'The entire habitat is gone': Hawaii's natural wonders claimed by lava

[turbinetree]

The Kilauea eruption has wiped out rare sites and whole ecosystems. As the island mourns a tragedy, it also accepts the brutal cycle of nature

by Breena Kerr

In Puna, the area of Hawaii island that’s been hardest hit by the Kilauea volcano eruption, those who lived nearest to the lava flows watched the forest around their homes begin to die first. They said the fruit trees, flowers and ferns began turning brown, languishing in the noxious, sulfur-dioxide-filled air. Then the lava came. Now large swaths of formerly verdant forest has been replaced by rough and barren volcanic terrain.

“Before the eruptions, that area was probably the best forest left in the state of Hawaii,” said Patrick Hart, a biology professor at the University of Hawaii at Hilo. “There were areas where the native Ohia forest extended right up to the ocean, and you just don’t see that in the rest of Hawaii,” he said. Now it’s covered with 20 to 30ft of lava.

On Hawaii island, also known as the Big Island, lava from the weeks-long eruption of the Kilauea volcano has also paved over tide pools and coral gardens, boiled a 400-year-old lake until it evaporated and killed a number of sea creatures.

But to scientists, it’s just part of life on the state’s youngest island, where land is still being created as lava continuously reshapes the natural environment.

“From a human point of view, what’s happening is tragic,” said David Damby, a volcanologist with the United States Geological Survey (USGS). “But from the volcano’s point of view, that’s the job she does: to build new land and change the landscape. That’s the way the earth works.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jun/20/hawaii-volcano-eruption-kilauea-natural-wonders-destroyed-kapoho-bay

[panader0]

1. I lived in Hawaii for 7 years in the sixties. On Oahu.

The entire island chain is because of volcanoes.

[Hekate]

6. Same here, and returned after my parents moved back to California. Meant to stay forever...

...but my first husband was a Coast haole and we ended up leaving for good in 1978.

I have to say, California's Central Coast is pretty special, but growing up in Kailua on O'ahu leaves a permanent mark.

I'm so sorry for the folks on the Big Island -- this is a real hardship for them.

[panader0]

7. My high school just had the 50th reunion. (class of '68)

I couldn't afford the trip.

[Hekate]

9. I'm sorry you couldn't make it. I'm Class of '65, and it was a really special trip...

The planners kept the 3 reunion events at Windward venues, so even tho Honolulu and Waikiki were just about unrecognizable (and Waikiki was a flipping nightmare), we had plenty of time at "home."

[Cha]

2. It is really sad to see nature die like this from afar..

I can only imagine how the Big Islanders feel who have lost the beautiful Ohia forest and this.. "..paved over tide pools and coral gardens, boiled a 400-year-old lake until it evaporated and killed a number of sea creatures".. to the lava..

Best of Luck and Aloha to those who have lost their homes.

Mahalo for posting, turbinetree

[Blue_true]

4. That is nature Cha.

Nature can be both beautiful and brutal. 5000 years from now, if humans or the planet are still around, that larva flow will yield rich soil.

I live near rattlesnakes, they mind their own business, but no one should ever make a mistake around one. A guy in Texas or somewhere in the southwest severed the head of a rattlesnake and made the mistake of picking up what he thought was the dead head with something short or his hand. The head of the snake dumped all of it's venom into him, took something like 10-20 times the normal amount of antivenom to save his life and he still came close to dying. Nature does what nature does and we are just observers.

[Achilleaze]

5. ...more than observers, Anthropocene Perps

[dixiegrrrrl]

10. Good lord. Where did you get that????

SO totally perfect.

[Cha]

8. I know.. I read what the volcano guys said..

still sad to see the part of Nature die that was killed by the lava.

[MineralMan]

3. The volcano IS a natural wonder.

Hawaii exists at all because of volcanic activity. The lava is covering only a small portion of the Island. A new ecosystem will develop. Nature is at work.