No, this is not about soccer, this is about the Hawaiian goddess of fire, queen of volcanoes. Hawaiians think that volcano Kilauea is the home of Pele, the goddess of fire, who is venting her anger from time to time. Apparently she’s currently not at home, though.
Kilauea has the world’s longest ongoing eruption, lasting from 1983 to today. You shouldn’t picture this eruption as one long-lasting “lance of fire” though, explosions are only reserved for times when the pressure of upcoming magma gets too high. Most of the times lava is just cooking in the main crater and overflowing from time to time, and also coming out on the side of the main volcano in so called rift zones. In general that’s great for tourism, as lava from one side crater has been flowing down continuously (in different directions) into the sea from 1983 to 2013. It’s not so great for the villages in Puna district which were overflown or threatened of being covered by the hot masses. Unfortunately (for me) it is a very quiet time currently. Lava from the side crater is flowing at such a slow speed, that it’s already pretty solid on the surface. Moreover it is creeping into a remote forest area, which is not accessible by foot or car. You can only see the glow from a crater within the main crater at night, the actual lava surface being too low to be seen from the overlook spot.
Volcanism is also the origin of Big Island’s highest mountains, Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea. Mauna Loa doesn’t look very impressive from afar for lack of a proper summit. It just seems to be one very wide, gently sloping mountain. Looks can be deceiving, though: Mauna Loa is actually the most massive mountain on Earth, roughly 50km in diameter, reaching ard. 4000m in height above sea level and another 8000m down to the Ocean floor. Scientists say that it even pushed down the original Ocean floor due to its’ mass.
Mauna Kea, the slightly higher sibling, is much more interesting. There is actually a road up to the summit, so you can drive in roughly 2h from Hilo at sea level all the way to Mauna Kea at ard. 4100m. Hello, altitude sickness! On the top, you’ll find yourself in a truly moon-like landscape. Red and black rocks as far as the eye can see, and only around small Lake Waiau you can find some vegetation. Lake Waiau and the whole of Mauna Kea are sacred places to the original inhabitants of Hawaii. Mauna Kea is also the best place in the world to watch the skies and therefore roughly a dozen observatories have been placed up here, adding to the moon-like atmosphere. The installed light-gathering capacity on the mountain is 60x larger than the Hubble Space Telescope’s, and the astronomical research carried out here is pushing out the frontiers of science. This is where we search for other earth-like planets in the vicinity!
A new, 30m telescope is planned to be built. This telescope would be the largest in the word, having the diameter of a basketball field and roughly 9x the light-gathering power of the currently largest telescopes – if it can be built here. As the original inhabitants regard Mauna Kea as sacred, they don’t want (more) observatories built on the summit, and demand concessions or even try to outright stop the project. They get no sympathy from me. When ancient Hawaiian religious beliefs and modern science clash, I know which one is my religion. Maybe they should ask Pele for help – whenever she’s back.
konrad's world trip 