If you’re at all curious about the current eruption, go have a look, here. Beyond the lava flow that’s been reaching the ocean on and off over the last several weeks, Halama’uma’u Crater is giving off sulphuric gas that’s taking the air quality in Volcano National Park to dangerous levels. For reference, here’s a photo I took of some kids I know sitting in front of the crater:
The white you see at the edge of the crater is rock, not smoke.
Here, the crater as of today, looking in the same direction:
Click over to the USGS site and you can actually see the red incandescence.
UPDATE 3/27/08:
A number of people are clicking through directly to this post (Valley Moms, who are you??). I’ll add a direct link to the webcam at Halema’uma’u, in case you missed it here.
A Valleymom said,
March 29, 2008 @ 7:27 am
We are a group of Moms from the Wabash Valley in Indiana & Illinois. Thanks for this awesome experience that some of us may not have ever been ale to see without you!