Kilauea, Hawaii

Virtual field trip

Your virtual field trip will start as a helicopter flight around the Kupaianaha lava lake. You will be so close to the liquid lava that the heat radiation through the helicopter's windows could be strongly felt, if you were really there! A brief flight will then take us to a «skylight», a hole in the lava tunnel's roof.

Further down Kilauea's gentle slope we shall proceed on foot and watch some lava oozing out to the surface. Finally we watch the spectacular entry into the waters of the Pacific Ocean. In order to get the best views we once more take to the air. The following, strongly simplified cross section shows all the views of the virtual field trip:

1, 2
lava lake
On the left:
Pu'u'o crater;

3
skylight
4-9
Pahoehoe
lava flow
10-14
lava entering ocean,
creating phreatic explosions
and building up lava deltas
As you go along you can click this symbol any time to call up a map for orientation.