Volcano: Stone and Steam
As I said, we didn't see flowing lava, but we got to see the next best thing (well, after geysers, I guess): steam vents. The top of Kilauea is riddled with them, and they bring a lot of minerals to the surface. Max led us on a short hike we'd never done before, from the Steam Vent Lookout to the Sulpher Banks and we got a good look at some of the results. First, the vents: the smell isn't too bad, but the heat can be pretty considerable. The wind was strong today, though, so it never got too concentrated.
 | As I said, the steam brings lots of minerals to the surface, especially sulpher (yellow), gypsum (white) and hematite (red/brown). This was the end-point of our hike, the Sulpher Bank. |
 | Here's a close-up of some sulpher crystals |
 | This is from a different part of the park -- the walk to the Halema'uma'u crater lookout -- but the principle's the same. There are lots of little steam vents in that area, too. |
