On Location in Hawaii - Day 3

Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5

A Hike to JASON'S Remote Headquarters
The Little Lava House

The Hike!
At 7:30 am, Rebecca Kochenderfer and Kent Malama are waiting outside the Volcano House hotel armed with everything the JASON staff has recommended.

We are warned that he hike to the active lava and "The Little Lava House" is very slow, hot, tedious and can be dangerous. The JASON Project has sent, Leslie Gordon, a geologist from USGC and William Ritz, Manager of public relations for EDS (JASON's largest sponsor) to escort Homeschool.com's team safely to the lava house.

Of the three field locations for JASON XII, the lava flow is by far the most difficult to get to. The lava has overtaken many of the roads that once passed through the area. Four-wheel drive vehicles can get over most stretches of the cooled lava flow, but, eventually, there comes a point where even they don't work. JASON needed to have it's Argonaunts and scientists near the active lava flow daily and given the expense of flying and the intense hike, JASON set up a camp in the "lava house." The lava house is one of the last houses left standing in a neighborhood just outside of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. This small house was somehow sparred despite the fact that lava flowed within 20 meters to either side of the house.

Learn more about the lava house and the JASON Project.

Here are some photos from our hike . . .
  

Tomorrow we meet Dr. Robert Ballard during a live broadcast from the Sulfur Banks on the big island!

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