Volcanic history of Hawaii

Image, edited by Wenyuwan Zhou Jianping rwzkhouchuang @126.com.

"Once I took part in a hiking group, and I felt very hot when I walked. After jumping, I found that the ground where I was standing was broken and there was flowing lava below. Later, when I went back and found that the soles were baked, I threw away my shoes. "

This is a story told by a volcano guide on the island of Hawaii.

1927, when the Royal Hawaii Hotel opened in Waikiki Beach, Hawaii was already a tourist attraction. At that time, it only changed from a small kingdom in Polynesia to a territory of the United States. In the past 100 years, with the development of tourism and the rendering of literary works, Hawaii has been labeled as shaved ice, swimming pool, hula dancing and creative playing, which is a warm and beautiful "rainbow state". The hotel can arrange everything from paragliding to snorkeling and whale watching, and countless tourists from the United States and all over the world come here to tan themselves into cooked shrimp on the beach.

In contrast, Shiloh, a small town on the east coast of Hawaii Island, is not the painting style of sunny beach in people's impression, and it is quiet and closed. The low hut was painted cream, pink and bright blue. There are not many attractive hotels and resorts, only the homestays opened by local people deep in the island are spacious enough to drive for dozens of minutes to eat a popular poke meal in Hawaii. The old shop in the port has been open since the 1970s. Grandma, the waitress, will add a spoonful of cream, coconut syrup and macadamia nuts to the pancakes.

Under the dark clouds, the blue sky is rare, let alone sunbathing. Walking in Shiloh, in addition to those country soap opera studios, there are several humid tropical rainforests. The seaside is too cold and windy to go into the water. When the waves recede, a string of bubbles is particularly clear on the dark beach. Black fine sand is polished by volcanic lava after thousands of years of erosion.

The island chain of the Hawaiian Islands comes from the same hot spot. Hundreds of volcanoes were born at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean and grew when they erupted. When they grow above sea level, they will change from explosive eruption to gentle and slow lava activity until they are eroded and precipitated. Now the volcanoes on the rest of the islands are silent, and the only three active volcanoes are located on the largest and youngest island of Hawaii.

Two of the three active volcanoes-Mauna Loa volcano and Kilauea volcano-are all within the scope of the hawaii volcanoes national park, and the slogan on the official website is "Fire is born, sea is born". The former is more than 4000 meters above sea level and has a life span of at least 700,000 years. The latter is the most active volcano in the world. Compared with other smoky volcano tours around the world, "close contact with magma" has always been a major feature of national parks and even Hawaii Island.

In fact, just one year before my visit, Kilauea volcano experienced a violent eruption. So now it's quiet enough to stop moving completely, and there is no flowing magma on the whole island. More than half of the national park is blocked, and only a few wellheads can be seen through the thick steam. Those who walk along the trail of lava flow, travel at night to find the flashing light in the gap, or even fly to the magma mouth by helicopter to watch the sea water and flame blend up close can only guess from the photos of their predecessors and tour guides.

However, the tour guide will improvise. The specific route of the national park is impassable, but there are new attractions to visit: a place that has not appeared in the Raiders-because it was still a sea a year ago.

It took three months for the lava from the volcano to trickle down to the sea and engulf a park in the southeast corner of Oshima. The cooled lava brought several inches of brand-new land. Now the road has been cleared, solidified magma is still surging in the estuary, and the rock mass still leaves traces of rolling, some of which are obviously layered and slightly red. People can go to the middle and touch the hardened and cooled wreckage.

The volcano brought several hot spring pools. Toads and eels live in small puddles, and there are many people in the larger pool, only showing their heads. The locals buried the germinated coconuts underground, and rows of young leaves emerged from the volcanic sand.

During the journey, there are not many times when you can intuitively feel "time". When you are surrounded by solidified magma, you can have many fantasies. For example, the dragon around the flame roared forward, solidified at the moment of rushing to the sea, and the scattered scales turned into fragments and powder, which were washed by the waves again and again.

The tour guide also mentioned that when the volcano is active, it is necessary to detect the direction of magma flow, so the route and scene are different every day, but the caves and relics we see at the foot may come from an eruption a few years ago or earlier. Coconut seedlings gradually grow into trees, and lava is washed into black sand little by little. This interweaving of transformation and solidification is very interesting and fascinating.

Especially under the volcanic lifetime of100,000 years.

Coconut bud

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park

The cloudy seaside of Shiloh

Hawaiian fruit on the ground

Shiloh's market

skill

There are airports in Kona on the west coast of Hawaii and Shiloh on the east coast. There are few flights to and from the United States, and you can transfer from Honolulu, the state capital.

At the end of 2020, Kilauea volcano was observed to be active, and a new lava lake appeared, but it stopped five months later. There are live photos of the crater in official website National Park. If you can see magma, please consult official website National Park or local travel agency.

Although you can go by car, I suggest you find a tourist route on Catway Eagle or Yelp. Tour guides know where there are active magma or representative relics, and they will also give explanations on geology.

Other attractions on Hawaii Island include: Sunrise on the observation deck at the top of Mount Monaque, the southernmost tip of American territory, a matcha green beach, the famous snack Mauna Loa Hawaiian fruit factory, and some conventional island projects on the west coast, which are suitable for arranging trips for at least 2-3 days.