Being a bit of a nature geek ( ok just geek) I'm fascinated by the emergence of this volcano.
The fact that we can get essentially live streams are spell binding
This one is in the dark no less. but towards the end when backs out you can see the crowds on the edge of the lava field.
I'm not usually that impetuous but I'd love to hop a flight over and sit and watch this thing. especially at night OMG

 

I love that stuff too, the pahoehoe lava flows are amazing , but I would never chance being so close, not even in a helicopter. If a volcano ever blows unexpectedly you could never outrun the heat from the explosion , not even in a helicopter. Pyroclastic flow from explosions must be the closest thing to hell on earth if you are located near them when it happens.

My wife is from the Azores islands. I want to visit them on a future trip, and they still have some active volcanic action going on at Sao. Jorge island.

 

I was in Hawaii in 1991, about a year after the eruption there. Driving around the island, the road just stopped, blocked by cooled lava flow. So, you parked and started walking. About a mile maybe, out to the edge of the island. You passed sulfur holes, all kinds of formations. By the time we walked there and back, the soles of my sneakers had effectively melted smooth.

Seeing lava flow out of the tubes into the ocean was an absolutely spectacular sight!

 

5 years old but decent article of volcanic activity relating to carbon and mankind. Written by a PHD astrophysicist.


https://www.forbes.com/sites/startsw...h=244a70ca5cbf

 

Back in the mid 90's (if I remember correctly) a tour plane and a helicopter collided in the Grand Canyon and that caused the FAA to pass a rule that tour aircraft had to fly at least over 1,500 AGL. On one our trips to the Big Island of Hawaii I did some research and discovered that Safari Helicopters that is owned by a Vietnam Veteran Helicopter pilot and at that time all of his employees were also Vietnam Veteran helicopter pilots that had low lever flying experience sued the FAA and the won. As it turned out in 1998 (if I remember correctly) on one of our trips to the Big Island Kīlauea was erupting at 980,000 cubic yards a day.. We were lucky enough to be there at that time and it was amazing being 500's above the active volcano, while all of the other aircraft were a thousand feet above us. Our PIC was named Richard and he knew facts and figures about Kilauea that were amazing. He then followed a lava tube down to the ocean where the hot lava EXPLODES when it hit the water. He then pointed out a Black Sand beach that was three days old. Where else on earth can one see a spot that is only three days old? The shelf of the east coast of the Big Island is 12,000 feet deep so it takes days to dump enough lava to created a new beach.

 

We did a helicopter tour in Kauai and visited the remnants of that very old volcano.
He came over the top and rotated down the remnants of the center tube with one wall long gone.
With the rotation of the aircraft mixed with descent and all of the foliage on the walls, it was entirely disorienting.
My mind knew where up was but a sensation of almost total vertigo took over.

 

This was yours truly in the early 80s down in the Canyon for a little sightseeing on a cross country. Those days are gone.

 

Cool…Some years ago, I flew with my uncle from AZ (who was a very successful businessman and owned several planes) and a couple of other relatives into the canyon and landed nearby to have breakfast at that restaurant that overlooks the canyon (forgot the name). It was amazing. He was a bit of a crazy pilot but we survived.

 

Wow, way cool Cos!

 

Way COOL!

FWIIW: I am constantly amazed at the diversity of life experiences us vintage folks have had.

As I type this in Riverhead, Long Island, NY as my Brother and I are here to clear out out Mother's house to get it ready to sell (which is a rather daunting task, as she was a typical product of the depression era with the philosophy of "Do not throw anything away because one might need it someday"). We filled up a 30 Cubic Yard dumpster in one day. She had a good run at one hundred, three, five months and three days. As she was born in 1918 just think of the changes that she witnessed throughout her life time? Two World Wars, the aviation age (when she was a child people used to run out of their houses when a plane flew over to look at it), The Jet age, The space age as well as the information age.