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Pele's Halloween

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Uploaded on Oct 31, 2009

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Molten Lava Lobe

Yellow-hot lobes of pahoehoe are putting a new layer of land over other recent additions.
Island of Hawaii, October 28th, 2009

The shapes and formation of molten lava are endless and artful!

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Uploaded on Oct 29, 2009

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Tribute to Kumu Hula George Naope – Uncle George

A living legend in his own time, Kumu Hula George Naope died yesterday at eighty-one.

A beautifully gregarious and talented man, Uncle George, as he was best known, was very instrumental in bringing world recognition to Hawaiian hula. He attended the annual Merrie Monarch Festivals in Hilo every year. He could light up a crowd by simply appearing. He loved to sing and play the ukulele to everyone’s delight. He touched the lives of countless people with his spirit and aloha, including mine.

I took this photo of him at the 2005 festival.

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Uploaded on Oct 28, 2009

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Spectacularly Explosive Fireworks Display -- Pele Style

This photo, taken at the Civil Defense coastal viewing area last night, does not fully convey the amazing explosions of raw lava sheets and tephra ejected dramatically high into the air from the entry point at Waikupanaha last night. Those molten rocks are ejected for hundreds of feet into the air - this is a very large eruption for a lava ocean entry point. The sky was alight with this show off & on for many hours and reportedly also seen from many miles down the coast at Seaview.


This coastal eruption was likely set into motion by a series of lava bench/delta collapses. The bench has been forming without any major collapses for over six weeks and was recently reported by geologists as being very thick and wide, which could easily create such fireworks when it cracked under stress, allowing raw molten lava to be squeezed rapidly up these cracks and ejected as wide sheets of yellow-hot lava. Seawater rushing into these fissures would add additional firepower to the situation.

Below I have added another two images from last night: one more view of the explosive activity, and a river of lava moving along near the trailhead to the coastal lava viewing area. It has been an exciting few days out there!

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Uploaded on Oct 26, 2009

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