Molten lava can cool into several shapes, textures and colors.
A hollow Pele’s tear the size of a pea was found by a volcanologist in December and it is the only one of its kind ever known.Īccording to science, when magma emerges from underground it is now considered lava. Pele’s tears are small drops of molten lava that solidify into black volcanic glass balls. Pele’s hair is thin strands of basaltic glass made naturally from molten lava as it flys or flows rapidly.It looks like golden yellow human hair and is extremely light and gets blow far away by the wind during eruptions. There are many forms of lava, but my two favorite are called Pele’s hair and Pele’s tears. Every year, the park gets pieces of rock mailed to them by people who took it from the park and claim it has given them bad luck. In 2014 the volcano made the news when its lava flow got within feet of burying the town of Pahoa.Īccording to legend, Pele’s curse will befall anyone who removes volcanic rock or lava from Hawaii and they will have bad luck forever. The most recent and longest eruption was in 1983. Since 1918, Kilauea’s only period of inactivity was the 18 years between 19. Over the last 1,100 years Kilauea has covered over 90% of its surface with fresh lava flows. However, they can be signaled by earthquakes and swelling of the earth of the volcano. Every now and then Pele still erupts from her home in anger.Īccording to science, volcanic eruptions are still unpredictable. She chased the pair off to the wetter, lush northern side of the island with her explosions and lava and she kept the drier, barren southeastern side for herself. Famous for her fiery temper, she flew into a rage and erupted from Kilauea. When the pair eventually made it back, Pele was suspicious that they had fallen in love and her sister had stolen Kamapua’a from her, which was not true. But that’s not for another couple hundred thousand years, so don’t hold your breath!Īccording to one legend, Pele sent her sister to Maui to find the god of agriculture Kamapua’a and bring him back to Hawaii to be her husband. There’s even a younger underwater volcano to the southeast of the island that is growing rapidly and will one day form its own island before mergin with Hawaii. This is why the southeastern volcano of Kilauea is the most active and the the other four volcanoes that make up the island to the north and west are slowly fading away. Whereas the southeastern section of the Big Island is still passing over the hotspot. So Kauai passed over the hotspot a long time ago and the volcano is dead and the island is slowly sinking/eroding back into the ocean.
For as long as we know, the Pacific Plate (the largest tectonic plate in the world) has been moving to the northwest at a speed of 2.2-4 inches per year (roughly the rate your fingernails grow). Hawaii at 450,000 years, is the youngest. Kauai and Niihau, at 5 million years, are the oldest. The islands are all formed by volcanic activity originating from a single hot spot where magma from the core oozes through a whole in the Earth’s crust.
There are 8 main islands in the Hawaiian archipelago. To this day she lives in the Halemaumau Crater at the summit of the Kilauea Volcano on Hawaii.Īccording to science, Kilauea is the only currently active volcano in Hawaii. Finally she arrived on the big island of Hawaii where she dug out a lovely fire pit to call her home.
Oahu and Molokai were also unsuitable ground. unfortunately the ground there was not suitable so she migrated along the chain of Hawaiian islands. She first arrived on the island of Kauai where she tried digging a fire pit to make her home. And like anything we find fascinating along our trip, I want to share it with you.Īccording to to legend, a long time ago the Hawaiian volcano and fire goddess Pele was searching for a home. We hiked into the craters, walked past steam vents and sulfur banks, watched the red glow at night from the lava lake, drove through lava flows on Chain of Craters Road, explored a lava tube and attended a handful of ranger programs! One thing we found really intriguing as we learned all about the volcanoes and their history was how the park embraced and conveyed the juxtaposition of legend and science. There was so much to do at the park – we wished we had a few more days to try out some of their many backcountry hikes. Neither Elizabeth or I had ever seen an active volcano before, and the spewing steam and glowing red lava was mesmerizing. Who can’t get excited by random explosions of red hot stuff from deep inside the earth?! Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park was super impressive and fun to explore.
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