Surreal Lava Scenes

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park is one of the more surreal spots on the planet.  Lush tropical vegetation thrives next to barren lava fields.  The landscape changes constantly due to the almost continuous volcanic activity.  The land is harsh, and fascinating.  This lava flowed from Mauna Ulu to the sea in the early 1970s.

Apua Point, from Holei Pali.  There is both a'a and pahoehoe lava here in abundance...the a'a is darker.  Before the flows in the 1970s reached the sea, and before 1868, there were several fishing villages on the coast far below.  Then in that year, a massive earthquake and tsunami wiped them out.

Lava cascaded down Holei Pali several times during Mauna Ulu's 1969-74 eruptions.  Must have been quite a spectacle as it happened, especially at night.

This is a harsh coastline.  Strong winds blow most of the time...they were on this day, as the whitecaps indicate.  The winds are hot, and sticky despite the aridity of the landscape.  Actually this area gets 40-50 inches of rain a year, but evaporation rates are higher than that.

The Holei sea arch.  Currently at the end of the Chain of Craters highway.  This arch will probably not last out the century.  It will either be buried by new lava flows, or collapsed by wind and water.

Wild Puna coast.  The waves can get massive...there's no land between here and Antarctica.

Windblown palms.

Glowering sky over the edge of Mauna Ulu's pahoehoe field.  Madam Pele spared the forest in the background.

Mordor?  Could be.  That's Halema'uma'u on the left, steaming since 2008, and for most of the two centuries before that.  The fissure in the lower right of the picture suddenly opened in 1974, spewing fountains of lava over the landscape and down into Kilauea crater.

A fern survives in the lava.

Ohelo berries in the cinders.  The berries are eaten by Nene, the rare Hawaiian geese.

Keanakakoi Crater.  Until 1877, this was used as a quarry by the ancient Hawaiians, who made adzes from the stone in the crater.  Then an eruption filled the crater with lava, covering the adze stone.  Another eruption in 1974 added more lava.

Back home at Orchid Elua, ripples on the swimming pond create an impressionist effect on the palms reflected in the water.