Port 1 Hilo — A closer look at Kilauea Caldera

Kilauea Caldera

The Kilauea Caldera is a forbidding landscape.  Hardly a speck of green intrudes into the area surrounding the smoking Halema’uma’u Crater in the distance.  The crater itself is 2,530 feet/770 meters wide, 2,950 feet/900 meters long, and is 270 feet/83 meters.

Kilauea Caldera

And that “smoke” you see rising from the floor of Halema’uma’u?  It’s deadly sulfur dioxide gas.

Now for today’s photo gallery of this hellish place and the beauty of the surrounding area:

Kilauea Caldera

Kilauea Caldera

Kilauea Caldera

Kilauea Caldera

Kilauea Caldera

Kilauea Caldera

Mauna Loa

Kahuku Ranch in the distance