Kilauea Forest Flow July 23, 2010

NOTE: Some relief has been brought to the residents of Kalapana with a pause in the eastward flow and better control of the people going through the residential areas. Several locked gates have been added with keys given to the residents and a security guard is now working extended hours to control entry into the area. I will be visiting the areas to the west of the residential areas and up the pali.
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Join me for a walk in the forest as lava slowly advances near Highway 137 in Kalapana. See what I see, hear what I hear. You will have to imagine the heat and the smell of the smoke. A fire set off by the advancing lava had already burned most of the underbrush several days before. The lava was now burning the deep accumulation of needles from the ironwood trees and the bases of the trees.

The flow had stalled for a few days in this area, but was now on the move again towards a residential area to the east. Typically, a flow such as this would have continued on to the ocean less than 1/4 mile away, but a high wall along a fault line was channeling it to the east parallel to the coast.

Recorded July 23, 2010

Additional photos and videos:
http://volcanochaser.smugmug.com/

Eruption Update Info:
http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/

Center for Study of Volcanoes from University of Hawaii
http://www.uhh.hawaii.edu/~csav/

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• lava
• Kilauea
• Kalapana
• Hawaii
• volcano
• eruption

[volcanochaser]

@ReconUnitZero The basaltic lava in Hawaii has some iron, aluminum, and magnesium oxides but in concentrations too low to separate economically. It is mainly used as a building material for roads and construction. Pure sulfur may crystallize in some vents, but also in very small quantities to have economic value.

[Isellboxes185]

Dose it become obsidian

[volcanochaser]

@Isellboxes185 Most lava in Hawaii becomes basalt rock.

[Cheesetoon]

why does everything look so dry?

[volcanochaser]

@Cheesetoon The advancing lava had already set the forest on fire a few days before so there was very little left to burn.

[TheUrbanBanana]

@Isellboxes185 it's funny because he doesn't get the joke :)

[antojikalathinkal]

Kilauea,I feel sorry to the trees.You have seen the real face of earth.......... If the covering flat stones disappear, what will be the result.Formarly we thaught more than 60 percentof earth is water. Now we realising that the 80 percent of earth is lava.......In this earth we are living. The gratest wonder is this, think so......................antoji an India based inventor.

[jugs554433]

@volcanochaser that is soooooooooo coool u shud so do a video of that haha

[volcanochaser]

@jugs554433 Steel melts at 3000 degrees F and lava is only 2000 degrees, so steel cans and other steel objects like sign posts, appliances, cars, etc survive or just buried by the lava flows. Aluminum melts at around 1200 degrees, so aluminum cans go up like matchsticks and disappear mainly because they are so thin.

[jugs554433]

@volcanochaser have u ever like thrown a can into it or somthing? would it melt?

[Slic3R1]

@Isellboxes185 it become Obsidian only if it gets cooled rapidly in water

[ReconUnitZero]

Do any useful minerals or metals come up from lava flows ?

[OzzymanNL]

i will shit in my pants if the lava around me and go nowhere

[daw4142]

so this is why u dont get close or step on it huh