{"id":31090,"date":"2026-04-28T01:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/?p=31090"},"modified":"2026-04-24T12:57:34","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T22:57:34","slug":"crunchy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/?p=31090","title":{"rendered":"Crunchy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

If I were to use one word to decribe a recent visit to the park it would be…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crunchy.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Tephra<\/a>
Tephra from recent eruptions in the lawn at Kilauea Military Camp<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

The year and a half long series of eruptive episodes has been beautiful and exciting. Tall lava fountains every couple weeks that put the lava in Hawai\u02bbi Volcanoes National Park, drawing huge crowds and providing a spectacle for both tourists and us island dwellers alike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A combination of several high lava fountains and our usual winter Kona storms has resulted in episodes of tephra falling across the main sections of the park, closing both the park and the Mamalahoa highway. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The southerly winds brought about by Kona low pressure systems has sent the tephra northeast instead of the usual southwest. Instead of settling in the desolate and uninhabited Ka\u02bbu Desert, tephra has instead fallen heavily across the park entrance area and highway, the visitor center, and the main caldera viewpoints. Tephra has reached beyond the part to impact Volcano Village, and even reached as far as Hilo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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\"Kilauea<\/a>
A thousand foot lava fountain rises above Kiauea caldera 26 Mar 2025<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Tephra is a lovely catch all term for anything that arrives airborne from a volcano… Volcanic ash, lapilli, lava bombs, Pele’s hair, Pele’s tears, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The tephra referenced here is mostly lapilli, latin for “small stones”. Lapilli consists of small fragments from 2 to 64mm in size. In this case the lapilli is reticulite, a glassy foam that results from the gas rich lava degassing and creating a glass froth in the huge plume of material jetting from the vents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This reticulite is very fragile, a glass foam that is easily crushed when stepped on or even between your fingers. Underfoot it crushes with a distinct and somewhat satisfying crunch, a very crunchy crunch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Much of the park near the caldera is covered in this reticulite. It covered the roads and trails, it covered roofs and filled gutters. The lawns around the Volcano House Lodge and Kilauea Militery Camp are black and dark brown with blades of grass peeking out from under the layer of tephra.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Tephra<\/a>
Tephra accumulation from recent eruptions on a roof at Kilauea Military Camp<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Park staff has swept the roads and paved trails at the primary viewpoints. This clearing effort has left large piles of reticulite lapilli everywhere, swept aside and left as the crews stuggle to keep the park safe and accessible. Many roofs have been cleared, but others are still covered as the scale of the task has overwhelmed available maintenace staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reticulite covers the trails, mostly 1cm (1\/2″) bits but with the occasional pieces up to 10cm (4 inches) or even larger. This means that walking down any park service trail is a very crunchy walk… Every step results in a pronounced crunch. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is simply crunch, crunch, crunch to get anywhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rugged and closed footwear is highly recommended. One must be careful when sitting to insure you do not sit in a pile of reticulite or the resulting glass dust of crushed reticulite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In time this reticulite will be ground to dust by passing feet and settled into the soil by tropical rains. The high mineral content will enrich the forest soils. But for now, visiting the park anywhere outside of the built up areas will be…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crunchy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If I were to use one word to decribe a recent visit to the park it would be… Crunchy. The year and a half long series of eruptive episodes has been beautiful and exciting. Tall lava fountains every couple weeks that put the lava in Hawai\u02bbi Volcanoes National Park, drawing huge crowds and providing a … Continue reading “Crunchy”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[30],"tags":[2931,229],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31090"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31090"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31090\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31106,"href":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31090\/revisions\/31106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}