PHOTO COURTESY OF U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY Lava at the end of Chain of Craters Road flowed onto gravel and covered part of the road yesterday. The flow posed no immediate danger to a Hawaii Volcanoes National Park portable visitor center a quarter-mile to the west.

Lava cuts across
Chain of Craters Road

The flow cuts off and burns
another 80 yards of asphalt

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By Rod Thompson
rthompson@starbulletin.com

HILO >> A sluggish finger of lava made its way across the end of Chain of Craters Road in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park yesterday, cutting off and burning part of another 80 yards of asphalt.

The tip of the flow stagnated as soon as it got across the road, leaving a portion of the pavement cut off but untouched, said Don Swanson, head of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.

Another segment of pavement cut off several weeks earlier has been reduced to a tiny area due to subsequent flows, he said.

The latest flow posed no immediate threat to a portable national park visitor station a quarter-mile from the flow, said ranger Mardie Lane.

Viewing for park visitors is "super," she said. Although there was no visitor count available for this week, the count reached 2,300 one day last week, she said.

Lane warned about hazards, such as caustic fumes from the burning asphalt and methane explosions off the road, caused by interactions of the lava's heat with vegetation.

"It is kaboom city," she said.

Visitors must stay in the paved area, she said.

"The temptation to divert mauka or makai (of the road) could be disastrous," she said.

Lava has destroyed more than six miles of the road in the last 20 years, including 1 1/2 miles since May.

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Hawaii Volcanoes National Park