The Terra Galleria Blog – QT Luong

After the Green Sand Beach and Waipio Valley, the Mauna Kea Summit was my third destination on the Big Island that required 4WD, because of a steep, unpaved road. When I arrived at the visitor center, at 9,000 feet, I was still trying to dry up my clothes, drenched while working in the rainforest of [...]

For a change from working in the rain in Hawaii Volcanoes NP, I drove to South Point, the southern tip of the island of Hawaii. The access to Papakolea Beach consisted of a maze of badly rutted vehicle tracks, along the coast, alternatively sandy and rocky. A four wheel drive was definitively necessary. Hiking would [...]

The Hawaiian islands are further away from a major land mass than any other in the world. Over the span of about 70 million years, plants and animals managed to make the voyage to the once barren islands and to colonize it, at the rate of one every 70000 years, and then evolving into more [...]

Halemaumau crater – home to Pele, Goddess of Hawaiian Volcanoes according to the traditions of Hawaiian mythology – is a pit crater located within the larger summit caldera of Kīlauea in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. During my previous two visits to the Park, a decade ago, Halemaumau crater was inactive. I remember standing at the [...]

Haleakala National Park, on the island of Maui, Hawaii, like Hawaii Volcanoes National Park encompasses terrain ranging from the ocean shore to the summit of a high volcano, created by the same hot spot that generated the Big Island of Hawaii. The difference is that while the volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii exhibits [...]

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, on the Big Island of Hawaii, is the place where the past and present volcanic island activity can be observed. It is the easiest place in the world to come close to a active volcano. The entire island was created by the Mauna Loa volcano, which now towers 13700 feet above [...]