Hawaii - Kilauea volcano: tour photos March 2018
Geologist and VolcanoDiscovery tour guide Dr Ingrid Smet took a small group of travelers on a 7 days exploration of Kilauea shield volcano on the Big Island, Hawaii, from 17 to 23 March 2018. Below you find her photo diary of the VolcanoAdventures tour 'Pele's Fire and Myths' which explores both historic eruption sites of Kilauea as the ongoing volcanic activity at its summit and East Rift Zone as well as local fauna and flora, traditions and mythology.
Check our next group departures if you want to join in on one of our Hawaii volcano adventures and explore these fascinating volcanoes with one of our experienced volcano guides!
Check our next group departures if you want to join in on one of our Hawaii volcano adventures and explore these fascinating volcanoes with one of our experienced volcano guides!
Group photo in the Kazumura caves in front of a double, or tube in tube, lava cave (Photo: Ingrid Sm... [info]
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After arrival in the afternoon our little group meets up and we go to the Jagger Museum lookout to h... [info]
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As the level of the lava lake in Halema'uma'u is once again high, we can occasionally see lava spatt... [info]
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(312 Hits)
After sunset the red glow above the active lava lake emerges with the increasing darkness (Photo: In... [info]
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Although the lava lake itself is invisible to us just below the rim of Halema'uma'u crater, the fier... [info]
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(334 Hits)
Silhouette of an ohia lehua tree against the red glow above Halema'uma'u crater (Photo: Ingrid Smet) [info]
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(320 Hits)
A good breakfast to start our first full day of exploring Kilauea's historic eruption sites! (Photo:... [info]
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Traditional Hawaiian flower garlands, lei, adorn the balustrade of the Kilauea Iki crater lookout (P... [info]
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(292 Hits)
Sunlight falls through the foliage of the fern trees which are present everywhere in the rainforest ... [info]
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(271 Hits)
View from the Kilauea Iki's crater rim down to the floor which represents the now cooled surface of ... [info]
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(267 Hits)
The vent from which the magma was ejected in tall lava fountains (up to 580 m into the sky!) quickly... [info]
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The ohia lehua trees in this part of the Kilauea Iki crater rim were spared from lava bombardements ... [info]
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The Kilauea Iki trail first takes you along the crater rim through the dense rain forest of fern tre... [info]
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(239 Hits)
...before taking you down where you have this view of the crater floor with the 1959 vent in the sco... [info]
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(224 Hits)
We make our way along the edge of the now cooled lava field towards the impressive 1959 scoria cone ... [info]
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(257 Hits)
The Kilauea Iki 1959 lavas carried a lot of gasses, now frozen as vesicles in the cooled rocks, as w... [info]
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Ohia lehua is among the first trees to colonise new lava fields, its bright red blossom being a symb... [info]
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A young ohia lehua tree growing in the 1959 lava flows in the foreground and a forest of older ohia ... [info]
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ON the Kilauea Iki crater floor close to the scoria cone there are large stacks of lava lake surface... [info]
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Exploring the now cooled down 1959 Kilauea Iki lava lake around the vent and scoria cone (Photo: Ing... [info]
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(246 Hits)
The final draining of lava back into the vent cracked and pushed up the lava lake's cooled crust as ... [info]
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(224 Hits)
Steam rises up along some of the cracks in the lava lake's surface, precipitating white mineralisati... [info]
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(231 Hits)
Some of the 'islands' of stacked lava lake surface are covered in these white mineralisations and sc... [info]
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Last look back at Kilauea Iki crater and the path that we just walked across it (Photo: Ingrid Smet) [info]
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The way out of the Kilauea Iki crater is again through a lush rainforest of fern trees (Photo: Ingri... [info]
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(190 Hits)
New leaves of fern trees start out as these rolled up branches covered in incredibly soft woolly tis... [info]
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(210 Hits)
Pink flowers growing on the lava droplets that rained down from tall lava fountains during the Kilau... [info]
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(207 Hits)
After the exploring the 1959 eruption of Kilauea Iki we hae a short visit to some of the water falls... [info]
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Rainbow Falls near Hilo (Photo: Ingrid Smet) [info]
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Hawaii's state flower - the yellow hibiscus (Photo: Ingrid Smet) [info]
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The park around Rainbow Falls also harbours these majestic trees... (Photo: Ingrid Smet) [info]
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(190 Hits)
...which have a maze of vertical branches that come down and help rooting the treese (Photo: Ingrid ... [info]
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We return to Halema'uma'u lava lake before dawn early in the morning of the second day (Photo: Ingri... [info]
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During the night time the red glow above Halema'uma'u lava lake is very strong (Photo: Ingrid Smet) [info]
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The red glow of the lava lake, 1 km away, reflects on the faces on early rise observers and photogra... [info]
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As dawn arrives and the sky gets increasingly light, the lava lake's red glow looses its intensity (... [info]
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Sunrise on the morning of the 10 year anniversary of the return of a lava lake in Halema'uma'u crate... [info]
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Our group watching sunrise above Kilauea's summit caldera and the activity in Halema'uma'u crater (P... [info]
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Although not visible from the Jagger Museum lookout, the level of the lava lake is so high that we c... [info]
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(181 Hits)
When large gas bubbles rise up in Halema'uma'u lava lake and burst through its surface, the lava spa... [info]
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(167 Hits)
Nene, the Hawaiian state bird, going for a morning stroll (Photo: Ingrid Smet) [info]
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The summit of Mauna Loa is often covered with a blanket of clouds (Photo: Ingrid Smet) [info]
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Once the sun is up there is no more red glow visible above Halema'uma'u vent, only a blueish plume o... [info]
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Kilauea's caldera rim is vegetated with tropical forests of ohia lehua and fern trees (Photo: Ingrid... [info]
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The constant high humidity and temperatures is also reflected by these lichen growing on the shrubs ... [info]
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(138 Hits)
Hawaii is the home of vibrantly coloured birds such as this descendant of the finch family, a cardin... [info]
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(151 Hits)
Many birds use the early hours of the day to feast on the nectar of the lehua blossoms (Photo: Ingri... [info]
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'Steaming Bluff' is a section alont the northern edge of Kilauea's summit caldera where hot water va... [info]
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Specially adapted plants grow abundantly in these steam vent pockets of hotter and more humid condit... [info]
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At one location there are also sulphurous gasses rising up from magma at depth, resulting in the dep... [info]
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(134 Hits)
The precipitated sulphur crystals will have a needle like appearance as long as their ambient temper... [info]
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(154 Hits)
Sulphur Banks is a small hide dotted with bright yellow sulphur deposits forming from the volcanic g... [info]
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Sulphur crystals precipitate around an actively degassing fumarole (Photo: Ingrid Smet) [info]
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The droplets found at the sulphur deposits and fumarolic vents are (weak) sulphuric acid from which ... [info]
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(128 Hits)
Photographing the colourful crystals at Sulphur Banks (Photo: Ingrid Smet) [info]
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The ocean front at Hilo, the largest town on the Big Island, during a grey and stormy evening (Photo... [info]
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The town of Hilo has mostly 1 to 2 storey buildings that were constructed in the early 20th century ... [info]
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Colourful grafiti adorns many walls in the centre of Hilo town (Photo: Ingrid Smet) [info]
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On the third day we explore a part of the largest lava cave system in the worl at Kazumura caves (Ph... [info]
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The ceiling of the lava tubes is covered with frozen dripping lavasicles, left behind when the lava ... [info]
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In order to explore the different levels of the complex lava cave we need to climb up and down these... [info]
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Photographing the lavasicles hanging down from the tunnel's ceiling (Photo: Ingrid Smet) [info]
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(132 Hits)
In some parts of the lava tube the dynamics of slowly dripping lava created these delicate lava drop... [info]
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(121 Hits)
Harry giving us a preview of the lava cave dwelling creatures that we might encounter during our exp... [info]
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(133 Hits)
Close up of some very intricate and delicate structures formed by lava and percolating water (Photo:... [info]
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(141 Hits)
Exploring the Kazumura lava caves (Photo: Ingrid Smet) [info]
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The walls in some parts of the lava cave show this interesting texture that was formed during differ... [info]
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(138 Hits)
Studying the textures of the lava tube ceiling and its mineralisations (Photo: Ingrid Smet) [info]
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Kazumura lava cave kitty is glad to see we made it back in one piece! (Photo: Ingrid Smet) [info]
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One of many craters along Crater Rim Drive, each formed during a particular eruption along the East ... [info]
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Standing at the very site where in 1969 the fissure of the Mauna Ulu eruption ripped through the ear... [info]
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The ca 50 year old lava fields of the Mauna Ulu eruption have since been recolonised by the typical ... [info]
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Imprints of their trunks is all that is left of the ohia lehu trees that were growing here prior to ... [info]
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Orchids near the Mauna Ulu lava fields (Photo: Ingrid Smet) [info]
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The small shield created during the Mauna Ulu eruption around the main vent is visible on the horizo... [info]
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(124 Hits)
The 5 years long Mauna Ulu eruption created vast new lava fields, parts of which are hollow tunnels ... [info]
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(124 Hits)
View from the lava fields near the coast towards the pali from which the darker coloured Mauna Ulu l... [info]
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Exploring the lava fields formed during different eruptions from the East Rift Zone (Photo: Ingrid S... [info]
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(117 Hits)
Yellow flowers in the coastal lava fields (Photo: Ingrid Smet) [info]
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Native Hawaiians used the surface of the coastal lava flows for their rock art (Photo: Ingrid Smet) [info]
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Petroglyphs carved into the lava flows by native Hawaiians (Photo: Ingrid Smet) [info]
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When lava flows travel towards the ocean and come down the pali they do so taking the lower grounds,... [info]
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(113 Hits)
By the time we reach the end of the Chain of Craters road the sun has set and the active lava flows ... [info]
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On day 4 we leave early from Hilo and drive down to the southernmost point of the Big Island (and th... [info]
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(106 Hits)
We hike along the coastline of this clearly much drier part of the Big Island towards Green Sand Bea... [info]
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(128 Hits)
Light blue flowers at the southern coastline (Photo: Ingrid Smet) [info]
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(111 Hits)
In the distance we can already see the cinder cone that formed during a rift eruption of Mauna Loa 1... [info]
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Our group in front of the green sands beach scoria cone and bay (Photo: Ingrid Smet) [info]
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(110 Hits)
The layers of the scoria cone are build up of black lava droplets with green olivine crystals, the l... [info]
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(439 Hits)
Green sand beach at the southern coast of the Big Island (Photo: Ingrid Smet) [info]
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Despite it being a small bay inside a cinder cone the waves at Green Sands beach can still be very s... [info]
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Close-up of the green sand at Green Sand Beach, made up mostly of green olivine crystals besides som... [info]
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(119 Hits)
Black Sand Beach is located to the northeast of Green Sand Beach and is entirely constructed of grai... [info]
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Unfortunately, the famous green sea turtles that are usually sunbathing at Black Sand Beach were now... [info]
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Well before sunrise on the 5th day we started our hike towards the active lava flows that were runni... [info]
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Dawn arrives as we get closer to the pali and the red hot glowing lavas that run down from it (Photo... [info]
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(147 Hits)
Group foto upon arriving at a great location at the bottom of the pali where we will be observing nu... [info]
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Sunrise announces another adventurous day on the Big Island (Photo: Ingrid Smet) [info]
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Standing so close to active lava flows is quite a unique experience (Photo: Ingrid Smet) [info]
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(229 Hits)
Fresh lava oozes out from underneath the just cooled crust of an active flow front (Photo: Ingrid Sm... [info]
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Red hot pahoehoe lava oozing out from underneath a recently cooled crust (Photo: Ingrid Smet) [info]
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View from the active lava flows we observed at the bottom of the hill towards the pali where more la... [info]
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(171 Hits)
The active pahoehoe lava flow fronts that we found are advancing right next to an older aa lava flow... [info]
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(184 Hits)
As the crust of a lava flow cools whilst its interior is till moving forward, it gets crumpled and s... [info]
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(184 Hits)
Pahoehoe lava flow channel with quickly forming ropey crust (Photo: Ingrid Smet) [info]
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(173 Hits)
At the front of the pahoehoe lava flow the fresh thin silvery crust gets folded into ropes (Photo: I... [info]
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(173 Hits)
Observing and photographing the flow front of active pahoehoe lava flows (Photo: Ingrid Smet) [info]
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(181 Hits)
Close up of an intricately folded ropey lava crust and its still glowing hot interior (Photo: Ingrid... [info]
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(182 Hits)
Zoom into the red hot and still liquid interior of an active pahoehoe lava flow (Photo: Ingrid Smet) [info]
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(182 Hits)
New lava breakouts occur all the time along different parts of the active pahoehoe lava flow fronts ... [info]
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(160 Hits)
A larger outbreak pours pahoehoe lava onto the older lava fields, its thin crust quickly wrinkling t... [info]
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(169 Hits)
The active pahoehoe lava flows in front of the older blocky (dark brown) aa lava flow (Photo: Ingrid... [info]
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When there is a steeper gradient, new break outs creat fast flowing rivers of molten pahoehoe lava (... [info]
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During the 3,5 hours that we observe and photograph this lava flow front it slowly but surely advanc... [info]
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(153 Hits)
Lava break outs of active pahoehoe lava flows from the 61g flow of the since 1983 ongoing Pu'u O'o e... [info]
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(149 Hits)
The 3 hour long hike across difficult terrain in continuing rain was worth it to get so up close to ... [info]
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Close up of an active lava outbreak (Photo: Ingrid Smet) [info]
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(154 Hits)
Watching the lava flow front change and advance is really mesmerising (Photo: Ingrid Smet) [info]
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(141 Hits)
Philip Ong, our experienced active lava flows guide, trying to dry up a little close to the active l... [info]
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Active pahoehoe lava front flowing down older lava flows and forming the typical ropey crust (Photo:... [info]
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(148 Hits)
We eventually have to drag ourselves away from the active lava flow fronts and start our 3 hour hike... [info]
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(149 Hits)
We now understand much better the formation of intricate textures in the surface of older lava flows... [info]
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(146 Hits)
Hiking back across the older lava flows (Photo: Ingrid Smet) [info]
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The first plants to appear inside cooling cracks of new lava flows are ferns (Photo: Ingrid Smet) [info]
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(145 Hits)
Looking back to the location where we had observed active lava flows for 3,5 hours - in the daylight... [info]
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(126 Hits)
Young ferns growing in between the ropes of a young lava flow (Photo: Ingrid Smet) [info]
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New vegetation in the lava fields: young ferns grow inside the cooling cracks of the lavas (Photo: I... [info]
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(137 Hits)