past fissures offering sauna-like experiences, and then back up through rain forest.  The lovely song of apapane and i'iwi followed us even across the lake.  Unfortunately, we were plagued by drenching rains throughout most of the 4-mile hike, however, the trek was well worth it.



A hike through Thurston Lava Tube.





The Iki Crater hike is outstanding.  It crosses this lava lake.