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Tue. January 11, 2000
Elusive Pele
With little lecture to hold us all back my class and I loaded ourselves into the vans and drove back down the Chain of Craters Road to the active flow area. For safety and certainty everyone embarking on the journey out to the flow dawned a bright orange traffic director type vest and white hard hat. I say safety as well as certainty because in the event a fall or some kind of explosion the important part would be protected. Not only that but Dr. Benham could easily distinguish his students from the riff-raff that take it upon themselves to hike out to the flow. We spaced ourselves out in a single file line and followed our leader's cautious and experienced steps. We trotted over hardened lava that has only resided there for around five years (or less). From one small ridge of cooled material to the next we walked. Every step taken sounded forth a crunching sound like that of an enthusiastic spoon being shoved into a bowl of flaky cereal. Closer we came to the flow and signs of it began to show up more heavily on our senses. Flaming trees on the pali overlooking our position could be smelled as a sure sign that they were being attacked by molten material. Small shoots of steam rose out from small holes and cracks in rock nearer to the active flow. Sulfur's pungent scent mixed with the unusually fresh air on the hike. The plume we had yesterday viewed from a safe (and somewhat boring) distance of about one-and-a-half miles was now a much larger and closer feature. The deadly mix of steam and hydrochloric acid wafted up from over an edge of land that jutted into the sea. We stopped at a point where piles of cracked lava radiated heat enough to bend light in the atmosphere and decided to turn makai, hoping to find views of flowing, red hot lava. Near the ocean we started breathing in gases that didn't feel totally comfortable in my lungs. We stood near an edge that led straight down to an area that comprised the current flow with no glowing lava in sight. Dr. Benham wandered around a bit before deciding to leave the
dangerous and slightly ominous spot. I was not at all disappointed in the journey overall. I was, however, happy to head back when we did. The lack of visible lava gave me an uneasy feeling because I felt like it was sneaking past us underground, surprising us whenever it saw fit. Only a few sounds startled me on the return trip. One was a loud "thud!" type sound that came from inside of one large mound of cooled lava and a cracking sound that accompanied a small break in the ground below my feet. We took time to stop at an outlook street that is now mostly covered by a past flow. Large waves bulged in the surf below laid down rippling swash marks in the black sand at the base of lava falls. After a brief lunch the vans loaded up and headed back to the camp. Although Dr. Benham thought the hike was somewhat of a skunk, I was in awe that I tromped on material that became part of the surface of the Earth just one or two days before.
The rest of the day was a bit of nothing. Kristin, Matt and I spent some quality time in the laundromat whilst the weather switched from clear, warm and beautiful to rain. That evening we star gazed for a bit then killed the rest of the night with a game of rummy.
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