Chrissy's World - Photos 6, Page 25, 2 Lava Hikes

Photos 6, page 25

Short Lava Hike

March 31, 2010

had been happening lava-wise. It had stopped for awhile and then it started up again but was confined to the area above
the pali (ridge), about 5 very rough and steep miles away. Impossible to get to. But I decided to go out anyway...
By the way, all those streets and roads you see don't exist anymore - they're all covered by lava now.

I headed out north, intending to explore possible ways up the pali. The weather forecast was for winds of 10-20 mph with
gusts up to 50! It wasn't very long before I believed them! There's nothing out there to stop the winds so I swear it was
more like winds of 50 mph with gusts of 10-20 mph! I'd battled winds like this once before and decided not to bang my
head against the wall, as it were, and do it again! So I turned back and just did a little exploring around the official view
area. I went out to the new public viewing area ("View"), then circled around and went down to the old viewing area ("Old
View"). Then I went down to the coast and found the road that leads up through the woods past where I used to park the
car ("Old Park") and back up to where I'd parked the car this time. 2.8 miles, 2 hours.
The left image above is from a couple of years ago from Google Earth. The right image has an overlay showing the new
lava flows in pink.

I started out with the idea that I would
try and find a way up the pali.
Somewhere over the top of that ridge,
extremely steep and rough - I'd tried
getting up there several times before
and couldn't make it. This time I
thought I might try another area that
looked to have a shallower slope.
Where's the lava? Just follow the
helicopters!

After turning back, I intercepted the new trail to the new viewing area ("Trail") and followed it out to the viewing area. Then
I went up (northeast) into the woods that was burned by the lava intrusion back in October of 2009. What you see above
are what they call "tree molds". The lava flows around live trees and, because of the sap and the green wood, they don't
immediately burn. Instead, the sap boils off, drawing off the heat, and the lava cools around the trunk of the tree. Finally,
the tree burns away, leaving these holes in the lava.

Lava Hike

April 8, 2010

Saturday, April 3, 2010 8:26 AM HST
Past 24 hours at the middle east rift zone vents and flow field: Magma degases through Pu`u `O`o crater before erupting from the TEB
(Thanksgiving Eve Breakout) vent located 2 km to the east. Yesterday, HVO (Hawaii Volcanoes Observatory) geologists using an infrared
camera were able to see that the degassing hole in the east wall of Pu`u `O`o crater continued to be hot.

Lava flowed through tubes and fed minor surface flows advancing to the southeast down the pali. Yesterday, HVO geologists found that the
active flows above the pali had advanced 825 m (2,700 ft) since Tuesday to the 1,100 ft elevation. If not interrupted by a DI event, the flows are
projected to rejoin the east edge of the TEB flows but there is a small possibility that they will advance farther east. GOES-WEST images
included steady thermal anomalies from continuing surface flow activity through dawn.

DI tilt event: DI is an abbreviation for 'deflation-inflation' and describes a volcanic event of uncertain significance. DI events are recorded by
tiltmeters at Kilauea summit as an abrupt deflation of up to a few microradians in magnitude lasting several hours to 2-3 days followed by an
abrupt inflation of approximately equal magnitude. The tilt events are usually accompanied by an increase in summit tremor during the
deflation phase. A careful analysis of these events suggests that they may be related to changes in magma supply to a storage reservoir at
less than 1 km depth, just east of Halema`uma`u crater. Usually, though not always, these changes propagate through the magma conduit
from the summit to the eruption site, as many of the DI events at Kilauea summit are also recorded at a tiltmeter at Pu`u `O`o, delayed by 1-2
hours. DI events often correlate with lava pulses and/or pauses in the eruption at the Pu`u `O`o/July 21/TEB vents.

Sunday, April 4, 2010 7:20 AM HST
Lava flowed through tubes and fed surface flows advancing to the southeast down the pali. GOES-WEST images included steady thermal
anomalies from continuing surface flow activity through dawn. Flow vigor may diminish over the next 24-48 hours as the effects of the ongoing
DI event become evident. If not affected by the ongoing DI event, the flows are projected to rejoin the east edge of the TEB flows west of the
current viewing area but there is a small possibility that they will advance farther east before descending toward the coast.

Monday, April 5, 2010 11:24 AM HST
Lava flowed through tubes and fed surface flows advancing slowly to the southeast down Pulama pali. GOES-WEST images included steady
thermal anomalies from continuing surface flow activity through dawn. The small DI event had no obvious effect on the surface activity. If the
flows continue, they are projected to rejoin the east edge of the TEB flows west of the current viewing area. There is a small possibility,
however, that they will advance farther east before descending toward the coast.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010 9:07 AM HST
Lava flowed through tubes and fed surface flows advancing slowly to the southeast. The flows remain high on Pulama pali. GOES-WEST
images showed thermal anomalies from surface flow activity continuing through dawn. If the flows continue on their current path, they are
projected to rejoin the east edge of the TEB flow field west of the current viewing area. There is a small possibility, however, that they will
advance farther east before descending toward the coast.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010 9:01 AM HST
Lava flowed through tubes and fed surface flows advancing slowly to the southeast down the Pulama pali. UHH geologists reported that the
flows had reached down to the 800-ft elevation by late yesterday afternoon-an advancement of about 900 m (0.5 miles) since last Friday (4/2). If
the flows continue on their current path, they are projected to rejoin the east edge of the TEB flow field west of the current viewing area. There is
a small possibility, however, that they will advance farther east before descending toward the coast.

Thursday, April 8, 2010 7:56 AM HST
Lava flowed through tubes and fed surface flows advancing slowly to the southeast down the Pulama pali, east of the Royal Gardens
subdivision, as indicated by field observations and GOES satellite imagery. If the flows continue on their current path, they are projected to
rejoin the east edge of the TEB flow field west of the current viewing area. There is a small possibility, however, that they will advance farther
east before descending toward the coast. Flow activity may stall before reaching the coastal plain due to the onset of the most recent DI event.

Alright already! I'm going! The suspense was killing me. I got my new hiking boots in the mail (see below) and decided to
test them out. I meant to just go out and walk around a little bit and see how the boots felt but it felt so good to be hiking, I
just kept going.

I started out (green line) in the same direction I'd taken on March 31 (see above). I was looking for an easier path up the
pali. Most places it was so steep and rough, it was prohibitive, at least for a fat old man like me! I thought if I headed a too
hot, not too much wind - I'd see what I could find. The left image above is using Google Earth's imagery which is at least a
couple of years old. On the right, I put in an overlay that shows the recent lava flows (in pink) and the most recent flow, as
of today, in red.

So I headed off more to the right than I usually do and, as it turned out, the slope wasn't too bad after all and I was feeling
good and the new boots weren't bothering me (yet - they did later!) so I just kept going. I had gotten a late start but I
figured I'd go up for a couple of hours and then turn back - just to test the terrain for later. But I actually made it up far
enough to find that lava and came back very satisfied. It may look like I was walking around the hot lava (the red area) but
that's misleading. In the right image, you can see where I came across the lava at "Hot" and then skirted it down to the
bottom of the flow at "Poke 3". I don't know when they went out and marked the flow (I often see them out there) but the
lava wasn't over as far as the red area shows when I was there, which was fairly late in the day. It could very well be that I
just didn't get my overlay aligned correctly - for a far view it works fine but I don't know that a closer view will stand up.

As I said above, I was testing out new boots. That's because my
old ones wore out. I don't know how well you can see in the
photo, but I'd worn right through the toes of the boots as well as
wearing the tread off the bottoms! And I'd only owned them since
January of last year! I don't think there was any melt action going
on but it could have been a contributing factor!

OK, enough talk, let's get to the pictures!

continued