Monday 2 March 2009

The land that time forgot

Kilauea Iki Crater shot at sunset from its overlook in the Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park on the Big Island. The last eruption of Kilauea in this crater occurred in 1959 with some spectacular lava fountains, some of which are shown at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory site.

Although the setting sun was very bright and drowned out some details, the late-day colours were fantastic. The crater itself is in the foreground and you can still see evidence of activity under the surface by the steam vents on the crater floor. Beyond the crater you can see the current volcanic plume from the Halema`uma`u Crater at the summit of Kilauea and to the right of the setting sun is the distant yet massive Mauna Loa volcano.

I've been busy vacationing recently (and still am) hence the lack of blog activity in recent weeks, but I'm creating quite a good archive of pictures for future posts!

8 comments:

Andrew Cooper said...

In some ways this is the best photo I have seen of Kilauea Iki. The loos of details makes it look a bit like a painting. Having been there I know how hard it is to convey the reality of the place in a photo.

John Powell said...

Wonderful photo! Good to see you posting again!

Tom said...

Thanks for the kind words, Andrew and John! I have to admit I'm quite proud of this photo! Incidentally I'll probably get back to posting regularly in a couple of weeks (and reading others' blogs as well) but will try and post a few pictures soon from the last few weeks.

Beep said...

What a perfect title for this post...this place does look very primeval in your photo. Hope you are enjoying your vacation and looking forward to seeing more of your pictures when you are doing more posting again.

Zuzana said...

Very poetic picture!;)
I guess you too must have enjoyed the Venus and the Moon on the sky last Friday; meant to tell you that it WAS Venus, that was my mystery star.;))
Enjoy the rest of your Vacation; I sure badly need one.;)

Keera Ann Fox said...

What Beep said. I mean, what else can I say? Perfect title, fantastic picture, can't wait to see more. :-) And continue to enjoy your holiday (you're British; you know what that means ;-) ).

Anonymous said...

Welcome back mate!

I've been there countless times, but never during that "magic hour" before sunset. Beautiful colour.

Tom said...

Beep, Protege, Keera and Ant: thanks for the comments and compliments! Keera: yes, being a Brit I know what holiday means although I've become a bit too Americanised and have started to use the word "vacation" a bit too much! Protege: glad you figured out what the "star" was! Ant: definitely worth a trip at sunset one day, especially with the summit still active. I'd be happy to join you!