Loading ...Last week I took a trip south into ‘lower’ Puna for the first time since the May eruption. Follow me on the map. From Pahoa village south on Hwy 130, past Leilani Estates where the eruption occurred. There are volcano “stretch marks”… cracks in the ground and across the highway where it crosses the rift summit that swelled with magma before the eruption finally broke out in Leilani. These cracks are stable now and have not moved, but they continue to vent steam from groundwater. There are patch-plates on the roadway over the cracks, and the forest on either side is venting steam.
We continued south to the village of Kalapana… hidden behind the legend on this map, and turned left up the coast, passing thru Opihikao and finally to MacKenzie State Park where the road now ends. The park was just reOpened, now that the nearby lava flow has cooled. (Pink area on map) Hawaiians describe two types of lava: “Pahoehoe” is the smooth flowing, very liquid lava that hardens to a black satin, smooth sheen. When lava flows far enough and outgasses, it cools a bit into smaller chunks that continue to roll along as it crystalizes and cools into clinkers and cinder-like chunks. This rough, clinker lava is called “A’a” lava. This is what one usually finds after a long flow downhill finally reaches the ocean. It is a red-hot moving wall of clinker rocks that just keeps shoving forward.
So I parked the car and took a 10 minute hike along the shoreline cliffs of the park. This very rocky cliff coastline is now collecting black sand beaches from the eruptive lava entering the ocean nearby. And here it is… where A’a meets the sea. This is about a 30 foot high ridge of fresh lava.
