Gallery: Lava Features
This picture
shows the formation of a littoral cone. Lava had been flowing through a tube
into the ocean, when a sudden bench collapse allowed seawater to enter the
tube. This spectacular fountaining resulted.
A lava tube
starts out as a flow, but the sides of the flow cool and harden, resulting
in a tube-shaped insulating layer that allows for efficient flow of the remaining
lava within. When a portion of the insulating layer breaks open, it is called
a skylight, and the molten lava can be seen flowing beneath.
An aa flow
surges down the pali above Kamoamoa. A common misconception is that aa moves
more slowly than pahoehoe; actually, the fastest flow recorded in Hawaii was
aa. In this photo, the face of the flow is about four meters high. Note the
cooler rubbly clinker that rides above, and is buried beneath, the molten
interior.
The interaction
between lava and water is seen in this photo, shot at dusk. A pahoehoe toe
is just breaking out from a cooling lava flow, and making its way along a
black sand beach. The toe will then be rapidly quenched by ocean waves, until
pressure builds up again and another toe breaks out.
This
photo shows a large pahoehoe field in the background.The field is inflating
as new lava from upslope pushes beneath the crust. When pressure from this
new lava builds up, it breaks through the solid crust and flows out.
The
formation of a pahoehoe toe is seen in this picture, as a new lobe breaks
through the existing hard crust.
Lava
that has been concealed in a tube is seen jetting out into the ocean, forming
a fire plug that cools as it lands on the beach below.