Volcanoes, Hawaii, and the Moon
What do Hawaii and the moon have in common? The
answer is volcanic activity.
Right now in Hawaii, Mount Kilauea is sending lava
in a different than usual direction (the opposite of where it was flowing when
I last visited the big island), toward Pahoa village, a historic former sugar
plantation consisting of small shops and homes with a population of about 800
people, a populated area that may soon need to be evacuated. The leading edge
of the flow is about 110 yards wide and spreading, and is only 100 yards from
the nearest residential property there. Walking out on the lava field as
tourists was fun when my husband and I were there a few years ago but having
lava creeping toward my home would be another story.
The
moon, a place I have yet to visit, and our planet’s natural satellite, isn't just a dead rock orbiting us out in space. It may still have some fire at its
core. Dozens of small rocky formations spotted by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
were laid down by lava more recently than researchers originally believed, as
recently as only ten million years ago. These rock formations suggest that as
far as volcanic activity goes, the moon is not yet dead.
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