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Is anyone here interested in talking about volcanoes?
So, I have a casual interest, but I find them intriguing. I recently took a trip to Lassen National Park, and saw this boiling mud pool. https://imgur.com/n6dV92U. I am planning a trip next year to Pompeii and Herculaneum. Someday, I am interested in seeing volcanoes in Hawaii and Iceland and maybe more. I casually enjoyed HarryTurtledove's survival novels about Yellowstone erupting, although they are not great literature by any means.
What about you? Any cool experiences with volcanoes or bucket list plans that you would like to share? Do you know fun facts? Do we have any geologists in the room? Take this prompt in any direction you would like.
I did study abroad in Costa Rica and visited Poás Volcano while I was there. It is the only active volcano I have ever visited. On the path to the rim, the first thing I noticed (besides the incredible Gunnera insignis growing everywhere) was the intense sulfur smell. Although I knew intellectually it was safe, my instincts rejected is as caustic and urged me to turn back.
Looking into the crater was fascinating to me. All around, the rainforest was thick and lush and full of birds — and then that all stopped abruptly at the deep, desert-like scar of the crater. The rainforest really wants to live; it creeps into every space in Costa Rica, along power lines, across roads, and into houses. But it did not cross the threshold of the volcano. It was strikingly deathly.
Now I live in an area dotted with extinct volcanoes, and I live on one of them. It is very far from deathly. The trees grow taller on this volcano than on the surrounding landscape. The grass is lusher. The topsoil is dark and rich and reaches deeper than I can dig. But there are little reminders that this used to be a place of death. There is a depression near the peak of the hill, and I find scoria when I dig in my garden. I can't fully explain it, but I find it chilling and ghostly, a little like stumbling across artifacts of a once-significant battleground now buried and forgotten under centuries of peace.
I live on the big island in Hawaii. We've had a bunch of eruptions in the last 6 years or so . If you got any questions just ask
I have seen pictures of the new lava flows. Do you feel at risk? How much strenuous hiking is needed to see inside the volcano? Is that even possible or safe these days?
Thanks for answering.
Im a Canadian but I own 2 acres of land on Big Island in Kapoho, below Kilauea, the active volcano on the island. It had two little houses on it, off grid, with catchment water and solar panels for power. It was just a couple of miles up from the ocean in the middle of a dense forest of ironwood trees. Gorgeous spot and I put in a heck of lot of work to finish out the little house and haul in a tiny cabin that became our tiny guest house. The place was rented out while we were gone which was most of the time we owned it.
In June of 2018 in the middle of Kilauea's violent eruption out of Fissure 8 (now called Ahuʻailāʻau), our land was covered by lava. It took about three weeks from the start of the eruption to the day our land was covered, and for most of that time the lava was flowing out of Fissure 8 in a more southerly direction. But lava follows down the path of the lowest land depression and that meant it took a turn, flowed over the Pahoa-Kapoho highway and headed pretty much straight down toward our land. There were daily helicopter flights overhead, as well as the US Geological Service doing mappings a day later to show exactly where the lava was flowing so we watched in slow motion as it crept closer and closer. The day it hit our property, there was an overflight but the chopper was following another more southerly stream where the lava was flowing into the ocean so we didnt get to watch the actual inundation. However I did talk to someone who was there that day and watched our houses and land get covered.
We still own the land however its now covered in 75' of lava. It was still cooling last I checked in with some locals a couple of years ago, but I suspect its cooled by now. I have no reason to go back because all of the things I loved about it are gone. The houses, our cars, the beautiful trees, the flowers, the fruit, the seclusion. Its now just very rough a'a lava, the kind you can't really walk on without endangering your feet and ankles because its sharp and very uneven. From the satellite shots it looks like there is a big depression in the middle maybe 4' or 5' below most of the surrounding land, where the lava river was running right through our land.
And no, everyone asks, but we didnt have insurance on the place. Its crazy expensive to have lava insurance on a house there, and the premiums would cost about 15% of the entire value of the house per year. So in 7 years we wouldve paid the entire value of the house in insurance. We had it 9 years so it wouldn't have even made sense to have insurance. We knew about the risk of a volcano coverage when we bought it, because it was in Lava Zone 2, the second most susceptible land to lava inundation, so it was a calculated and informed risk.
Im very sorry to lose it, I LOVED that place and it was truly magical, I was hoping to retire there, but it wasnt meant to be. There is a Hawaiian lore that Pele, a goddess, inhabits the lava and sometimes she takes back the land from its occupants, she purges it and she decides who stays and who goes and I guess we werent chosen to stay. It is what it is. If nothing else, we have one helluva story about how we lost a place in Hawaii.
Wow! I'm so sorry for your loss. I didn't mean to open live wounds. The destructive power of nature is crazy. Thank you for telling your story.
Nah, no risk at all. The eruption is currently confine to a large crater I'm the Hawaii volcanos national park. I think right now it is paused, so no flowing lava is currently visible. The hike to see the crater floor (when the lava is flowing) is a pretty manageable 30-45 min hike. There are a couple secret spots that are shorter.
6 years ago a rift opened up in a neighborhood in Puna. That was Bout as crazy as it gets. The area was fairly rural "farm lots" but it still caused some destruction and was pretty devastating for the people who live there.
The thing they don't tell you is our island is pretty big and the area where the lava is is pretty small in comparison so the threat is highly localized. For instance where I live it would take me 3 hours to drive to the volcano and it's currently confined to the crater. The other thing they don't tell you is that the island has maps of all the lava zones and areas of high likely hood are known and marked. The aforementioned neighborhood was in the highest lava threat zone. (Go figure)
We visited and left 2 days before the eruption. I was so bummed to have missed it!
That is a bummer! Thie first couple day were pretty fun too. Nice height and activity.
Dude, please go to Yellowstone! It is an unbelievably alien place - LITTERED with geothermal activity. As a science adult who was absolutely obsessed with volcanoes as a kid (because dinosaurs were cool, and every depiction of dinosaurs used to show volcanoes in the background) - it is the best place I've ever been to.
Yep, volcanoes are pretty fantastic and amazing. Isn't it theorized that Yellowstone's volcano (or supervolcano) erupting could kill everyone on Earth? I don't know anything about volcanoes, really (except that it's called magma when underground and lava when on the surface!), but that scene in 2012 was a hell of a thing.
Yes. Fantasy/science fiction writer Harry Turtledove wrote supervolcano eruption about what might happen if Yellowstone erupted. It's not great literature, but at least the first episode in the trilogy was a compelling survival disaster story.
Yes! Though I am not a geologist nor have I ever seen an active one. I did get a chance to drive by Mole Hill in Virginia and was real excited, despite it just being, well, a hill.
Thanks! I didn't know this one. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mole_Hill_(Virginia)
Yeah! It’s a neat little road-trip flyby for sure. My inner 8 year old was psyched to see a real life volcano and then spend the next several hours reading up on dormant volcanoes on the east coast.
I'm a volcanology PhD student researching arc volcanism in Central America. I've visited Etna and Stromboli in Italy during my undergraduate studies.
Nice! I defended back a few years ago. My research was focused on continental basalt and rhyolite volcanism in the US. Central America sounds like a cool place to work!
Thank you. It's great to have an expert here. Are there any volcanoes you particularly look forward to seeing, and are there any books you would recommend to a non specialist?
I'm sorry for the late reply. Yes, I'm looking forward to visiting some Central American volcanoes (e.g. Fuego in Guatemala). As for books on volcanology, I'm hesitant to make a recommendation as I haven't read many popular science books in that area. IMO, discourses on Earth's volcanic activity shouldn't be separated from discourses on other planetary features such as tectonism and discussion on the nature of the crust and mantle. A good textbook is Global Tectonics by Kearey, Klepeis and Vine.
My PhD work was in volcanoes, specifically lava/magma geochemistry. They are pretty neat! I've gotten to travel a decent amount to check them out which was cool (CA, CO, OR, NV, Chile)
While I have been to Hawaii and Volcanoes NP, I have yet to see live (hot) lava in the wild. That is definitely on my list of things to see!
So my interest is in disasters more than volcanoes specifically, but one story that really stuck with me that did involve a volcano was the 2019 Whakaari / White Island eruption. Of the 47 tourists on the island when the eruption occurred, 22 died and 25 sustained - mostly severe - injuries.
Identification of the bodies was complicated by the destruction, and experts such as a pathologist, a forensic dentist, and a fingerprint officer were brought in, and autopsy results were compared to profiles of the victims, including descriptions of appearance, clothing, photos, fingerprints, medical and dental records, and DNA samples.
Mass casualty plans were activated at four NZ hospitals, and 25 people were transferred to the country's four burn units, putting them all at capacity. NZ ordered 186,000 sq in of skin to treat patients who suffered up to 95% of their bodies burned.
One vessel, trying to outrun the ash cloud, stopped to rescue people on the jetty. Once loaded on board, passengers helped the injured as best as they could using water bottles, jackets and other clothing, inhalers, and eye drops until first responders could reach them. Another vessel launched an inflatable to rescue more survivors from the shore. Three commercial helicopter pilots from tour companies flew in to help rescue more survivors. They noted bodies as they worked and, while they were restrained from retrieving them due to the danger at the time, were later consulted when it was safe to return and find the missing.
I discovered this story from running across the Tiktok of Stephanie Browitt who was documenting her recovery. She lost her sister and father to the disaster and suffered burns to 70% of her body. She has had to wear compression garments and bandages for two and a half years, the last piece being a compression mask she had to wear the entire time.
It's weirdly hard. Like it's malleable to the extent that you can push it down and it deforms but there is just a lot more resistance than you would expect. A friend of mine made a knife and he wanted to "forge" part of it in lava. It kinda devolved into him just sorta scooping a glob of it with his knife. What tripped me out was the sound. Even in the glowing red lava it's sounded like ceramic on metal kind of a schink . Very trippy
Hey cool! I grew up around Lassen and am visiting for the first time in years! I am hoping to take my daughter to the summit while we are here.
I'm in. Volcanoes have fascinated me since I first read about Krakatoa an Pompeii.
Cool! So I probably had heard about Krakatoa, but didn't remember. For people like me, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1883_eruption_of_Krakatoa...
Was there something specific you found interesting about Krakatoa? For me, the way Pompeii and Herculaneum are frozen in time is amazing and the story of the survivors trying to leave is just sad.
I read a book about volcanoes when I was around 9 or 10 years old. The idea of how load it was coupled with the cold summer that followed absolutely fascinated me. The same book covered a few other famous eruptions such as Pompeii and Thera.
My college major was in geology, even though my current career has absolutely nothing to do with it. And while I did become interested in the more practical parts of geology, the crazy dangerous stuff like volcanoes and earthquakes have always fascinated me. Heck, these days I live in a country that's rather (in)famous for them.
On a recent wiki rabbit hole, I arrived at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decade_Volcanoes.
Pretty wacky that there hasn't been any eruption from Mount Rainier in the past century and the amount of damage it can cause to the region.
That was a fascinating read. Thank you. I was particularly interested in this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lahar for some reason.
I would highly recommend Cerro Negro in Nicaragua if you're a volcano fan. It's a young and active volcano that is covered in ash and black sand. After climbing to the rim you can sandboard back down.
I have a feeling this topic is going to erupt! /j
Wasn't Bill Gates into Volcanoes? And that being the reason the text screensaver had an easter egg?