Spectacular Fire

I have always been fascinated with geology, and particularly the science that surrounds volcanoes. This week the activity of Kilauea, a volcano in Hawaii's Volcano National Park was in the news. I found the story to be incredibly interesting and I have decided to share it with you.
On Sunday of this week the floor of the Pu'u O'o crater on Kilauea volcano collapsed, the result was an eruption and what followed was the emergence of a new fissure.The new fissure has grown to a length of just under 1.4 miles in the days since it's creation.

The aerial photo above provides an illustration of the size of this fissure. On both sides of this photograph you will notice large patches of forest. The molten rock, lava, pouring into this new fissure has temperatures of up to and possibly exceeding 2000 degrees.

Kilauea's name means spewing or much spreading . Curtains of lava were released from the fissure, some of these molten curtains reached a height of 80 feet ( just under 30 meters) throughout the day. It is understandable to see from this most recent eruption why the volcano earned such a name.
Kilauea is one of Hawaii's most active volcanoes. If you are interested in reading more about Kilauea's activity eruption information can be found at:
http://www.nps.gov/havo/planyourvisit/lava2.htm