FIERY LAVA BOILS IN PUU OO CRATER
By Bob Van Leer

   (HILO, HAWAII, MARCH 4, 1993) - Today we explored volcanoes - by helicopter in the morning and bus in the afternoon.

  We continued our tour of the Hawaiian Islands, this morning and docked at Hilo, Hawaii, referred to as the Big Island, is large enough to be considered as two regions instead of just one island. Hilo, on the east coast, I the rainy side. Kona, on the west side, I more of a place for tourist.

   Betty and I went on hour-long helicopter tour of the newest eruption area of Kilauea volcano. Rather than the volcano erupting at its top, new eruptions occur through side vents, sometimes miles away. There have been no eruptions from the main caldera in 20 years.

  Puu Oo started erupting Jan. 3, 1983, and has been erupting intermittently since. The vent is now a crater filled with molten lava. We circled around the crater several times watching the burbling, splashing lava at about 2500 degrees temperature and hoped none of the splashes reached our height. Our pilot said the splashing was 50-100 feet high. On one side of the crater was a new flow, molten lava pouring over an edge like a fiery waterfall. The flows were quite visible but there were plumes of gases whirling around and the whole effect, with the splashing molten lava, was like a scene from some versions of Hell.

  Leaving Puu Oo, our pilot descended down the lava flow that reaches miles down the mountain out into the Pacific Ocean. On top the lava flow appears black and calm. But there are plumes of gases rising from cracks. And occasionally the top crust has cracked open revealing the interior to be still red hot and glowing.

  The lava flows that started in 1983 reached the sea, seven miles down the flank of Kilauea in 1986. The flow is now five miles wide and has added hundred of acres to the size of the island as it reaches the sea and creates new land.

  Property damage is near $100 million. But there was plenty of warning and no loss of life. The coastal entrance and visitor center of Hawaii Volcanoes National park was overrun by lava and burned in 1989. The village of Kaimu was covered in 1990. So far, 180 homes have been destroyed. A black sand beach was destroyed but a new one has been created.

  We got back to the ship just in time to join the rest of our party for but tour of the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.

  The park takes in the summit area of Mauna Los volcano 13,677 feet high and extends east 20-25 miles to the caldera of Kilauea volcano and another 10 miles south to the ocean. The park extends along the ocean and about 25 miles.

  The park had two visitor centers, but is now down to one - at Kilauea caldera, in addition to wiping out the coastal visitor center of the park, the recent lava flows have buried or blocked off 12 miles of park road. Some sections of road are buried more than 300 feet deep.

  According to information from the park service, the Hawaiian islands were built from a source of magma under the sea over a period of 25 million years. The islands rest upon a portion of the earth's crust known as the Pacific Plate which moves northwest at the rate of two to three inches per years. As the islands drift, they lost contact with their source of magma and the volcano becomes extinct. The older islands, as they drift northwest, are progressively destroyed. In the course of time they will disappear into the sea. But the time they are speaking of is measured in millions of years.

  The land where the destroyed homes were located is still privately located. Our guide said a slogan of the local real estate people is, "Buy the land while it's hot".

  Hawaii is by far the biggest island of the chain but has a population of only 120,000. The state as a whole has a population of 1.2 million. Most of the people live on Oahu.

  The ship got underway at 9 p.m. to sail around the south of the island to the Kona coast. There is no harbor there that will handle a ship of this size so we will anchor and go ashore in lighters.

  For the first time this trip we stayed up until after 1 a.m. Our cruise ship sailed a mile or two off the southern coast of Hawaii and we were privileged to see the lava flow from the volcano at night. There was a river of fire all down the mountainside ending in a cloud of sulphurous steam as the red-hot lava poured into the Pacific Ocean. We could smell the steam as far out as we were. We will be tired in the morning but this was a sight we're not likely to see again, how the world was born.