Hawai'ian Acres, Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Neighbor Scott showed us the lava tube under Hawai’ian Acres. Said to be 40 miles long, it’s the longest lava tube in the world. Lava tubes are formed when lava that was moving below the ground drains out of its passageway, leaving a long tunnel.
We entered the lava tube through an inconspicuous hole in the rain forest floor. In places, the ceiling had collapsed and left smooth slabs like glass pottery on the floor. Most places it was easy to walk. The ceiling ranged from 10 to 50 feet high and the tube was 15 feet wide. I was surprised to find stalagmites and stalactites in a lava tube, because I thought limestone was an essential ingredient, but Steve says it could be some other kind of minerals precipitating.Scott said a family weathered a hurricane in this tube in the 1990s. We saw the plastic sheets they erected over some posts. I was thinking about earthquakes.
In more recent local news, the coqui might have decided to be quiet when he heard Lee planning his demise by putting citric acid on him. Or perhaps he has found his true love and has relocated out of earshot of Lee's cabin.
We also got the water pump fixed, with the help of "Little Lee" in California, who read the pump owner's manual by cell phone to Lee here in the cabin. We all took turns pressurizing the tank using a wimpy bicycle pump. Of course, one might wonder why the owner's manual for the pump was in California, but it seems it is pointless to leave anything important here, because appliances turn to rust and books turn to mildew.
Scott says the sulphur fumes from the volcano create acid rain. There is also the matter of VOG, volcanic fog. You can see what it has done to this storage container. Looks like something our good bud John Villinski would like.
