1. Travel

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park

By , About.com Guide

3 of 10

Park Ranger Walk to the Rim of Kilauea Caldera
Park Ranger Guided Tour to the Kilauea Caldera Overlook - Hawaii Volcanoes National Park

Park Ranger Guided Tour to the Kilauea Caldera Overlook - Hawaii Volcanoes National Park

Photos by John Fischer

One such ranger walk will take you across Crater Rim Drive through a tropical rainforest to the very edge of Kilauea Caldera within which is the pit crater of Halemaʻumaʻu.

From beneath this caldera lava begins is flow towards the ocean.

Useful Terms*

  • Caldera: The Spanish word for cauldron, a basin-shaped volcanic depression; by definition, at least a mile in diameter. Such large depressions are typically formed by the subsidence of volcanoes. Crater Lake occupies the best-known caldera in the Cascades.

  • Crater: A steep-sided, usually circular depression formed by either explosion or collapse at a volcanic vent.

  • Pit Crater: A crater formed by sinking in of the surface, not primarily a vent for lava.

*Source: Volcano World

Related Video
Walk Through Lincoln Park Zoo
Downtown Austin, Texas

©2013 About.com. All rights reserved.