Kilauea ignites new research

Hachiko

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KA'U, Hawai'i ? Don Swanson hurried across a pahoehoe lava field in the dark, lighting the way with a flashlight and keeping an eye on the fiery red glow of a fresh lava flow two miles ahead, oozing down a ridge scientists call Pulama Pali.

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Don Swanson, the scientist-in-charge of the U.S. Geological Survey's Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, walks over a lava field toward a fresh flow. Swanson has been studying Kilauea Volcano since 1968.
Bruce Asato ? The Honolulu Advertiser


The breeze in his face carried a mix of smells, salt sea air and the distinctive odor of cooled lava with a hint of sulphur, but Swanson was focused on the marked trail.

He began studying the volcano in 1968 but Kilauea still presents Swanson, scientist-in-charge of the U.S. Geological Survey's Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, with new puzzles. On this morning, lava emerged from subsurface tubes fed by Kilauea in an unexpected area, and Swanson hauled a backpack stuffed with camera equipment in at 4:40 a.m. to document the event.

This area of Ka'u is where Kilauea, with its unstoppable production of new land, meets an indifferent sea. It is at once an intriguing tourist attraction, and a place of scientific mystery.

Honolulu Advetiser
 

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