Science Art: Mauna Loa Northeast Rift Zone Eruption – November 28, 2022, Civil Air Patrol

An aerial photo of flowing streams of lava, steam and smoke rising above the black stone and glowing orange lava. Photo from the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, taken by the Civil Air Patrol.
An aerial photo of flowing streams of lava, steam and smoke rising above the black stone and glowing orange lava. Photo from the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, taken by the Civil Air Patrol.

Rivers of lava glow a burning orange, sending white plumes up from a black stone landscape. This is a photograph of Hawaii – a place usually seen as a sort of paradise on Earth – and not a painting of Pandemonium rising up from the primal Chaos around the Lake of Fire in Paradise Lost. Mauna Loa was erupting two weeks ago.

I found this photo on the USGS website, submitted by the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory but credited to the Civil Air Patrol. They were taking a flight shortly before sunset and snapped images of the lava flow. The description reads, in part: This photo is looking at the line of fissure vents erupting above 10,000 ft elevation on the Northeast Rift Zone of Mauna Loa. Lava flows being generated from the line of fissure vents are on the northeast flank of Mauna Loa.

This is where land comes from.