Volcanoes Still Firin' Up

As usual, the volcanic scene on the Big Island is dynamic. Halema'uma'u, quiet for a few decades, erupted early last year. A crater within the main crater has formed and vents steam most of the time, and occasionally rocks and ash. A new lava lake is sometimes visible in the bottom of the crater and comes across as a glow from this vantage point at the Jaggar museum. Can't get closer to it as the eruption is venting massive quantities of sulfur dioxide to the southwest (right side of the pic), which has forced the closure of part of the Crater Rim road and several trails.

Well to the east, the Pu'u O'o eruption that started in 1983 is still going strong...such a long eruption is unprecedented in the past two centuries. This is the steam plume of lava entering the ocean a couple miles to the west of Kalapana. The lava I'm standing on is vintage 1990...before then this spot was several hundred yards out to sea.

This black sand beach was created by the 1990 lava flow. That flow obliterated much of the village of Kalapana and an older black sand beach which was a major tourist attraction. I was in the area watching that flow creep down the mountainside (from a distance) only a couple weeks before it reached Kalapana. Black sand is surrealistic...you can get good chiaroscuro pix with just the sand and the sea foam.

This is a Honu, a Hawaiian sea turtle. He's hangin' at Punaluu black sand beach, on the southeast side of the island. The sea bottom here is covered with limu...seaweed that the honu love to munch on. So they hang out here in large numbers.