Page 443 - Hawaii: Diving, Surfing, Pearl Harbor, Volcanoes and More

HALEMAUMAU CRATER: This is the home of Pele, the Hawai- formed when the lava is not as hot and not totally in molten form.
ian Goddess of Fire. This site is sacred to Hawaiians. The crater It crumbles with the movement of thef low. Remember Pele’s curse!
is currently 280 feet deep and 3000 feet in diameter. After a huge Do not take a souvenir piece of lava home. Many will testify that
eruption in 1924, the crater was 1345 feet deep. Since then, a series this act brings a curse upon the souvenir taker until the day that it
of smaller eruptions has gradually filled the crater with lava. Halfway is returned! Please be respectful and save yourself from this fate.
up the sides of the crater a ledge can be seen, which marks the level Removing lava souvenirs is illegal.
of a lake of lava that was present in 1967 to 1968. Much of the lava
on the floor of the crater is from a 1974 eruption. As you walk out HALEMAUMAU TRAIL: Moderate 3-mile hike (one-way) from
to the overlook, you will smell sulphurous volcanic fumes. These the Visitor Center, 500 feet down into the Kilauea Crater, and across
fumes are hazardous to young children, pregnant women, the elderly, to the other-worldly Halemaumau Overlook. KILAUEA CALDERA
and persons with respiratory or heart problems. Halemaumau last A caldera exists at Kilauea’s summit because of collapse caused by
erupted in 1982. magma swelling the summit area and then draining rapidly into the
rift zones. The basin was about 900 feet deep when first observed by
SOUTHWEST RIFT ZONE: Crater Rim Drive crosses Kilauea’s westerners in 1832. Since then, repeated eruption over-flows from
Southwest Rift Zone, where the ground is deeply fractured in an area Halemaumau Crater and the caldera floor have refilled the basin
of weak surface along the volcano’s flanks. The Southwest Rift Zone almost half-way.
starts at Kilauea’s summit and continues to the coast and down into
the sea below. This area receives 40 inches of rain per year, yet looks KEANAKAKOI CRATER: This Hawaiian name translates to “Cave
void of vegetation. This is because the 300 tons daily of sulphur of the Adze’s”, as the smoothpahoehoe lava here was the preferred
dioxide gas coughed up by the Halemaumau Crater creates natural adze tool- making stone in ancient times. The crater is 115 feet deep
acid rain.NENE The Hawaiian Goose, an endangered species, is the and about 1500 feet wide. Most of the crater floor is lava from a 1974
Hawaii state bird. The Nene nests and feeds in the park. Please be eruption. DEVASTATION TRAIL 1/2 mile path where the forest
aware that speed limits are in place for their protection. Please do was destroyed by the explosive Kilauea Iki fountain eruption of 1959.
not feed the geese as this encourages them to approach dangerous The earth is scorched and the trees are torched from the sizzling
traffic. cinders that littered the area over a 36 day period.

“A’A” VERSUS “PAHOEHOE”: Geologists world-wide use these PUHIMAU CRATER: This 525-foot-deep crater’s name translates
ancient Hawaiian words to describe the two distinct types of lava, to “Ever Smoking.” It is as deep as it is wide. Although the Puhimau
which are found all over Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. The Crater is not smoking, there is a new 12-acre thermal area on its
smooth, almost glassy lava is PAHOEHOE. This lava is formed northwest side where the trees have died.
by extremely hot, liquid lava that has solidified in a molten shape.
The chunky, crumbly, piled-up type of lava is called A’A, which is