Hi, I’m Marc

I am 8 ½ years old, and I am a regular kid—just like you!

I am an ordinary kid—just like you, I am a cub scout. I like to ride my bike,

I like sports, cub scouts, riding my bike, swimming.

Here I am with my brother,

and my two sisters,

AthenaDeDe

Marlowe

ME!

This is my Dad And my Mom

But there is one thing that I’ll bet you don’t have—

A volcano in your back yard!

I live in the state of Hawaii, on the southern-most island, the Big Island, or the

island of Hawaii

Hawaii

By the way, Hawaii is the most southern point in the United States.

Here is the Big Island—You can see the two mountains there—which are volcanos. The top one is an old dead volcano, Mauna Kea, and the lower one is Mauna Loa. On the eastern part of Mauna Loa is the constantly erupting volcano, Kileaua.

Mauna Kea

Mauna Loa Kileaua

In Hawaii, you can go into the jungle and pick bananas just like my Aunt Ann is doing here.

DeDe and I like to watch when someone picks a whole bunch of

bananas, even if we’re too small to do it ourselves.

But I’d better tell you about volcanoes

There are three or four types of volcanoes:

A. Cinder Cones and

B. Shield Volcanoes

C. Composite Volcanoes

(I’ll bet you never knew there were different types of volcanoes, did you?)

Which type do you think this volcano is?

• Is it a cinder cone?

•Is it a shield?

•Is it a Composite volcano?

You are right! It is a Cinder cone volcano,

Cinder cones are tall with steep sides. They are made up of cinders, so even when they explode, they don’t do a lot of damage. They look a lot like a cone.

Shield Volcanoes

The other is the Hawaiian type, a shield volcano. It is called that because it looks like a warrior put his shield down. It is a gentle volcano and that’s why in Kilauea National Park on Hawaii, the park rangers will escort people close to the volcano when it erupts. (I took this picture from our house)

This is a closer picture of Mauna Loa, the shield volcano. (I didn’t take this picture; I got it from the Government volcanoes site.)

The most explosive and dangerous type of volcano is the Composite Volcano. These are like Mt. St. Helens in Washington state, and Mt. Fuji in Japan. Look at their steep sides. I’m glad my volcano is not dangerous like these.

Composite Volcanoes

Lava TubesLava Tubes are really cool. They are tubes of air that occur as the lava flows! When they cool they look like a cave and you can explore them!

Here are some pictures of the lava tubes we’ve visited here on Hawaii.

Here is what they look like inside!—no Stalactites.

Here we are climbing out of a lava tube.

That’s my Uncle Jack and me!

Here we are as we enter the tube!

Here my sister holding up the roof of the cave in the lava tube.

Here Mom and my sister wave to us from deep inside the lava tube. It is just down the street from us--it is a private lava tube, but we had permission to explore with an adult.

Earthquakes always announce that the volcano is going to erupt—but even without the volcano erupting, there are lots and lots of earthquakes. Here my sister is standing next to the road after an earthquake hit our street.

Kileaua Volcano is not just one spot—it is a whole national park with the caldera in part of it. But all of it has had eruptions at one time or another.

Caldera means a crater where the lava has flowed out and then the hole has collapsed. See the brown spot that is the Kileaua Caldera?

Hiking Across the Volcano!

I’ll bet you didn’t know you could walk across a volcano. Well we do that a lot! We don’t go into the explosive caldera, but walk across the larger caldera. See the tiny dark circle inside the other—that’s the active crater. We are going to hike from the top green area to the active crater.

Here we are beginning the hike.

Hiking down onto the floor of the volcano.

Here we begin walking across the caldera.

Sometimes there were walkways across the cinder because it was so sharp it would destroy your shoes!

As we hiked, steam would come up our legs and scare us. Doesn’t this look desolate!

We couldn’t climb some places because it was hazardous.

Here we are almost to the edge of the caldera.

Finally we are at THE RIM of the crater. We have finished our hike!

1. Right after a volcano erupts, the lava looks hard and impenetrable,

2. But then the rain softens it and it begins to disintegrate and turn to a softer lava. It still is barren and appears dead, but soon a small plant will get a hold,

3. Soon a small plant begins to grow out of the hard lava.

4. Before you know it a jungle is growing where only lava was.

This is special type of lava—it is called Pahoehoe! (Try having that as a spelling word).

It is lava that flows like a river and hardens just like it!

It is smooth and looks like frozen water.

Pahoehoe

A’A

This is the other type of lava, a’a. (it is easy to spell but hard to pronounce).

It is a hard, crumbly, but crunchy sharp rock.

Permission to publish and share by author Beth Daley.