lava – Page 9 – A Darker View

Hand of Lava

The lava looked all too much like a giant hand with severed fingers dripping red hot blood, a natural Halloween decoration for a lava flow…

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.

Lavafalls

To the Flow by Sea

There are four ways to get to the lava… You can hike it, you can bike it, fly to it, or go by sea. I had done all of the other ways, it was time to take a boat.

The 61G lava flow has been flowing into the sea at Kamokuna for several months now allowing the lava tour boat business to resume after a three year pause. I have biked to this flow, but a view from the water was an attractive option for photography. After multiple discussions with a few photographers I know I had decided to go out with Kalapana Cultural Tours, a local business with years of experience on these waters, a choice which proved to be a good one!

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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…

Lava Entry — Lava from the Kilauea volcano enters the ocean at Kamokuna

Pāhoehoe — A pāhoehoe breakout near Kupapa’u

Lava Lake at Halemaʻumaʻu — The lava lake at Halemaʻumaʻu with several fountains of lava along the far rim, May 2, 2015.

Kupapa'u Lava — An active pāhoehoe breakout at Kupapa’u

Lava moves forward in the flow field at Kalapana

Halema'uma'u Glow — The plume at Halema’uma’u lit up at night as seen from the Mauna Kea VIS

A skylight allows a view into an active lava tube near the top of lava flow 61G at Kilauea, photo by Deborah Cooper

Photo Tour — A Paradise Helicopter doors off photo tour hovers over the ocean entry at Kamokuna

The 61G lava flow ocean entry at Kamokuna under the light of a full Moon

Cooling Lava — Cooling pahoehoe lava glows red at Kalapana

Littoral Fire — A littoral cone formed at the end of a lava flow near Kalapana glows red under the stars, the planet Jupiter shines above the glowing plume

Ocean Entry — Lava pours into the sea at Kupapa’u

Pahoehoe lava breaks out to flow forward and form another pillow at Kalapana

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.

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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Tag: lava

Ocean Entry

Trickle