Category: volcanoes

Pele vs Construction Workers

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The Road to Pohoiki, December 2018
The new Road to Pohoiki in December 2018

Pele, the goddess of fire and lava, is fast but the Hawaiian construction workers are right behind her.

THE COCONUT TRAIL

Pohoiki (Isaac Hale Beach Park) was cut off by lava in three events between May and June 2018. Shortly after the end of the outbreak, locals created a trail across the new lava flows. They would move rocks, fill in dips with gravel, and mark the trail with freshly sprouted coconuts. The trail was called the Coconut Trail.

ISAAC HALE BEACH PARK (POHOIKI)

Like many beach parks on the Big Island, Isaac Hale did not really have a sandy beach. It was rocks, woodland and famously a concrete boat ramp from which boats toured the lava entry into the ocean West of Kalapana. This lava flow started with the outbreak in 2014 and ended 2018 with a sudden lava level drop in the Pu’u O’o fissure. This marked the beginning of the 2018 outbreak in and around Leilani Estates.

Pohoiki used to be a popular destination for residents and tourists alike. You would always see people swimming in the thermally heated water at the boat ramp. A little bit further along the shore you would find the so called Queen’s Bath (one of several on the Big Island), a small thermally heated fresh water pond, which was picturesquely located underneath trees in the woods.

PELE VOLCANO GODDESS

Pele  is the goddess of lava and volcanoes – or she is the volcano. Lava moves in such a strange ways that it sometimes feels alive. According to legend Pele was killed, but her spirit resided in Halema’uma’u Crater on the Kilauea Volcano. Many people will tell you they saw her as a young beautiful woman, an old woman or simply felt her presence.

THE ERUPTION

The outbreak in 2018 was the biggest in 200 years. The flow that was produced by Fissure 8 just stopped short from taking Pohoiki, not without chewing up parts of the parking lot. The lava flow also produced massive amounts of black by lava exploding into tiny little fragments upon contact with the cooler ocean water. These formed a large sand dune at Pohoiki and covered parts of the old coast line. The boat ramp became landlocked and the Queen’s Bath shallow and dead.

THE NEW ROAD

It didn’t take long for the construction workers to cut a new road into the lava flow that still emitted some heat.  Just three month after the lava stopped just short of Pohoiki a new road was opened on 6 December 2018. Again, it became a popular destination for locals and tourists. When driving on the dirt road you can still spot some of the sprouted coconuts of the trail.

Lava glow

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This is how bright the the lava rivers are at night. They light up the sky. It looks a bit like a sunset in the east.

FAST FLOWING LAVA STREAMS

Just to recap, the Kilauea erupted from May in a number of fissures. Fissure eight produced fast flowing lava rivers that overran Kapoho, evaporated Green Lake, and destroyed Vacationland and Kapoho Beach Lots. Kapoho Bay was filled by lava and the land extended out into the ocean for about 500m (which is roughly a third of a mile).

HOW FAR CAN YOU SEE THE GLOW?

You can see the glow not only from Pahoa, but also from certain parts of Hilo, which is the biggest town on Big Island, Hawaii. It’s also visible from the top of Mauna Kea, which, at 13,803 feet (4,207m), is the tallest mountain on the island and ca. 45 m (about 70km) away from the nearest lava streams.

ROADBLOCKS

The subdivision Leilani Estates is currently most affected by the fissures. Its eastern part is a no go area and you can be fined get arrested if you are found there. The western part of Leilani can be accessed by residents, only. There are roadblocks set up by the police to ensure that no one else accesses that area. Some parts of Kapoho are cut off by the lava streams and evacuated for that reason.

 

Should I write or should I not?

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Green Turtle and Manini
A huge, old Green Turtle who was a regular at Champagne Pond with Manini fish grazing algae off its back. It loved to rest in the warm waters of the geothermically heated pond. I do not have a waterproof camera, so I can only take shots like this when it comes right up to the shore – and it often did.

On 2 June 2018 a lava flow from the recent Kilauea eruption reached Green Lake Crater. The fresh water lake in the crater evaporated within an hour. The area south of the crater was untouched by the 1958 flow in the west and 1960 flow in the east. It looked like the crater would save the area from any lava flow. It was pretty much gone the same day. Two days later Vacationland and Kapoho Beach Lots were destroyed and with them the the Waiopae tide pools with their coral reefs and the Champagne Pond. Kapoho bay was filled with lava and the shoreline has been extended one mile out into the ocean.

Farms, gardens, vacation homes – everything gone, burned and melted into the lava. Completely destroyed forever. With the neighborhood went the people. Often I don’t know where they are. Sometimes I see photos or read about them in local papers like the Herald Tribune Hawaii or the Honululu Star-Advertiser.

No parties, no potlucks, no jam sessions, no yoga, no fruit stands, no art. I have so many pictures and memories about this place and planned to gradually write about it. Now, my blog is not chronological. I post whatever I find interesting on the day. It does not necessarily reflect, what I do that day or where I am.

I always had the idea that my blog is about places that people can visit. But what about places that ceased to exist? Would anybody want to read about those? Would it upset people to read about them?

If you have got any thoughts about that, please, let me know.

This is where the lava stopped …

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Pahoa transfer station, lava flow of 2014

… in 2014, just before Pahoa at the local dump (or transfer station as it’s officially called). This is a reminder that outbreaks in that area are frequent and temporary. The Kilauea has been continuously erupting since 1983.

I’ll take this as an opportunity for me to let everyone know, I’m safe. Only a small part of Big Island is critically affected. At the moment it’s mostly the area around Leilani Estate.

Living on Big Island means, living on top of a massive shield volcano – taller than Mount Everest from the sea floor up. Generally speaking, areas in the southeast are younger and more active than in the northwest. This is because the tectonic plate Hawaii is situated on, slides slowly in northwesterly direction over a volcanic hotspot, producing a chain of islands on the go. As the trade winds blow from the northeast, it’s mostly the regions southwest of the Kilauea that battle volcanic smog and occasionally ash.

It’s also an opportunity to explain, why there are no pictures of active fissures and lava flows on my blog. Apart from the fact that it’s dangerous and illegal to go there, I respect the privacy of people who have lost everything or are still battling for their livelihood.

However, for anyone that’s interested, there are still residents that resisted a mandatory evacuation and post regular updates on on Facebook and Youtube. This is about as close as I will ever get to the fissures, too.

Mauna Kea

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Mauna Kea

Mauna Kea is a dormant volcano standing 4,207 m (13,802 ft) above sea level. Most of the mountain is underwater. When measured from the sea floor, Mauna Kea is over 10,000 m (33,000 ft) tall and is the tallest mountain on Earth.

With its high elevation, dry environment, and stable airflow, Mauna Kea’s summit is one of the best sites in the world for astronomical observation. Since the creation of an access road in 1964, 13 telescopes funded by 11 countries have been constructed at the summit.

In Hawaiian mythology, the summit of Mauna Kea was seen as a place where benevolent spirits reside – as well as Poli’ahu, one of the four goddesses of snow.