Volcanic Lava from Italy and Hawaii

(3 photos)

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We’ve visited this area three different years. Mt. Vesuvius can be seen from all over the city of Naples, Italy. Several cities were buried by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 AD. The most famous is Pompeii (on the south side of Vesuvius), but we think that Herculaneum (on the west side) is even more interesting. The volcano has not smoked since the eruption in 1944.

In 1980 we drove high up Mt. Vesuvius to a parking lot, and walked the zig-zag path the rest of the way to the top. The path was rough bare black lava rock. How many people do you know who have done it! (The answer is most likely two — us!) Would have taken the chair lift, but it was out of order.

It took about a half hour to make it to the top where it was cold, windy, and too foggy to see very far down into the crater. We picked up a large piece of lava and brought it home with us. The guard (let us know it was OK with him), and the other people standing nearby were surprised anyone wanted a sample. They had never met us before!!!

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We went to Hawaii to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary in 1981 (dinner at the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel, Kamuela, Hawaii). Hawaiians make a big deal out of a tourist pilfering a piece of lava, or even a bag of sand and taking it home. We didn’t much believe in the legends we had heard, but as we picked up this piece of lava, (it was lying off to the side, as if someone threw it there) the guard said it was OK with him. There is a lot of lava on the big Island of Hawaii, but we don’t remember exactly where we found this sample.

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We have placed the lava rocks side by side, so you can see the color difference. The pink lava from Hawaii is on the left, and the black lava from Mt. Vesuvius is on the right. The weight and the feel of the surface is the same for both pieces of lava.

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