Volcanoes Hawaii

Fiery tongues of lava from Kilauea Volcano have ravaged this coastal community. But compared to some of its cousins around the world, the Hawaiian volcano is downright polite. "At least it gives you time. It lets you take what you want, and you can watch it," said Leslie Doctor, who stood mesmerized as the searing lava bore down on his family's home.

A 26-year-old Navy man was rescued after he fell 85 feet into the summit crater of Kilauea Volcano in Hawaii while trying to retrieve his baseball cap, park officials said. After he was pulled from the crater, Lt. j.g. Scott W. Larson walked to a waiting ambulance and was taken to a hospital for treatment of a broken toe, cuts and bruises. A paramedic and park ranger were lowered by rope and harness to retrieve Larson from a tree that had broken his fall, and all three were raised to safety.

Star of the Sea Church was moved as a lava flow burned through the heart of this picturesque beach town Friday, more than seven years after Kilauea Volcano began its latest eruption. The flow picked up speed and advanced more than 200 yards overnight, but so far it has bypassed the Kalapana Store and Drive-Inn and the Kalapana Mauna Kea Congregational Church. The lava was moving behind both structures, and was beginning to rise along the Congregational church's wall that abutted a meeting hall.

The plume of molten rock that formed the Hawaiian Islands extends all the way through the Earth's mantle to its core, a full 1,800 miles, researchers from UC Santa Cruz report in today's Nature. Using seismic waves from earthquakes to perform a kind of computed tomography like that used in hospitals, Earth scientist Thorne Lay and his colleagues determined that the molten rock flows horizontally across the surface of the core before rising straight up to the surface.

Two people fell into an intensely hot natural steam vent at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and one became trapped and died. "It took us quite a while to get her out. We couldn't get within 10 feet of her because of the scalding heat," said Jim Martin, the park's chief ranger. The body of Elizabeth Ann Matsch, 24, of Boulder, Colo., was retrieved early Tuesday. John Schnorr, 25, of Seattle, did not require hospitalization. The two, both volunteer workers for the U.S.

Residents of Kalapana Gardens, on Hawaii, were packing to leave as lava from Kilauea Volcano came within 50 yards of five houses, Hawaii County Civil Defense officials said. Authorities said that one stream of molten lava had moved 200 yards during a 12-hour period and was picking up speed. Since Monday, 57 of the 125 homes in the tract have been evacuated.

Lava from Kilauea Volcano torched two more homes in this coastal Hawaii Island community. A fiery stream of molten rock moved through the Kalapana Gardens subdivision early Tuesday and incinerated a one-story frame house, Civil Defense officials said. The lava overtook another home late Monday. The lava was flowing eastward, toward the heart of the tract, and authorities said that 120 other houses are in or near its current path.

Searing lava from Kilauea Volcano reached the ocean, sending up billowing clouds of hazardous steam. The lava also threw a noose around the only store and remaining church in a remote rural community of Kalapana on the island of Hawaii. The steam, called laze, since it is a lava-generated haze, poses a potential health hazard because the fiery rock hitting seawater generates acid fumes.

A lava flow from Kilauea Volcano crossed Kalapana Bypass Highway on Tuesday for the third time in about four months and headed toward the sea, a Hawaii County Civil Defense spokesman said. The lava moved slowly to the southeast but no homes were in its path, spokesman Wendell Hatada said. The highway was closed Monday afternoon when the lava flow moved to within 200 yards. The highway was cut by lava twice late last year and was reopened in February after temporary repairs.

A lava flow from Kilauea volcano bore down on homes in a Hawaii island housing area Thursday, forcing authorities to evacuate several families and put other residents on alert. "Unless there is a dramatic change over the next hour or so, we're going to lose a home in Royal Gardens" housing area, said Harry Kim, Hawaii island Civil Defense director. The slow-moving, 300-foot-long flow entered the southeastern part of Royal Gardens on the southeastern coast of Hawaii island.

Lava flowing from the Kilauea Volcano toward the ocean Tuesday destroyed a 700-year-old temple that had been used as a place of human sacrifice. Lava had begun inching toward the Wahaula Heiau, one of the state's oldest temples, over the weekend. By early Monday, the red-orange lava had covered a five-foot outer wall, and it eventually engulfed the temple, leaving only the top of its walls visible.

Lava from Kilauea Volcano began to pour over the walls of a 700-year-old Hawaiian temple believed to have been used for human sacrifice. Wahaula Heiau is considered by some to be the most sacred of ancient Hawaiian temples. Lava also was surrounding the complex of stone platforms on the southeastern coast of Hawaii Island, a spokeswoman said.

What is probably the most violent volcanic eruption recorded in the Hawaiian island chain in modern times occurred during the summer, but almost wholly out of sight. The eruption at the Loihi Seamount, like the 1980 eruption at Mt. St. Helens in Washington state, stripped more than 1,000 feet off the top of a towering mountain. But it could not be seen because the mountain was far below the ocean's surface.

Scientists expect to discover 1 million years of geologic history through a three-mile-deep hole under Hawaiian volcanoes. Researchers are planning to drill through the flank of Mauna Loa and into Mauna Kea's old lava flows on the island of Hawaii in order to study the formation of volcanoes and the "hot spot" processes within the Earth's mantle. The National Science Foundation will fund the $6-million, six-year project, which will be administered by the University of Hawaii.

A 10-year-old Costa Mesa boy fell chest-deep into a steam vent here Wednesday, suffering second-degree burns over 10% of his body. The boy, who was visiting Hawaii with his soccer team, had wandered off a park trail near the sulfur banks and slipped into the steaming crack in the ground, said Mardi Lane, park ranger. He held onto grass to keep from falling all the way inside the vent, she said.

Since I had been bringing up the rear of our group, plodding over the rough-and-tumble lava landscape along the southern coast of Hawaii's Big Island, I was surprised to hear feet crunching rocks behind me. But when I turned to look, nobody was around. It was a bit disconcerting to find that the sound, something like the shattering of wine glasses, was actually the tinkling of silvery flakes shed by a tongue of fresh lava as it cooled from flame-orange to metallic-gray.

A 40-foot-wide finger of lava from Kilauea Volcano burned a house in Kalapana, Hawaii, the third dwelling destroyed in three days, authorities said. It was the 83rd house destroyed since the volcano's latest eruption began more than seven years ago. A 24-hour evacuation alert remained in effect for 26 houses in the rural Hawaii Island subdivision, authorities said. Damage from the lava has totaled more than $20 million since the volcano, the world's most active, started eruption in 1983.

A slow-moving lava flow from Kilauea Volcano destroyed two more homes in the Royal Gardens subdivision near Kalapana, Hawaii, authorities said, bringing to four the number of homes ruined since the flow moved into the sparsely populated rural subdivision last week. Heat radiating from the fiery flow set the houses on fire before the molten rock consumed the wreckage, the Hawaii County Fire Department report1701064224the area.

Two people fell into an intensely hot natural steam vent at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and one became trapped and died. "It took us quite a while to get her out. We couldn't get within 10 feet of her because of the scalding heat," said Jim Martin, the park's chief ranger. The body of Elizabeth Ann Matsch, 24, of Boulder, Colo., was retrieved early Tuesday. John Schnorr, 25, of Seattle, did not require hospitalization. The two, both volunteer workers for the U.S.

A hiker at the summit of Kilauea Volcano fell to his death into the crater, an official said. The victim, a 23-year-old sailor, was hiking after dark with three other Navy men Saturday when he walked over the rim and fell about halfway down the 400-foot slope. The crater doesn't contain lava.