I visited Kīlauea last year and it was probably the most memorable night of my life.
We came into the park late at night, probably around midnight, walked down the old Desolation Rd, took that right hand turn down the path... and the whole plateau fell into a void. And at the far side, there she was - Mme. Pele doing her thing down in Halema'uma'u. You could see the orange and red glow in the cracks breaking the lava crust on the lake as they slowly meandered across the surface, sparkling as occasional drops of water fell in, while the tunnel feeding the lake poured out millions of tons of white hot liquid basalt, kicking out heat waves so intense you could hear them just by looking at them from our perch a couple miles away.
Rain was absolutely soaking the Volcano Village, 200' below, but the edge of the caldera was barely above the cloud line, and the rain kept trying to send little wisps of clouds into the caldera where they would get blown apart because of the rising heat. The sky above was crystal clear, with Mauna Loa looming in the distance and the Big Dipper draping her southern shoulder. And then - the full moon came charging up past the trees behind us, casting a goddamn full-color MOONBOW which arc'd high over Kīlauea Crater and terminated IN the lava lake.
It was like Hawaii was showing off. I've never seen anything like it.
Anyway, I know research is one thing, and academic life is another, but all of you have spent time in places like this and, oh man - life well spent!
I'm still blown away just thinking about it. If I'd experienced this when I was younger, I'd probably have given serious thought to moving to Hawaii to study volcanoes.
How did you all decide to go into this field? And was it just coincidence that caused Kilauea and Mauna Loa to shut down at the same time last year? And why did Kilauea go off a couple weeks later?
BioweaponVaccine29 karma
I visited Kīlauea last year and it was probably the most memorable night of my life.
We came into the park late at night, probably around midnight, walked down the old Desolation Rd, took that right hand turn down the path... and the whole plateau fell into a void. And at the far side, there she was - Mme. Pele doing her thing down in Halema'uma'u. You could see the orange and red glow in the cracks breaking the lava crust on the lake as they slowly meandered across the surface, sparkling as occasional drops of water fell in, while the tunnel feeding the lake poured out millions of tons of white hot liquid basalt, kicking out heat waves so intense you could hear them just by looking at them from our perch a couple miles away.
Rain was absolutely soaking the Volcano Village, 200' below, but the edge of the caldera was barely above the cloud line, and the rain kept trying to send little wisps of clouds into the caldera where they would get blown apart because of the rising heat. The sky above was crystal clear, with Mauna Loa looming in the distance and the Big Dipper draping her southern shoulder. And then - the full moon came charging up past the trees behind us, casting a goddamn full-color MOONBOW which arc'd high over Kīlauea Crater and terminated IN the lava lake.
It was like Hawaii was showing off. I've never seen anything like it.
https://i.imgur.com/9SZLqnV.jpg https://i.imgur.com/U4meRhr.jpg
Anyway, I know research is one thing, and academic life is another, but all of you have spent time in places like this and, oh man - life well spent!
I'm still blown away just thinking about it. If I'd experienced this when I was younger, I'd probably have given serious thought to moving to Hawaii to study volcanoes.
How did you all decide to go into this field? And was it just coincidence that caused Kilauea and Mauna Loa to shut down at the same time last year? And why did Kilauea go off a couple weeks later?
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