| Hawaii Volcanoes Photo Gallery |
Photographs by USGS
photo and caption credit
U.S. Department of Interior, U.S. Geological Survey
Visual delights along Mother's Day flow. Only a 20-minute walk from end of Chain of Craters Road, hundreds of visitors to Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park are witnessing lava cascades, slow-moving pahoehoe toes, and inflating flows. Lava viewing doesn't get much better than this! Top: Lava spills into skylight in old tube along edge of southeast arm of Mother's Day flow. Note solitary lava cascade on Paliuli and gas escaping from skylight along active lava tube above Paliuli. Lava trickled into skylight for several hours in late afternoon. Bottom: Lava oozes from inflation crack at leading edge of west arm of Mother's Day flow. This flow is at end of trail from Chain of Craters Road established by park to guide visitors to active flow front. During peak visitation, several hundred people gather at the flow front. Note that many people are dressed inappropriately. Shorts and sneakers afford no protection to heat, and shorts don't protect legs from getting scraped during falls onto the glassy flow surface.
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