Along the Chain of Craters Road, Big Island, Hawaii: Part 3

Dr Trevor and Chris Watts (UK) This is the third of five articles on the ‘Chain of Craters Road’ on Hawaii’s Big Island. The articles are in the form of a road trip that you can follow if you are lucky enough to go to this wonderful part of the world to see its volcanic scenery. Being a road trip in the USA, distances along the road and by foot are given in yards and miles, while measurements are provided in more European and scientific metric units. Hawaiian pronunciationA word about Hawaiian pronunciation – Hawaiians do not say ‘Morna Ulu’ for the Mauna Ulu volcano. They split most vowels up separately: thus, ‘Mah ooner Oo loo’. Similarly, ‘Kill ow eh uh’, for Kilauea; and, ‘Halley mah oomer oo’, not ‘Halley mow mow’, for Halema‘uma‘u; and, ‘Poo ooh Poo ah I’, for Pu’u Pua’i.2.6 miles: the Hi’iaka lava field and lava tree forest This is just across the road from the Hi’iaka Crater and is the later (May 1973) lava flow. It is very extensive and is little explored beyond the first 100 yards from the road. Before the eruption, there was a forest here, mainly of ʻŌhiʻa trees, but, on 5 May 1973, a series of fissures opened up and vast amounts of lava gushed forth (Fig. 1). Spreading over several miles, it devasted the forest, filled several former collapse craters, became ponded up at the Koa’e Fault cliff, and flowed away. It drained back almost to the original surface … Read More