Welcome to Episode 3,
It’s Getting Hot Down Here!
I’m Lisa Blank and this is How Did I Miss That?
Confession…I play DnD, Dungeons and Dragons. I joined an amazing group here in San Antonio about a year ago and play weekly with some truly great people. One of my fellow players went off on a real-life adventure to Hawaii a few weeks ago. So jealous. When I asked how his trip was, he told me about one of his favorite parts…touring the underground lava tubes, specifically Kula Kai on the Big Island.
I haven’t had the pleasure of traveling to Hawaii…yet, so I was intrigued! He talked about going through the caves or tubes and how there weren’t any bugs or bats or sound. Then he told us that people actually build on the lava tubes. My mind was blown! Why would anyone want to build on basically Swiss cheese?!
When I got home, I immediately began my research and jumped down the rabbit hole of lava. And here’s what I found out.
Since the Hawaiian Islands are completely created by volcanic activity, it should be no surprise that countless lava tubes crisscross underground each of them. But it certainly was a surprise to me! While I’m sure I had heard of lava tubes before in some middle school science class, I didn’t know just how many of them are formed and stay structurally sound enough to build on.
Lava tubes form when large rivers of lava flow in natural channels. The lava in the center keeps the river flowing, while the lava on the edges cools and hardens when it’s exposed to air at the surface. When the volcanic eruption stops, the lava in the now formed tube drains leaving behind an underground passage. Some of these underground passages are now tourist attractions where visitors can walk through caves that were created hundreds to thousands of years ago.
These tubes and caves have long had cultural significance to the natives of Hawaii. Since the islands have no significant natural lakes, rivers, or ponds, these lava tubes once served the great purpose of providing drinking water. Rainwater filtered through the porous lava rock would be collected in gourd bowls called ipu. (ee poo) Sometimes important members of society were buried in the caves. These sacred underground tombs are not open to the public and are preserved by the national park service.
For the most part, Hawaiian residents live with these massive lava flows underfoot and don’t think much about them. It’s part of living on the volcanic islands after all. Most of the surface holes formed by the lava tubes are visible and compared to open manhole covers. So the odds of falling into one are not great. However, it does happen! In 2002 a firefighter survived a 100-foot fall in the Fern Forest when he didn’t see a 5-8-foot-wide lava tube hole that was hidden by a fern.
Whenever I’m able to take a trip to Hawaii, the lava tubes and caves will definitely be on my list of must-see sites. But I’ll make sure to watch my step around the islands, lest I become the next one to fall in and make an unplanned discovery.
Thanks for listening! If you like what you’re hearing, please make sure to share this podcast with all your friends and neighbors. And join me every Tuesday and Friday as I uncover another interesting tidbit of knowledge and wonder… how did I miss that?!
