Pahoehoe and Pele's Hair

[Douglas Sherman]

Monika's wonderful images of the Hawaiian eruption reminded me of some of the less well known artifacts of these types of eruptions. As the sticky lava is thrust upward by the fountains it is pulled into strings much like strands of mozzarella cheese which form when you take a slice of pizza from the pie. The strings cool rapidly, immediately turn to glass, and can be found littering the ground. This image shows them on a pahoehoe flow in Hawaii.

Evidently Pele is a blonde.

 

[AlanLichty]

That's almost surreal.

 

[JimFox]

That is so cool Doug! It’s grest seeing these, I am not sure with all of the fumes currently there if Monika can get close enough to get shots like these.

 

[MonikaC]

That is so cool Doug! It’s grest seeing these, I am not sure with all of the fumes currently there if Monika can get close enough to get shots like these.

Those areas are closed, Jim. When Pele's hair goes flying, it's very dangerous. I would have loved to be able to go where they are, but not for a while. On my last trip to Iceland, one of the fellows on the trip found some. I didn't see it, but from his description, it sounded like Pele's hair to me.

 

[MonikaC]

Monika's wonderful images of the Hawaiian eruption reminded me of some of the less well known artifacts of these types of eruptions. As the sticky lava is thrust upward by the fountains it is pulled into strings much like strands of mozzarella cheese which form when you take a slice of pizza from the pie. The strings cool rapidly, immediately turn to glass, and can be found littering the ground. This image shows them on a pahoehoe flow in Hawaii.

Evidently Pele is a blonde.

View attachment 9862

One of her representations is as a little white dog.
This is a great shot of her hair, Doug!

 

[dan swiger]

What an awesome find! It really does look like straw

 

[Bob Denton]

This is really nice.