Kilauea Summit No Stranger to Eruptions
The entire floor of the caldera is covered either by lava flows erupted since 1885 or the Keanakako`i Ash Member which erupted most recently in A.D. 1790 (Image Courtesy USGS).
Even with the steam plume rising from the Halema`uma`u Crater, some visitors to the Kilauea Summit are unaware of how many eruptions have taken place in the Caldera. Over the past 200 years or so, the entire floor of the massive Kilauea Caldera has been covered by either lava or ash eruptions. Visitors who came to the Summit in the late 1800′s, including Mark Twain, reported seeing sloshing and churning lava lakes. Even now a lava pond fills and empties in the Halema`uma`u Crater, though only a glow from that lake is visible at night.
The map above is a reminder of the tremendous geologic forces at work, shaping, destroying and remolding the Summit landscape. It is also a reminder that if we want to truly get the full experience of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, we need to come back again and again. No day is ever the same!
- The plume coming from the Halema`uma`u Crater is a reminder of the dynamic power of geology at work. (Photo Courtesy USGS).
