May 1998

Volcanic processes like those at the active Kilauea Volcano in Hawaii play a key role in forming ocean basins, mountains, and continents. Ro Kinzler, Jim Webster and a team of mold makers and Museum colleagues are there to collect chunks of lava and a lava tree, a mold of a tree created when a lava flow engulfs the tree and solidifies around it. A team of mold-makers will cast a spatter cone, a conical feature created at the vent of a volcanic eruption. A Scientists at Work video featuring volcanologists from Hawaiian Volcano Observatory monitoring active lava flows is also created here.

A rainbow appears over recent lava flows on the eastern side of the Big Island, Hawaii. The flows erupted from Kilauea Volcano, the youngest sub areal volcano in the Hawaiian volcanic chain. Loihi'i, the youngest volcano, lies submerged beneath sea level just to the east of the Big Island.

photo credit: Jackie Beckett, © American Museum of Natural History