On our visit to Volcanoes national park in Hawaii, Kilauea the volcano was a must-see.
Kilauea is the most active volcano in the Big Island, Hawaii. In fact, its the most active volcano on earth at present. The last major eruption there occurred in 1983, but its been erupting continuously since in various ways. Lava flows from various rift zones in eastern part of the volcano, whereas from the main caldera, its mostly noxious sulfuric gases and volcanic ashes that spew forth. There had been a minor explosion in March 2008. When we were there, however, the volcano behaved quite well.
We were there on a rather bleak, rainy and cold day (yes, it can be cold at 4000 feet, at the summit of Kilauea).
On the “Chain of Craters” road, we stopped at the Jagger Museum to get up close to Kilauea’s main caldera. Inside the main caldera is the sweetly named Halema’uma’u crater, and in the crater is the vent. Somewhere inside that vent, there must be a lava lake, but its invisible, thanks to all the fumes.
They had some different kinds of lava on display at the Jagger Museum. No, this museum is not named after Mick Jagger of Rolling Stones, though, in retrospect, there is a certain connection between ‘rolling stones’ and volcanoes.
This was a rather short visit, because the weather was rather bad. We hurried back to the car so we can drive down to Kalapana, to see lava hit the ocean!


