VOLCANOES AND LAVA TUBES

One of the areas everyone should visit if they go to the Big Island is Volcanoes National Park. You travel through miles and miles of lava fields to get to the active volcano of Kilauea. Because of how active this volcano is, you can no longer drive around the rim of Kilauea Caldera, so you only get to view the volcano's crater from a distance. Even so, it is very impressive - the size of the crater being enormous! Smoke billows from the bottom of the crater, appearing white by day, but red at night as the lava glow shows on the white smoke. The smoke contains high levels of sulfur dioxide, and there are warnings to keep your car windows closed when you drive in certain areas of the park.

This white plume glows red at night.

               

This photo shows a bit more of how far away you are when viewing the crater, yet it is massive even from a distance!           

While we were in this area, we also visited and hiked the short distance in to an underground tunnel called the Thurston Lava Tube. A lava tube is caused by hot lava which is still flowing beneath the surface of lava which has already cooled and hardened, forming a long tube-like cave. 

This is the photo I took inside the Lava Tube

This is the information given at the beginning of the hike.

Now, I am sure you are wondering if I am painting, and I can say that "YES!", I have been able to snatch a few hours in the studio. Here is a teaser of what I've been working on. :-) Not a great photo, but that's okay...it's not showing a work that is finished yet. Soon, though, soon...