Tag: Kilauea

Caught on Video at the Lava

The same morning Deb and I rode one of the lava tour boats to the ocean entry, photographer Mick Kalber chartered a Paradise Helicopter photo tour of the volcano. It was a great morning, with excellent photographic conditions where the lava meets the sea.

Mick has posted some video of that flight, fun to see the same conditions from a very different point of view. And while we photographed the helicopter maneuvering overhead, he photographed the boats below. Deb and I can be seen in the red and white boat at 2:05 in the video.

Lava Gallery

After this latest trip to see the lave I was recalling all of my previous effort to photograph the lava. It has resulted in quite a few beautiful photographs, many of which have appeared here on DarkerView…

Pāhoehoe Inflation

Most people think that lava flows simply ooze forward and cool in place. But there is more going on than this simple version. Yes, flows ooze forward, but much of the mass of a lava flow arrives later, the flow can inflate to many times the volume as more lava arrives and lifts the crust from underneath.

Pāhoehoe
A very close view of advancing pāhoehoe lava
How many of us have played with molten wax from a candle, or perhaps simply watched a thick syrup or honey flow over a pancake? An observant person watches things like this and learns how materials behave. The problem is that these lessons, while valuable, sometimes do not translate well to all cases. Lava is a good example, it behaves much differently than many would expect.

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