Hawaii

The Jaggar Museum is named after Dr. Thomas Augustus Jaggar of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The museum is the fulfillment of Dr. Jaggar's dream, a scientist, who adopted the Kilauea region as his home in 1912, and devoted his life to the study of volcanoes. As early as 1916, he proposed creating a museum to help visitors understand how volcanoes work. The Jaggar Museum contains numerous exhibits that explain the history and behavior of Hawaiian volcanoes.

The Museum has large windows which offers an incredible view of Kilauea, one of the world's most active volcanoes, as well as of Halema`uma`u, an enormous caldera that is actively steaming.

The sign of the Thomas Jaggar museum National Park

Walking from the parking lot to the Museum.

The museum is on the left and on the right you People are standing to see the crater.

It is about a 2 minutes walk from the parking area, just follow the crowds and you will see the Halema'uma'u Crater. The crater is about 3,000 feet across and almost 300 feet deep.

The Halema"uma"u Crater expels about 300 tons of sulfur dioxide daily both within the crater and along the rim. Those with breathing or heart problems should avoid this area

We are not allowed to get close to the crater because the sulfur dioxide.

I downloaded this photo to give a idea what the inside of the crater looks like.

The kids watching the crater....

Mauna Loa is the world's largest active volcano.

The summit of Mauna Loa stand 20 miles ahead of this sign, and reaching an elevation of 13,677 feet above sea level, and more than 31,000 feet above the ocean floor. With a volume of 10,000 cubic miles. Mauna Loa is the largest mountain on Earth.

Close look at the different type of lava flows.

On the left we have Pahoehoe (pronounce "pah'hoy'hoy") flows are characterized by smooth, ropy surface and usually are 1 to 2 meters thick. On the right we have Aa (pronounce "ah'ah" flows have extremely rough, jagged surfaces and may be more than 10 meters thick. The dissimilarities between the tow lave types are largely due to the temperatures of the flowing lavas.

Close look at the Aa lava rock

It is written on the side of the picture:

Discovering Hawaii - Hawaii's discoverers must have been awed by the huge islands and fiery volcanoes, surely a place of powerful gods.

Protect your national park: Leave No trace...

This tree is unique to Hawaii. The twisted looking branches and a bright red bloom is called the Ohia tree. There’s an interesting Hawaiian legend tied to the Ohia tree and its flower, the lehua blossom. As you might expect, the legend is tied to the volcano goddess, Pele. The legend says that one day Pele met a handsome warrior named Ohia and she asked him to marry her. The problem was Ohia had already pledged his love to Lehua. Pele was furious when Ohia turned down her marriage proposal, so she turned Ohia into a twisted tree. Lehua was heartbroken, of course. The gods took pity on Lehua and decided it was an injustice to have Ohia and Lehua separated. So, they turned Lehua into a flower on the Ohia tree so that the two lovers would be forever joined together.

The story is a bit "cải lương" (Can't translate this word to English but it is like type of folks song that only have 8 tones) but we like it none the less.

Visit is over... walking back to our bus...

The bus made a really quick stop for people to check out the steam vent. It is very, very hot!

You can watch a clip on you tube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2C_XvSkSlo

Thurston Lava Tube

I never heard of Lava Tube before so what is it? Lava tubes are natural conduits through which lava travels beneath the surface of a lava flow, expelled by a volcano during an eruption. They can be actively draining lava from a source, or can be extinct, meaning the lava flow has ceased and the rock has cooled and left a long, cave-like channel and this is what we are visiting today.