Lava transforms a Hawaiian bay into a blackened peninsula

The shallow, tropical waters of the Big Island’s Kapoho Bay are no longer: Satellite images show a bay overtaken by lava, transformed into a black mass of land jetting into the sea.

Lava meeting the ocean is, of course, the way Hawaiian islands grow. Unfortunately, the rumbling flow of lava from the Kilauea volcano engulfed more than 130 homes in the neighborhoods of Vacationland and Kapoho Beach Lots — including the home of the Hawaii County Mayor — before oozing to the beach.

As of June 6, the island’s Civil Defense agency said lava is still actively pouring into the ocean, where it produces dangerous clouds of acidic steam, filled with natural glass particles. Read more…

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