Photos from an active volcano!

This is a picture at night of the steam coming off of Kilauea. Due to the fact that these volcanoes are active, it's very difficult to get up close to them. That being said, you can see the intense heat the volcano produces in this photo. Not too long ago, the cliff near this volcano where we saw an indigenous man performing a prayer ritual collapsed into this volcano as it continues to erupt.

Shield volcanoes do not produce very fast lava flows, which allows the possibility of watching the lava move across terrain. While we were not able to see this flow into the river, we are able to see the aftermath of such an occurrence. The picture below illustrates the aftermath of lava pouring over the edge of a cliff into the water, solidifying, and creating this incredible structure.

To end our trip, we flew above one of the vents of Kilauea, also known as the Pu'u 'O'o vent. The pictures below were taken from our helicopter and show an aerial view of the active volcano. The lava shoots up through the solidified crust of lava on top, rinsing and repeating this process.

And below you can really see the layer of solidified lava on top...

This is not the type of content I normally post, but I wanted to share these photos for anyone who may be interested. If you ever have the opportunity to go to Hawaii, I highly recommend the trip. I also highly recommend looking into taking a helicopter ride above one of the active volcanoes. It is certainly an exhilarating and awing experience.