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
