It all seems to have been intentional......

[DanielP]

It is what sheild volcanos do

[ericlp]

The only intended part was that all those areas were downhill. All those areas that got filled in were lower parts of the land. Where else was the lava to go?

[hikatz]

Speculation.

Photo posted on Facebook, https://goo.gl/hJzkbr

Some see a skull breathing fire, a laughing face in the upper right-hand corner, imagination is running wild..........

other comments, Pele is angry!

[Carey]

Going completely around the island yesterday on our mission to pick-up the shelter shed security doors, I was struck, maybe for the first time, at the flow patterns you can see throughout Kau & Kona areas.

Most all of my time here in Hawaii`i, and truth be told, most all of my life, Kilauea flows have flowed in a fairly direct downhill manner at a fairly leisurely pace. The most "wandering" from my time here had been the 2014-15 Pahoa flow.

The speed and volume of this current flow is way outside of my lifetime, but as we traveled the older flows, still very visible from just outside of my lifetime to over 2 centuries ago, you could see the massive wide wandering flows that must have kicked downhill...

My musing started at the summit, a place I have become very familiar with over the years of study and work, and the changes very apparent even from the Highway. I thought of all of the native creatures, ones that I have gotten to know, exposed to the magnitude of ash & VOG, then I realized, before the Kau Desert Trail, at the Nene sign pullout, that this truly is the environment they evolved in.

Every species here had to adapt to this cycle of creation, of mountain building.

This is Hawaii`i, in its` unique, primal form.

[Punatic007]

As a non-scientist to me it appears Puu Oo is pau, and she is draining out in the path of least resistance, fault line to ocean. Hopefully her dance with Halemaumau of balancing will be as quick and smooth as possible. It is tragic so many people are being displaced and I pray for ease and good fortune in all their transitions. We have lost some of the most beautiful landscape to be found on the planet however I choose to be grateful for the time we were able to enjoy it, truly a blessing.

[randomq]

The human mind is supreme at rationalizing and finding patterns in the noise, even when those patterns don't really exist. The intention you are perceiving was likely the intention of the road builders to follow a nice level course between landscape features.

But I hear many projecting their own motives on the lava. Destroying the rich gated community, wiping out hippies, etc...

[geochem]

Ditto randomq's comments.

We are indeed adept and finding a signal - whether real or not - in all the noise of life. Maybe best encapsulated by the old time adage: "it's an ill wind that doesn't blow someone some good" (paraphrasing here...).

Although, in this case, as others have noted, the flow followed a trajectory that was equally inviting to the road planners and consumed the greenest (oldest) land on the shoreline - between the 1955 and 1960 lavas - that was attractive because of the greenery and the bay. Of course the flow did that, it's how flows move - to fill in dips and gaps in the previous flow fields...

In a hundred years or so, the bay created by the 2018 flow field will be equally attractive to future generations... when it, in turn is filled in by the 2118 Kilauea ERZ eruption.

[MarkD]

And one of our questions will be: Do we engage in some ecosystem modification to help nature on its course, so as to make stark lava more inviting for human activities?

On (new) Kalapana beach for many years now people have carried out coconuts which sprouted and are now growing into a new grove. On the left of the trail most of the way out you'll even see a ficus that someone planted years ago.

All this makes the Kapalana beach much more inviting (at least most of us think so).

- - - -

As far as modifying the shoreline to create new swimming areas, I won't get into that now, but make several points:

1) Unfortunately for human recreation, most lava sea cliffs are sheer drops into deep water and do not allow safe swimming. Nor does lava generally move in unusual configurations such as we have in Hilo, where a long curved arm of lava created wonderfully protected Richardson Ocean Park.

That is a rare event; we should not expect it to occur in Puna. Probably more than 99% of Puna is girded by steep inhospitable shoreline.

2) In 1975 a powerful earthquake struck the Puna coast.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1975_Hawaii_earthquake

It dropped the Puna shoreline by up to 12 feet, helping to create the famous Drainpipes surf spot 3/4 mile south of Kaimu Bay. Surfers from around Hawaii Island drove to the Kapalana area to surf Drainpipes until its loss around 1990.

The earthquake also affected recreation in Kapoho Bay and at the tidepools. (Maybe someone has recollections of the changes at these sites.)

So unfortunately earthquakes (highly destructive) are probably the only force of nature that will create a nice new safe swimming bay or new tidepools on the Puna shoreline....

[Midnight Rambler]

Most of the stories about Pele are about finding meaning and intention in random events. This probably refers to the Heiheiahulu eruption, prior to which there hadn't been any middle to lower east rift zone flows for a couple of hundred years.

quote:

---

Another chief was one who was called in Hawaiian legends, Ke-lii-kuku (The-Puna-chief-who-boasted). He was proud of Puna, celebrated as it was in song and legend.

Beautiful Puna!
Clear and beautiful,
Like a mat spread out.
Shining like sunshine
Edged by the forest of Malio.

Ke-lii-kuku visited the island of Oahu. He always boasted that nothing could be compared with Puna and its sweet-scented trees and vines.

He met a prophet of Pele, Kane-a-ka-lau, whose home was on the island Kauai. The prophet asked Ke-lii-kuku about his homeland. The chief was glad of an opportunity to boast. The chief said: “I am Ke-lii-kuku of Puna. My country is charming. Abundance is found there. Rich sandy plains are there, where everything grows wonderfully.”

The prophet ridiculed him, saying: “Return to your beautiful country. You will find it desolate. Pele has made it a heap of ruins. The trees have descended from the mountains to the sea. The ohia and puhala are on the shore. The houses of your people are burned. Your land is unproductive. You have no people. You cannot live in your country any more.”

The chief was angry and yet was frightened, so he told the prophet that he would go back to his own land and see if that word were true or false. If false, he would return and kill the prophet for speaking in contempt of his beautiful land. Swiftly the oarsmen and the mat sails took the chief back to his island. As he came around the eastern side of Hawaii he landed and climbed to the highest point from which he could have a glimpse of his loved Puna. There in the distance it lay under heavy clouds of smoke covering all the land. When the winds lifted the clouds, rolling them away, he saw that all his fertile plain was black with lava, still burning and pouring out constantly volumes of dense smoke. The remnants of forests were also covered with clouds of smoke through which darted the flashing flames, which climbed to the tops of the tallest trees.

Pele had heard the boasting chief and had shown that no land around her pit of fire was secure against her will.

Ke-lii-kuku caught a long vine, hurled it over a tree, and hung himself.

---

[snorkle]

It's almost like this whole Island was made by volcanoes....Oh.

People moving to and developing in Puna Makai seem to have a problem understanding what the Kanaka Maoli have understood for centuries. Pele is going to come. Accept her and stay out of her way as she creates and cleanses.

Build a new power grid in zones one and two? stupid
Modern energy development has focused on home systems and mini grids that can be moved when needed

Construct McMansions tied to a slab? stupid
Modular units can be large or small and moved easily when needed

Put in a modern septic system? stupid
Modern composting systems can be portable and are better for the environment

My sympathies to the people who have been displaced; but if we rebuild the same way instead of applying modern methods and materials to ancient sensibilities,........................stupid

Even after this episode is finished.........Pele is coming.