·
Kohala –
dormant
·
Mauna Kea
– dormant
·
Hualālai –
active
·
Mauna Loa
– active, partly within Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park
·
Kīlauea –
active: has been erupting continuously since 1983; part of Hawaiʻi Volcanoes
National Park
Earlier this month, a strong earthquake on the island was
followed by increased eruptive activity from Kilauea. To-date, dozens of homes have been destroyed
and Hawaii Civil Defense have reported 2,000 people evacuated from their homes,
away from the path of the flowing lava.
Hollywood-like scenes of devastation have dominated the nightly news,
including images of people fleeing the irresistible rivers of fiery lava while making
their way through steaming cracks that opened in neighborhood lawns and
roadways.
Officials warn of explosive
eruptions of steam that would lift stone projectiles and ash into the air, should
the lava reach subterranean aquifers. They stress that nobody can predict how
long nor how extensive the eruption will be.
For now, they move people as far as possible for the danger as possible,
though the relentless earthquakes and the threats of ashfall and acid rain
remain.
Mauna Loa, the largest exposed (e.g., above the ocean’s
surface) volcano in both mass and volume, has historically been considered the
largest volcano on Earth. It dominates
the profile of Hawaii’s “Big Island,” and, although it has erupted in the past,
it has been decades since it last showed its awesome power. In what amounts to a sort of “worst case
scenario” in the latest series of events, some scientists fear the increased activity at Kilauea will “awaken the sleeping giant” Mauna Loa and trigger a
larger eruption. Obviously they’re not
talking a Mt. St. Helens-like event (St. Helens is a composite volcano, noted
for explosive eruptions), but the lava flows from the last (1984) eruption of
Mauna Loa came within four miles of Hawai’i’s largest city, Hilo.
 |
| "When Pele comes, we just move because she has the right of way." Kaliko Baker |
Volcanism was obviously a huge part of the culture of the
ancient inhabitants of the Hawaiian islands.
They gave the name “Pele” to the goddess of fire, wind and lightning and
credited her (accurately so) with creating the islands on which they
lived. Following the events of the last
week, many residents of Hawaii are wondering if perhaps the increased activity
at Kilauea is, perhaps, a response by Pele to something they did (or didn’t do).
Somewhat tongue-in-cheek, a 21st Century
reporter provided the following background to a news story (also the source of the
photo) about the latest eruptive activity. But he found that the people he
spoke with take ancient legends very seriously.
Residents near the lava zone on Hawaii’s Big Island having been leaving
Ti leaves and flowers in front of their homes and near the cracks on the ground
as an offering to the fiery volcano goddess Pele in hopes she will spare them
from destruction.
“Scientists and experts have tried to predict what’s going to happen
but they’ve been wrong,” resident Shannon Malina told Fox News Tuesday. “We are
in (Pele’s) hands now. She’s coming back.”
Malina, who has been living in a Red Cross shelter in Pahoa, was forced
to evacuate her home four days ago because of a volcanic eruption spewing
bubbling lava and swallowing up residential neighborhoods. She believes it’s
the work of Pele, who is coming back to right the wrongs of humanity…
Several people on the island in recent days told Fox News they believe
the volcanic instability rocking the Big Island is a warning from Pele…. Even
as she wept over the destruction, resident Linda Jones told Fox News, “Madame
Pele: I have love and respect.”
So just who is this all-powerful Pele? It depends on who you ask.
Pelehonuamea, or Pele as she is more commonly known, is the goddess of
fire, lightning, wind and volcanos. Passionate and moody, legend has it that
she lives at the summit on Kilauea. Depending on which version of the story is
told, Pele spent her most of her life locked in fierce feuds with family
members and was prone to epic jealous outbursts that usually ended with her
burning down everything in her path... [Sounds just like what’s happening
on Hawai’i now.]
“No one said Pele was nice,” Malina says with a little laugh. “But
she’ll protect her children, I know she will.”
The news report includes the following statement from a
University of Hawaii language professor named Kaliko Baker.
“Pele the goddess and the Pele the lava are one in the same. It’s important to know that Pele is as
natural to us, Hawaiians, the aboriginals of this island, as the wind that
blows, as the ocean that crashes on the shores, as the lava that flows out of
the volcano. It’s our norm and when Pele comes we just move because she’s got
the right of way.”
In the case of volcanoes and lava flows, this is exactly
the appropriate course of action for any human society. Impacts from storms and floods can be
mitigated. Earthquake damage can be
fixed and sometimes minimized by better design. But when faced with a wall of 2,200
degree liquid rock cascading down a slope toward you, there is no other choice
than to “get out of the way.”
The lesson for the residents of Hawaii—a lesson they have
learned over centuries of experience living under the threat of volcanic
activity—is that human settlements have no business impeding the wrath of
Pele. Planning tools like Lava Flow Hazard Zone maps and other locational restrictions try to limit the impact of
volcanic activity on communities in the state, but as we’ve seen in the last
week, it’s not perfect.
Even so, having enough
respect for nature—or Pele, if you choose—to inform and modify our activity is critical
to human survival.
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