Hawaiian Walkways inHawaii Magazine January/February 2003 "Educational Eruption: Kilauea on the Big Island spews forth an opportunity to study evolution at work." by Sophia V. Schweitzer "A wolf spider, right at your feet," calls out our guide, Phil Barnes, a passionate pony-tailed hiker and teacher with a doctorate in environmental education. He's also the chair of the Big Island Chapter of the Sierra Club. I look down. All I see is the smooth lava, not unlike dried, spilled cake batter. Barnes points, and I suddenly spot the motionless gray arachnid, blending in perfectly in a web of tiny cracks that criss-cross the lava. I wouldn't have marveled over this creature's adaptation to the finer details of a lava flow if it weren't for our guide. Nor would I have understood the differences between the pahoehoe lava I walked upon- "smooth, ropy, gray-black because it's surface reflects the light," as Barnes describes it- and 'a'a lava- "jagged, blacker, with a rough surface." Pahoehoe is hotter,more gaseous and more fluid, so it ripples forward. 'A'a sputters and breaks, Barnes explains further. We have just descended into Kilauea Iki (little Kilauea) crater at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park on the Big Island. On our four-mile trek, we pause en route to take in the panorama of earth in motion. Steam escapes in wisps from the gray crater floor, teasing tentative shoots of sword fern , 'ohelo (a native shrub in the cranberry family) and 'ohi'a (a native tree). We already have three hours of learning behind us . By the end of the day, a honey-mooning couple from Oregon, my partner and I will have received an in-depth course in the evolution of the Big Island , from its first emergence from the ocean a million years ago to its current biodiversity- geology , ethnobotany and cultural history.
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Learning About Lava The four of us have booked and outing with Hawaiian Walkways, a small company that specializes in customized hikes. It got its start in 1984, when Dr. Hugh Montgomery, originally from the Pacific Northwest, decided to leave his psychology practice to dedicate himself to the study and preservation of the natural habitat of Hawaii. Montgomery and other outfitters based on the Big Island such as Hawaii Forest & Trail believe educational and inspirational hiking adventures in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park play a critical role in safeguarding Hawaii's fragile ecosystem. After a brief orientation at the three-dimensional map at the park visitor's center, we board a van and travel down the Chain of Craters Road. "The Hawaiian Islands form from shield volcanoes," Barnes explains. "Kilauea is one of the most active [volcanoes] in the world." Unlike explosive composite volcanoes (or strato volcanoes) on the mainland, such as Mount St. Helens in Washington, a volcano such as Kilauea pushes up from a hot spot of molten magma that rises from deep within the mantle of Earth. According to Barnes, the activity of Hawaii's volcanoes slow as the Pacific Plate- islands and all- moves away from the hot spot in a north-westerly direction at a speed of about four inches per year. As we drive through a misty rain forest, a soft rain penetrates thick hapu'u (native tree ferns), tall as trees. A kalij, "an introduced pheasant,"comments Barnes, scuttles away. As we descend from our 4,000 foot-high vantage point to the ocean, the rain ceases, the vegetation changes and the forest gives way to grasses and then a vast barren sea of lava. We cross lava that flowed in 1974 and notice a small crater left behind. "That forms when an eruption collapses into itself after the magma has drained out," Barnes explains. Going with the Flow We enter the desert and learn about Kilauea's East Rift Zone, where the current eruption has been continuously active since Jan. 3, 1983, from a vent known as Pu'u O'o. On cloudless days, Pu'u O'o glows. Barnes explains the lava flows downhill, taking many paths insulated in tubes from hundreds of feet deep to just below the earth's surface. Maintaining temperatures near 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit, the hottest magma in the world travels six miles before plunging into the ocean. There it creates brittle benches and beaches of black sand. Occasionally, a tube pops through the surface before reaching the shore; the magma pulses and forms a crust. From underneath, the flow pushes forth.
Below us, the coastline of Puna and Ka'u unfolds in a haze of fog. Gray-yellow grasses and golden-green shrubs struggle for a foothold on older lava flows. The smell of sulfur suffuses a sage-blue sky. Rain squalls at sea create silver curtains that float toward plumes of volcanic steam. "It could be dangerous," Barnes warns, as he studies the direction of the wind. "Sulfur dioxide reacts with salty water to form an acid as caustic as battery fluid- not something you want to breathe." Minutes later, we hop over a surface that's barely three weeks old. Just a few feet away, broad fingers of glowing lava ooze onward, filling fissures, erasing yesterday's flow, surging, searching. The wind scorches our faces. I smell burning grass and listen to the crackle of a pencil-thin line of fire. A taste of dust, soot and salt fills my mouth. We don't stay long. The fumes are intense; it's unhealthy to breathe them. |  |
Evolution Explanation Does it all begin and end with red-hot magma? Barnes addresses this question later as we head for lunch- thick sourdough sandwiches from Hilo's famous O'Keefe and Son's Bakery (808-934-9334, 374 Kinoole St.), macadamia nut shortbread cookies, and apple bananas and star fruit fresh from Barnes' yard. The spore of fern, seeds brought in by the wind, wings or waves, is an example of how such fragile beginnings of life evolved and adapted to this magma over a span of about 70 million years as the Pacific Plate was formed. Being in such utter isolation from other habitat, more than 90 percent of Hawaii's native flora and fauna cannot be found elsewhere. Barnes points out a thornless rose bush: "Species evolving in the islands didn't have natural enemies; they didn't have to compete." Without defense systems so common to their continental cousins, native nettles don't sting , and mints don't smell like mint. Of course, we were in luck to witness the lava flow. But if we haven't seen it and explored, instead, a lava tube or spent more time in the caldera of Kilauea Iki, would I have learned less? I doubt it. I am as eager to know about native plants such as 'a'ali'i with its papery seed pots that the Hawaiians used for lei; Polynesian food crops; and exotics that were introduced in later days. As we hike the crater, Barnes points and explains. He tells the legend of the lehua blossom, how Pele turned a man into an 'ohi'a tree after the rejected her for another woman, and gives us a sampling of seismic activity measurement technologies. Yes, scientists can accurately predict an eruption by observing any swelling, tilting and heating of the earth. My partner sighs with relief. At the bottom of a crater, we are relatively safe....at least today. As we climb out of the crater, kahili ginger with its red stamen and fragrant yellow blossoms surrounds us. A red-feathered apapane- a native Hawaiian honeycreeper that possibly evolved from finches blown in by hurricanes thousands of millennia ago, Barnes explains- calls out. Birds like apapane may be threatened by alien species, such as kahili ginger, that suffocate its native habitat.
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