Hawaii, the lake of fire

Lake of fire was located, apparently, directly over the vertical tubular channel of the feeding of the volcano Kilauea (the depth of the magma chamber is defined in 50 km). This lake of fire has ceased to exist in 1924, at the end of the mirror it was only 30 meters below the edge. Halemaumau and then quickly sank nearly 200 m. Probably, in the inlet channel suddenly broke ground water, because in the middle of May 1924 there have been powerful burst of steam. In late May, the lava lake was gone. The crater is filled with hardened lava, then had a depth of 400 m, but subsequent lava eruptions depth is gradually decreased to 250 m. Lava caldera is usually wavy or kanatovidnye; on - Hawaii they are called "pahoehoe". Lava with a rough, broken up into separate angular fragments of the surface is called here "aa". On the composition of the lava of Kilauea (and Mauna - Loa) olivine - basalt with 48% Si02. Directly next to the crater of Kilauea - Iki (which means Little Kilauea) erupted in 1959, which started many small earthquakes (up to 1500 a day!). It was a grand spectacle, cascades of lava and lava fountains, Beat to a height of 600 m (the highest of the observed in Hawaii). Lava flowed into the old crater and covered him with a bottom layer with a thickness of 130 m. From the surface of solidified lava long ago, well drilled in 1961, showed that the lava froze to a depth of about 1.1 m from the surface below the temperature of liquid lava was still 1100 °. Therefore, PA photo taken in the infrared, the crater appears very sharply. Emitted during the eruption of small slag and ash trade wind blew to the south - west, where they showered the forest (consisting mainly of Metrosideros) so thick that it dried up; dead trunks of fracture as matches and fell (also in the south - west) a terrible picture complete devastation. The above-mentioned Volcano Observatory was founded in 1912, hence it is much younger than the observatory on Vesuvius, though by no means least is known. Of particular importance it acquired in connection with the recent eruption of Mauna - Loa and Kilauea. There are relatively successful attempts to predict the new eruptions. For this purpose, in particular, serves a network of seismic stations is known to many eruptions preceded by an earthquake (example: Kilauea - Iki, 1959). Highly sensitive tiltmeters permanently record the movement of soil (which may be related to deep magma movement), they note, even insignificant slope of the soil (less than 1 / 10 arcsec, which corresponds to the difference in heights of 6 mm for 15 km!) In addition to geological hazards, nature lover finds there are many other attractions. Not even a specialist - ornithologist with a peek at some of the rarest species of birds of Hawaii. The emblem of the Hawaii Society of Naturalists depicted Hawaiian (or "Sandwich") geese (Branta sandvicensis), which are generally the rarest bird on earth, in 1940 there were only 30 -50 of these birds living at liberty despite the lifestyle of all the other geese - in the porous lava slopes AIDP - Loa above the timber line. On the black slopes of Kilauea crater can be seen snow - white tropical birds (Phaeton lepturus); she bred here, but eats fish, which she had to catch at least 15 km from the nesting sites. Frequently encountered and the American golden plover (Pluvialis dominlca); these birds derive their young in Siberia and Alaska, but 10 months of the year hold on the Hawaiian Islands. A long way in a 3000 km overcome in 48 hours is even impressed with the modern tourist, even though he himself delivers a jet from California to Honolulu even faster.