VOLCANO!
Heather and I are all dressed up n our lava watching gear. We'll go just about anywhere to see our volcano in action. As you can
see here, lava from the volcano poured across a beach. IT buried the beach in just one day!
How would you like to live on an island way out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean? I do, and it's really incredible.
There are coral reefs and rainforests and, best of all, an erupting volcano!
My dad's a park ranger at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, on the “big island” of Hawaii. (See map.) A volcano
named Kilauea (kill-uh-WAY-uh) has been erupting here for more than 20 years. Watching it erupt is really exciting.
So when the volcano is putting on a show, my friend Heather and I grab our gear and hit the trail!
Usually we go on a lava hike late in the day. That's because it's easier to see the glow of the lava as the sky starts
to darken, especially from far away. By now we know the safety rules by heart: Hike with an adult, stay on the trails,
wear sturdy shoes, carry a flashlight (so we can find our way home after dark), and never touch hot lava.
We rush to a volcano-viewing area that's been set up by the park rangers. Then we sit and watch for hours. We see
fiery colors, from yellow to orange to cherry-red. The lava crackles and pops and forms weird, wrinkly shapes.
Getting close to an erupting volcano is like having front-row seats at the best fireworks show ever!
In the big photo here, you can see a vent, or opening, in the side of Kilauea. That's where blobs of hot lava blast out
from inside the Earth. Golden rivers of lava then race down the side of the volcano and toward the coast.
When the hot lava reaches the cool ocean, huge clouds of steam billow hundreds of feet into the sky. And as the
lava cools and hardens, it adds more solid rock to the edge of our ever-growing island.
When we aren't looking for lava. Heather and I go to the Volcano School of Arts and Sciences. Kids at our school
get to help scientists working at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.
One of the scientists is Christina Heliker. Once a week, she suits up for an important — and dangerous — job. Her
work clothes are sturdy boots, a fire-resistant suit and hood, a gas mask, and two pairs of heavy gloves. One of her
tools is the heavy head of a sledgehammer tied to a long steel cable. The challenge is to use it to snag a sample of
super-hot lava.
Christina has to get as close as she safely can to Kilauea's vent. Then she lowers the hammer head into the flowing
lava until a glob sticks to it.
“You can't imagine the heat.” she says. “The hammer and cable glow red.”
Christina and the other scientists are trying to learn all they can about lava and volcanoes. That will help them find
better ways to predict when dangerous volcanoes might erupt. And knowing that will allow people who live near
those volcanoes more time to get safely away.
It's great to know and help these scientists. Their research not only helps people — it also helps us learn how the
Earth works. And one thing's for sure: Here in Hawaii, we never forget that the Earth is alive! So. why not come visit
us sometime? You won't want to miss Kilauea. one of the world's greatest and longest-running lava shows.
Rangers: You can check out Kilauea's eruption updates, cool photos, and more on the Web at hvo.wr.usgs.gov. To
learn how the Hawaiian Islands were formed, go to library.thinkquest.org J003007/ Disasters2/volcano
formed/formed.htm. — RR
When a river of lava hits the ocean, it explodes in a shower of “fireworks.” The tourists below seem too close, but
they're really about 100 yards (90 m) away. Each year hundreds of thousands of lava-watchers hike into Hawaii
Volcanoes National Park after dark to enjoy the show.
AS TOLD TO Lora Gale and Forrest Gale; PHOTOS BY G. Brad Lewis
Copyright © 2003 National Wildlife Federation.
Lava Man
Volcanologist Ken Hon has one of the hottest jobs on Earth.
A trail of blazing lava spills down the side of Hawaii's Kilauea volcano. Geologist Ken Hon waves away the fumes
and leans over the 2000-degree stream. Is he studying the lava's texture or mineral content? No. Hon has more
important matters to tend to. He's roasting a burrito over the liquid rock.
Few people would risk going so close to Kilauea's tongues of fire, but Hon is an expert on the mechanics of lava
flow. He's learned how to tell when the volcano is just blowing off steam and when its eruptions endanger people
and property on the island of Hawaii. Kilauea (pronounced KEE-low-AY-*[This character cannot be converted to
ASCII text]) is one of the world's most active volcanoes and has been erupting nonstop since 1983.
MOUNTAIN BOY
Hon's life had a rocky start, geologically speaking. Growing up in Colorado, he took an early interest in climbing the
Rocky Mountains. He also hoped to travel the world and thought he'd found his dream assignment when he got to
college. While studying plant life at the University of Colorado, he was invited to join a research team on the
Canadian tundra. A tundra is a vast, treeless arctic plain. Hon was 19, and the plane ride there was the first he'd
ever taken.
As excited as Hon was about the adventure, he realized soon after that his real love wasn't plants, but rocks. He
switched his college major from biology to geology and earned a Ph.D. in the subject, with a specialty in volcanoes.
He is now a geology professor at the University of Hawaii at Hilo.
GOING WITH THE FLOW
Hon compares being a geologist to “putting together the pieces of a puzzle.” His research on lava has helped solve
the puzzle of how volcanoes work.
On a typical day, Kilauea spews about 187 million gallons of lava. Most of that lava is a thin, free-flowing mixture of
molten minerals called pahoehoe (pronounced pahHOY-HOY). When pahoehoe cools, its crust has a smooth,
swirled surface. Pahoehoe comes from the Hawaiian word hoe, which means “to paddle.” Paddling a boat leaves
swirls behind in the water that resemble the surface of hardened pahoehoe.
“Pahoehoe acts much like a loaf of bread baking,” Hon told Current Science. “As bread bakes, its surface pushes
up, and the lifting creates cracks.” Out of those cracks gushes more pahoehoe, and the lava advances down the
volcano's slopes.
Some lava that oozes from Kilauea is more viscous (stickier) than pahoehoe and is called aa (pronounced AH-AH).
When aa congeals, it forms sharp, jagged chunks of rock. Aa comes from the Hawaiian word meaning “to burn.”
Pahoehoe eruptions last longer than aa eruptions. The sheer amount of pahoehoe from an eruption makes the flow
more likely to endanger human settlements.
BOMBS AWAY
In the past, Hawaiian authorities have bombed Kilauea's streams of lava with explosives to divert them away from
towns and villages. Bombing is no longer done now that scientists have a better understanding of how lava flows.
Hon devised a system of time-lapse cameras to map pahoehoe flow and direction. He also observed lava flows on
foot and from helicopters. Analyzing all the information, Hon can now tell whether a lava flow threatens to swallow a
village.
Hon's research came to the rescue in 1990. He was working at the U.S. Geological Survey's Hawaiian Volcano
Observatory (HVO) when Kilauea sent a flood of pahoehoe in the direction of the town of Kalapana. Hon's
predictions and those of fellow HVO scientists helped officials determine when and how to evacuate the
townspeople.
By the time the flow had stopped, most of Kalapana lay buried under more than 15 meters (50 feet) of pahoehoe. Of
the town's 187 buildings, only six survived.
HOT SPOT
Hon knows the danger of volcanoes firsthand. The lava fields he works on are full of hazards—poisonous sulfur
dioxide (SO[sub2]) fumes, flying ash and cinder, jagged shards of volcanic glass, and collapsing crusts of
congealed lava.
Still, Hon doesn't mind the perils. He recommends his line of work to anyone interested in adventure. “Working with
volcanoes appeals to the kid in you—the excitement, the danger, the thrill of watching things blow up,” he said. “I
get to look at some really cool things.”
VOLCANOES: THREE TYPES
A shield volcano releases a highly fluid lava that spreads easily and forms a gentle sloping mountain that resembles
a warrior's shield. Kilauea, Mauna Loa, and most of the other volcanoes on the Hawaiian Islands are shield
volcanoes.
A stratovolcano is tall and steep and erupts explosively. Its lava tends to be extremely viscous and clogs the
volcano'splumbing. Gas builds up under incredible pressure inside the volcano until it finally blows the mountain
apart. Mount St. Helens in Washington state, Mount Etna in Italy, and Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines are all
stratovolcanoes.
A caldera volcano doesn't look like a volcano. It lies underground and erupts so violently that it leaves behind only a
caldera, or vast basin-shaped crater. Yellowstone National Park sits on top of a caldera volcano.
By Sabrina McLaughlin
Source: Current Science, 2/28/2003, Vol. 88 Issue 13, p4, 2p
Item: 9174972
Plate Tectonics
The Earth's rocky crust is presently divided into seven landmasses or continents: Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia,
Europe, North America, and South America. The shapes and sizes of the continents are continually changing, but
very slowly.
The earliest maps of the south Atlantic Ocean showed a remarkable fit between the shapes of the coastlines on
either side. It took time to understand what kind of mechanism could move the continents, but it is now known that
the continents are moving, and at a rate (a few inches each year) that can be measured.
In 1915, Alfred Wegener published his theory of drifting continents. The theory held that all the continents of the
earth were once united in a huge land mass called "Pangaea."
The continents broke apart 300 million years ago and began to drift on plates of the earth's lithosphere. People had
been posing this idea since the 4th century B.C.E., when Aristotle noticed that marine animals could be found on
the tops of mountains. Today, however, much more evidence exists to support the theory of plate tectonics.
Forty years after Wegener, technological advances revealed a great deal of information about the ocean floor. The
discovery of magnetic stripes by two British research scientists, F. Vine and D. Matthews, in 1963 suggested that
the ocean floor is made up of younger rock than exists on the continents.
This led to the theory of plate tectonics, which divides the world into plates made up of parts of continents and parts
of ocean. An easy way to search for proof of plate tectonics is to look at a map. Notice that the western shore line of
Africa and the eastern shore line of South America fit together. These areas have fossils in common even though in
the present they are separated by thousands of miles of ocean.
Scientists also present evidence supporting plate tectonics by plotting the occurrence of earthquakes and
volcanoes. Most earthquakes happen along the boundaries of continental plates.
The San Andreas Fault Zone in California is at the place where one plate slides along the edge of another.
The volcanic islands of Japan are created as one plate slides on top of another.
New plates are being made all the time. One prediction for future plate movement is that in millions of years, the
continents of North and South America, which share a plate, will collide with the continental plate of Asia. The
Himalayan Mountains will continue to grow higher as the continent of Asia slides on top of India. Eventually all of
the continents may merge to form another huge land mass and the whole process will start over again.
The formation of new crust along fault lines also means the formation of new minerals, pushed up from the Earth's
mantle, which grow or cement together to form rocks.
Scientist now believe the Earth's crust breaks apart due to erosion and earthquakes.
Small pieces of Earth are pulled into the planet's hot mantle, where they later resurface along fault lines produceing
new crust.
The oldest known rock formations are found in the northwestern region of Canada
Source: Monkeyshines & Ewe Explore the 7 Continents, 2001, p9, 2p
Item: 10000245
MAGGIE AND THE VOLCANO
Racing down the volcano like a fiery snake, lava roars and hisses and crackles. Dr. Maggie Mangan's fob
is to walk across the volcano's fresh, hot crust--which was molten rock just an hour before--and take
samples from the stream of flowing lava.
As she steps close to the lava flow, her face feels hot under her protective mask, as if her skin is beginning to burn.
Walking on an erupting volcano is all in a day's work for Maggie.
Maggie is a geologist who specializes in the study of volcanoes. Her office is perched on the rim of the world's
most active volcano, Kilauea (key-lah-WAY-ah). That volcano is in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park on the island of
Hawaii.
Usually, when a volcano erupts, everyone runs away from it. How can Maggie get so close to Kilauea during an
eruption?
"Quiet" Eruptions
The reason is that Kilauea is different from most volcanoes. One important difference is that Kilauea does not
explode when it erupts. Instead, its lava flows steadily, forming hot streams and underground tubes full of lava.
Maggie explains that the magma in the Hawaiian volcanoes is what makes them different.
The magma in most other volcanoes is thick, like pudding, because it contains a lot of a chemical called silica.
When this magma comes to the surface (where it is called lava), it can explode. These explosions are caused by
gases--mostly steam--trapped in the magma.
When the magma comes out, a huge amount of gas inside it expands instantly, forming bubbles that can burst with
explosive force. The thick lava then piles high, forming a mountain shaped like an anthill.
But inside Kilauea, the magma contains very little silica and very little gas. It's called basaltic (buh-SAWL-tick)
magma.
Because basaltic lava flows more like syrup than pudding, the small amount of gas in it escapes without an
explosion. This runny lava creates a wide mountain with a curved top, like a warrior's shield lying on the ground.
Because of this shape, the Hawaiian volcanoes and a few others in various parts of the world are called shield
volcanoes.
Why do shield volcanoes have a different kind of magma? Scientists think the reason is that shield volcanoes do
not form on the cracks, or faults, in the Earth's crust as explosive volcanoes do.
Instead, they form over hot spots in the Earth's mantle. These mysterious places deep in the Earth melt holes in the
crust, allowing basaltic magma to rise to the surface. For this reason, shield volcanoes are also called hot-spot
volcanoes.
Walk Softly
To study lava flows, Maggie walks on hardened lava that may be barely two inches thick. "I walk lightly and go fast,"
she says.
A few years ago, a scientist working near her broke through the crust over a fiery pool of lava. "He's fine now," says
Maggie. "But working near fresh lava is the most dangerous part of our job."
Sometimes lava is easy to reach because it oozes over the ground in what are called breakouts. But at other times
the lava flows through underground tubes. To get to this lava, Maggie must find a skylight, which is a hole in the
hardened lava that lets her see down into the underground tubes. "When you reach one,.you feel like you've been
hit by a board, the heat is so intense," she says.
Using a radar gun and other measuring devices, she can tell how much lava is in a lava tube and how fast it's
flowing. When the lava slows down, the eruption might be coming to an end.
To collect a sample, Maggie throws a hammerhead attached to a stainless steel cable into the river of molten rock.
Then she pulls out her catch--lava that clings to the hammerhead like taffy. It hardens quickly as it cools, turning
into a black, glassy rock.
These lava samples contain crystals and other minerals that Maggie studies for clues about the lava's history. She
can tell how long the molten rock sat in the magma chamber (which is a kind of holding tank inside the volcano)
before it was erupted and how hot it was at the time of the eruption.
Clues to the End
From the beginning of an eruption to its end, the lava's temperature and the mixture of minerals in it change. By
measuring the temperature and studying the composition of the lava, scientists hope to learn how to predict the time
when almost any shield volcano will stop erupting.
Maggie and her helpers are not the only people who love Kilauea. Millions of people visit Hawaii Volcanoes
National Park each year to see the beauty of Kilauea's gentle eruptions.
If you have a chance to visit the park, you might spot some people near a hot lava flow. They're scientists who think
it's cool to be hot.
PHOTO (COLOR): To protect herself from the intense heat of the volcano, Maggie wears a long-sleeved
shirt, long pants, thick asbestos gloves, and a fireproof cap that covers her face like a ski mask. She wears
boots with the soles sewn on because glued soles would melt off.
Maggie walks beside a lava flow.