If you were on Hawaii’s Big Island on New Year’s Eve, you would have got to see the very best fireworks display anywhere on planet Earth. As if right on cue, a huge delta comprised of fresh lava flows suddenly collapsed into the Pacific Ocean, causing a sudden and spectacular explosive steam eruption.
Lava has been oozing out of the ruins of the remains of the Kamokuna delta ever since, and just this week some lucky tourists got to see a phenomenon colloquially named a “lava hose”.
This is when fresh lava bursts through a small opening in the otherwise cool, solidified lava around it. As it’s flowing through a channel, the lava – which normally moves at an average human’s walking pace – gushes out at a fairly rapid pace.
The fiery hose of doom. Big Island Flow via YouTube
Several of these lava hoses have been seen since the beginning of the year, but this new one was particularly paroxysmal. Luckily, it was captured on film from a nearby boat by Captain Shane Turpin from Ocean Lava Tours for all to see.
“First the boat went silent to the point one could hear the sloshing sizzling molten lava hose as it rushed from the earth in to the sea,” Turpin said, as reported by the Mirror. “But this was then followed by cheering and gasps at the once-in-a-lifetime experience we all just witnessed.”
A smaller lava hose, seen earlier this year. Big Island Video News/NPS/Janice Wei via YouTube
As beautiful as this lava hose looks, we wouldn’t recommend getting too close to it. There’s plenty of ways a volcano can kill you, but dying by falling foul of a lava flow is probably the most painful.
