Submitted by Blair Files on the 2017 winter session program in Hawaii sponsored by the Department of Biological Sciences…
Our third week in Hawaii began with a short flight from Oahu to Hilo on the Big Island. We were here for a short while to see the volcanoes. I am not sure what I excepted. Sizzling streams of molten lava? Rumbling ground beneath our feet, sending pebbles scattering across the earth? Our visit to Mauna Loa Volcanoes National Park may not have had the dramatic effect many of us had anticipated, but it did leave an impact. We drove through miles of “a’a”, the wasteland of obsidian black rumble left from the last eruption and weathered by the wind. The paved road was mostly new, winding through the hardened lava flow like a river, the only smooth thing for miles. Once atop the volcano, near the crater, we could look down the mountain to the tiny coast line, the fog obscuring the horizon and confusing our perception of the sea. The volcano crater smoked, a constant pillar of steam. Despite the lack of movie lava and theatrics, I was struck with the silent power this thing held over the island. Just look at the roads that have to be constantly repaved or built around the “a’a”, look down the mountain and see the vast swaths of black, dividing the vegetation into little pockets leading to the sea. This wasn’t some ancient threat, no longer a danger to those living below. Mauna Loa is one of the world’s largest and most active volcanoes today. I had never been so close to such a violent force of nature. How easy it is to believe we are in charge of the planet, that we have a say in when nature decides to have its way. I have to say my favorite places are the landscapes that make me feel tiny. It was a humbling experience.