Hawaii Volcanoes National Park
Welcome to the Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park Page. This site is dedicated to providing useful information on Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park. Learn about the park's history and wildlife, discover scenic hiking trails and beautiful campgrounds. Plan a trip or vacation using detailed downloadable maps and referencing our sights guide, check the weather of the area, get the park address and driving directions, and find national park hotels and lodging.
In addition to the volcano there is also rare and exotic flora and fauna and many other things to see and do
Kilauea Volcano in Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park
Who could have known that the fountains of fire that first lit up the night sky on January 3, 1983 would continue to burn with such intensity seventeen years later? The eruption of Kilauea Volcano in Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park continues today as the longest-lived rift activity in Hawai'ian volcano history. For island dwellers, a seventeen-year retrospective on the volcano as both creator and destroyer elicits a mixed emotional response.
Unstoppable in its march seaward, lava leaves few reminders of what was. The park has bid a fond aloha to its Waha`ula Visitor Center, as well as tens of thousands of archeological features, including temple sites, petroglyph fields, and village complexes. Kamoamoa Campground and stretches of Chain of Craters Road lie entombed beneath 80 feet of basalt. Every minute, another 130,000 gallons of molten rock gush from earthcracks on the volcano's flank, enough to pour a lava veneer over Washington, D.C.'s 63 square miles in just five days.
Hawai'i County civil defense administrators estimate the economic loss due to ongoing lava inundation tops $100 million. Unpredictable in their meandering, rivers of lava have consumed 181 homes, a Congregational Church, a community center, and a grid of power and phone lines. Lava has torched more than 16,000 acres of lowland and rain forest, home to rare hawks and honeycreepers, happyface spiders and hoary bats. Today, a visitor anticipating a dip at Kaimu blacksand beach must instead find satisfaction in a postcard view--lava has transformed the palm-fringed crescent bay into a pahoehoe plain.
Every day, the volcano spews more than 2,500 tons of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere, enough noxious gas to fill 100 Goodyear blimps. USGS scientists at the Hawai'ian Volcano Observatory figure Kilauea's emissions are twice as bad as EPA's worst stationary point source polluter. Respirators with canisters designed to filter out hydrogen chloride, sulfur dioxide, and airborne glass particles are standard park ranger issue.
But wherever lava meets the sea, the island grows. In a creative process spanning 80 million years, this land born of the sea and forged by fire inspired Mark Twain to proclaim the Hawai'ian archipelago, "the loveliest fleet of islands that lies anchored in any ocean." Since 1983, more than 550 acres of new land have been added to the "Big Island". Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park grows without political fanfare and without congressional authorization.
Getting There
The nearest major airport is Honolulu International Airport and there are airports at Hilo and Kona on Hawai'i.
From Hilo
Take Highway 11 Southwest 30 miles to the park.
From Kailua-Kona
1. Take Highway 11 Southeast for 96 miles to the park.
2. Take Highway 19 to Highway 11 through Waimea and Hilo for a 125 mile drive to the park.
Transportation
Hilo and Kona Airports are served by inter-island carriers. Some major airlines have direct flights to Kona from the continental U.S. Rental cars may be reserved at both airports.
At various locations you can catch the public bus (Hele-on, phone 935-8241or web page: www.co.hawaii.hi.us go to: What's New. select: Bus schedules ), commercial tour buses, taxis, motorcycles and bicycles are available. No rental vehicles or bicycles may be obtained in the park.
Volcanoes
Volcanos are monuments to earth's origin, evidence that its primordial forces are still at work. During a volcanic eruption, we are reminded that our planet is an ever changing environment whose basic processes are beyond human control. As much as we have altered the face of the earth to suite our needs, we can only stand in awe before the power of an eruption.
Volcanoes are also prodigious land builders - they have created the Hawai'ian Island chain. Kilauea and mauna Loa, two of the world's most active volcanoes, are still adding land to the island of Hawai'i. Mauna Loa is the most massive mountain on the earth, occupying an area of 10,000 cubic miles. Measured from its base on the seafloor, it rises 30,000 feet, approximately 1,000 feet higher than Mount Everest. In contrast to the explosive continental volcanoes, the more fluid and less gaseous eruptions of Kilauea and Mauna Loa produce fiery fountains and rivers of molten lava. These flows, added layer upon layer, produced a barren volcanic landscape that served as a foundation for life. Hundreds of species of plant and animals found their way across the vast Pacific on wind, water, and the wings of birds. A few survived, adapted, and prospered during this time of isolation. The arrival of humans, first Polynesians, then Europeans, and the plants and animals that they brought with them drastically altered this evolutionary showcase, this grand experiment.
Today Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park displays the results of 70 million years of volcanism, migration, and evolution - processes that thrust a bare land from the sea and clothed it with complex and unique ecosystems and a distinct human culture. Created to preserve the natural setting of Kilauea and Mauna Loa, the park is also a refuge for the island's native plants and animals and a link to its human past. Park managers work to protect the resources and promote understanding and appreciation of the park by visitors. Research by scientists at the Hawai'ian Volcano Observatory has made Kilauea one of the best understood volcanoes in the world, shedding light on the birth of the Hawai'ian Islands and the beginning of planet Earth.
Volcanoes attest to the dynamic nature of the earth. Divided into rigid plates, the outermost layer of the earth drifts slowly over the more plastic mantle beneath. Most volcanic activity occurs along the edge of these plates, forming a "ring of fire." The series of volcanoes that include Washington's Mount Saint Helens, Alaska's Katmai, Japan's Mount Fuji, and the Philippines' Mount Pinatubo define the margins of the Pacific plate.
Why are there volcanoes in Hawai'i, which is located in the middle of the Pacific plate? Plumes of magma rise from a "hot spot" deep within the mantle. This fluid charged with gas, melts and pushes its way to the surface, erupting on the ocean floor to create a seamount. After several hundred thousand years and countless eruptions, the volcano rises above sea level to form an island. The volcano continues to grow until movement of the Pacific plate carries the island off the hot spot.
During the last 70 million years the Pacific plate has acted as a conveyor belt, moving the islands northwest off the hot spot at the rate of about four inches a year. The park's active volcanoes, Kilauea and Mauna Loa, continue the island building process that formed the 3,500 mile Emperor Seamount-Hawai'ian Island chain. But they are not the last; to the southeast, Lo'ihi seamount is rising from the ocean floor.
