crater — 2015 — The 21st Century Matriarch

Chain of Craters Road extends from the Kilauea Caldera down to the sea in Hawaii’s Volcanoes National Park – an elevation change of about 3,700 feet in just under 19 miles of roadway. There are stops along the way….and some ‘road trip’ type pictures through the car’s windshield.

The eye is drawn to the plants that are surviving on the lava – ferns and grasses

And epiphytes covering trees that are not doing so well.

Any color change from black or gray is noticeable. This is a ‘lava tree’ where lava surrounded a tree and cooled enough to retrain the shape of the trunk before the tree burned away completely.

Sometimes there are collection of glassy blobs – shiny and different colors from the surrounding lava.

The color differences may be caused by different cooling rates or mineral content of the lava.

There are craters along the road. Some are quite old with light gray lava and tress clinging to the sides.

And then there is a stretch where there is fresher lava on both sides of the road. Mauna Ulu is the background of this picture.

As we drove down the cliff to the sea – it was clear where lava falls has gone over the surface and down to the sea.

There was a road cut through one such flow.

Seeing this – I wondered why the majority of Hawaiian beaches are not black sand!

Previous Hawaii Posts:

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

It's official: Workplace rudeness is contagious and Kids expecting aggression from others become aggressive themselves - For some reason the results of these two studies seemed similar to me. They both found that our environment - and expectation of our environment - have impacts on our own behavior.

This New Map Shows Your Risk of Catching Lyme Disease - Maryland it in the dark blue - not a surprise. I hear often enough about people in our area discovering they have Lyme Disease. Wearing long pants tucked into socks is difficult when it is a hot day.

Iron: A biological element? - Much of the iron of our planet was deposited by bacteria living two and a half billion years ago. At that time in Earth’s development there was little oxygen in the atmosphere and many organisms metabolized iron instead of oxygen.

Intensive End-Of-Life Care on the Rise for Cancer Patients - As the population in the US ages, end-of-life discussion are important to more and more people - not just cancer patients.

What Happens to Your Blog when You Die? Why You Need to Appoint a Social Media Executor NOW - Another ‘end-of-life’ consideration…then one developing because of modern technology.

Let This Video Show You How Air Bubbles Form, Rise, and Erupt in Sand - For anyone that has ever wondered about craters or sand…..high speed video captures more than the eye can detect.

Organization of North America's bird species: List updated - The update includes some reorganization…but also some species new to North America!

E-waste: What we throw away doesn't go away - A problem for just about everywhere in the world…and it is about more than old phones and computers.

5 Simple Tips to Turn Your Yard into Pollinator - Some good basic tips.

The Women Who Rule Pluto - Good to hear that there are technical women behind parts of the Pluto stories in the news recently.