Take Two translates the day’s headlines for Southern California, making sense of the news and cultural events that affect our lives. Produced by Southern California Public Radio and broadcast from October 2012 – June 2021. Hosted by A Martinez.
While palm trees and cool breezes make Hawaii a vacation favorite, this slice of paradise sits on active volcanoes.
Right now, a slow lava flow is making its way to the town of Pahoa, where hundreds of residents and local businesses are keeping an eye on it from just a couple miles away.
Hawaii isn't the only place where volcanoes are erupting. Similar activity is happening in Iceland, Indonesia, Ecuador, Mexico and, of course, there was the recent eruption at Mount Ontake in Japan which killed more than three dozen people.
Some volcanic eruptions are more dangerous than others, says Dr. Rosaly Lopes, senior research scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and an expert on volcanoes.
Molten rock, or magma, comes under pressure, but it's how that pressure is released that determines whether the volcano will create a violent, sudden eruption or not, she says.
"If the magma is very sticky, very viscus, it will explode. If the magma is not very sticky, the magma can come out slowly and then the volcano is not explosive," says Lopes. "So it really is a matter of the amount of gas in the magma and how easily it can come out."
Lopes, who also studies ice volcanoes on Titan, Saturn's largest moon, says there's lots of interesting and lesser-known facts about how volcanoes work.
“It’s actually possible to walk on a moving flow because the crust at the top is a very good insulator and it will protect you," she said. Though temperatures can get up to 1,200 degrees Celsius, the crust cools quickly.