Photo Essay: Land, Lava, People
On Hawaii, lava is a way of life. The whole island is made of the stuff. Eruptions from Kilauea volcano have been adding new land and wiping out old for all of human time, and far before. In recent decades, lava flows have wiped out communities and major roads. The latest eruption, which began in June 2014, now… read more
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Slide 1: An eruption from Kilaueaâs flank began in summer 2014. By fall, a stream of lava had reached the outskirts of the town of Pahoa, about 11 miles distant. It flowed through this farm, taking out pastures, trees, fences and the ownersâ house.
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Slide 2: At Kilaueaâs summit, gases above a lava lake within Halemaâumaâu crater cast an eerie glow at dusk. In native Hawaiian cosmology, Halemaâumaâu is the body and home of Pele, the goddess of wind, fire and lightning. Summit eru
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Slide 3: At the lip of Halemaâumaâu, volcanologist Einat Lev of Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory prepares to study the lava lake, some 300 feet below. Constantly roiled by rising magma, it exhales hydrogen sulfide and other deadly gases. Thin plate
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Slide 4: At an observatory near the summit, the U.S. Geological Survey monitors Halemaâumaâu and other potential danger spots around the clock. Lev and USGS volcanologist Matt Patrick discuss a real-time infrared image of the lava lake. Data from g
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Slide 5: Hawaii Volcanoes National Park encloses much of Kilauea, and it sees 2 million visitors a year. At a popular roadside stop, tourists can get up close to a steam vent.
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Slide 6: A 1969-1974 eruption from a vent below the summit covered large areas of the park. Once the eruption was over and things cooled off, officials cut a new road through the barren landscape. A bit of vegetation has since sprouted.
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Slide 7: Foreground, the summit of Mauna Ulu, source of the 1969-74 flows. Activity could easily resume, so a GPS instrument monitors the ground for swellingâpossible warning of lava rising below. In background, gases rise from the PuâuâOâ
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Slide 8: In June 2014, PuâuâOâO sent a stream of lava slowly burning its way through forest. A few months later, this quarter-mile-wide arm reached the outskirts of Pahoa. It has cooled enough for researchers cross, but renewed activity could b
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Slide 9: In fall 2014, the PuâuâOâO lava flow reached Pahoa itself, first cutting off a small back road. In an effort to keep electricity flowing, the local utility company surrounded poles with piles of cinders, and wrapped them in insulating
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Slide 10: The side of the lava stream lapped against a berm surrounding the town transfer station and burst through the fence. Garbage collection was halted for a while, but the lava ran out of energy and stopped just short of the recyclables containers. Colle
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Slide 11: Lev makes measurements of hardened lava tongues at the rear of the Pahoa transfer station. Close study of how lava interacts with manmade barriers may help lead to more effective strategies to divert or stop future flows.
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Slide 12: Tourists and curiosity seekers flock daily to get a glimpse of the damage. Civil defense authorities have closed off most of the area, but visitors can gawk at part of the main flow over a fence.
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Slide 13: The flow took out this house, or what remains of it now--the only one claimed so far during this eruption.
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Slide 14: Further downhill, Melvin Sugimoto watched as the lava breached his small farm, taking out 4 acres of macadamia-nut trees. Using heavy equipment, he has since dug out some of the hardened lava, and piled up the resulting boulders. âYou want to bu
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Slide 15: In an effort to contain the lava, Sugimoto and his next-door neighbor built a series of berms. These were only partly successful, but his cacao patch (rear) was spared.
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Slide 16: The flow buried a collection of scrapped vehicles before halting short of Sugimotoâs house.
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Slide 17: Pahoaâs main street, a few hundred feet beyond, is prepared for the worst. The lava advance has paused for now, but authorities are still on the alert. Further activity could wreck many buildings, and cut road access to the surrounding district.
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Slide 18: To study the details of how lava interacts with underlying topography, researchers from the nearby University of Hawaii, Hilo, deploy camera-carrying drones to map the flow and surrounding area at a fine scale. Here, geospatial analyst Nicolas Turner
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Slide 19: Atop the recently hardened flow, Einat Lev gauges underlying temperatures. A crack just behind her registered 660 degrees Fahrenheitâan indication, she says, that liquid lava might still be somewhere below the surface.
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Slide 20: Flows can travel rapidly for long distances via peculiar tunnels called lava tubes. Here, a dormant example in the national park is a popular tourist haunt. A tube usually starts as a trough on the flowâs surface. As hot liquid runs through, ma
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Slide 21: An eruption from the PuâuâOâO vent in the 1990s headed in a different direction, wiping out the coastal villages of Kaimu and Kalapana before running into the ocean. It created this brand-new shoreline hundreds of yards out from the ol
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Slide 22: Some remaining Kaimu residents have claimed the land created by the 1990s lava flow for the Hawaiian Kingdom, a native sovereignty movement that disputes U.S. annexation of the islands. The state of Hawaii says the land belongs to it, but no one seem
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Slide 23: The burial of Robert Po'okapu Keli'iho'omalu, patriarch of a large Kaimu family whose property was among the few spared by the 1990s eruption. They have since thrived, turning their place into an everybody-welcome destination with Hawaiian music, foo
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Slide 24: Hawaiiâs native people have been dealing with lava in all its forms since first landing, about 1,500 years ago. Some 23,000 ancient petroglyphs at Puâu Loa, near the southwest coast, date back about 500 years. They are still held sacred. Tr
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Slide 25: Alongside the destructive Pahoa lava flow, a local gives the shaka sign--an expression of the Hawaiian aloha spirit of peace, welcome and respect for nature. It is often translated as âright on,â or âhang loose.â Here, it is prob
On Hawaii, lava is a way of life. The whole island is made of the stuff. Eruptions from Kilauea volcano have been adding new land and wiping out old for all of human time, and far before. In recent decades, lava flows have wiped out communities and major roads. The latest eruption, which began in June 2014, now threatens the small town of Pahoa. Most residents see the volcanism as something to accept, and adapt to. For scientists, it is a prime chance to study the causes of eruptions, the physics of lava flows, and how modern society can best cope. (All photos by Kevin Krajick) READ THE FULL SCIENTIFIC STORY or SEE A VIDEO