Day 3:  September 8, 2004

Reporting:

Daphne Crane, Matthew Brown, Bettina Allmann (group 1)

Crater Rim Trail; Halema'u ma'u Trail; bottom of caldera Ð Byron Edge Trail; offtrail following eastern edge of Caldera; up Lava Wash; South to Keanakako'i Ash member bluff; Crater Rim Trail; Keanakako'i Overlook; KMC

Support Files:   A plot and the location of the overall hiking track is given in Figure 3-1 and Table 3-1, respectively

The first stop was at the Kilauea Caldera crater's southeast wall next Keanakako'i Crater. There was a lav flow that emerated from a fissure eruption above the Caldera. This eruption occurred in 1971, before the formation of the 1974 Kilauea lava lake. Both types of flow mechanism are present, junky A'A' and smooth Pahoehoe flow. The flow started out as Pahoehoe and developed some A'A' on the way down beside the crater wall. The main evidence for this is the presence of the some smooth Pahoehoe junks (~10-20cm) in the A'A' flow.

The 1974 lava flow created a bath tub ring around the magins of the Kilauea Caldera.

This section, below the 1971 flow, of the bath tub ring is thicker than the rest of the ring.

The size difference is caused be the 1974 flow flooded a shelf formed by the 1971 flow.

'A'a and pahoehoe flow Dayna Cordano

'A'a and pahoehoe flow Bettina Allmann

'A'a and pahoehoe flow Bettina Allmann

The second stop is located approximatedly a 100m south of Event 1. The lava surge in this area is from the same 1971flow as event 1. The main difference in this section of the flow is the appearance of "dripping wax" off the side of the cliff. This texture could only be formed by the radiated cooling of a small amount of lava as it flowed over the edge of the cliff.

Pahoehoe drip castle Marcel Croon

Pahoehoe drip castle Matt Brown

Keanakako'i Lava Wash

We arrived at the mouth of a very glassy and solid lava wash that flowed from the upslope fissure down to the Caldera floor. The lava in the wash originated from a 1974 eruption, which covered a prevoius lava wash formed in 1971. The power and magnitude of the surge is shown by the splash marks left of the sides of the channel. If this was a river of water, it would be classified as a class three or higher rapids. At the mouth of the channel we also observed that the lava lake being formed at the same time flowed back up the channel.

Lava Wash Jenny Duncan

Standing lava wash Jaime Ricci

Drips of lava from lava wash Bettina Allmann

The hill overlooking the Lava Wash was covered in pyroclasts that were deposited by the final 1954 eruption of Keanakako'i. The clast were a mixture of vitric and lithic. The spherical vitric clasts are known as Pele's Tears. These are droplets from a lava-fire fountain solidify as they fall through the air. The tephra become elongated and tear shaped. The tails of the tears become streched to form crystalline fibers known as Pele's Hair.

Pele's Tears Matt Brown

We arrived at a bluffside west of Keanakako'i Crater and observed the stratigraphy of the series of pyroclastic eruptions occurring from the early 1500's to 1790. The age of the deposits was determined by Carbon-14 dating. The eruptions that caused these deposits are different from eruptions normally associated with Hawaiian volcanoes. Instead of an eruption with very fluid flowing lava, these were explosive events relative to an event like that of the Mt. St. Helens. These eruptions are caused by external volatiles, such as water, seeping into the hot magma chamber.
The class was instructed to map the outcrop and make a profile of the sedimentation of the ash member.
 

Peter Schiffman in front of Keankako'i ash Unknown

When the class was finished with the exercise, we hiked around the east side to Keanakako'i Crater Overlook and then hiked back to the camp.