When the Kilauea volcano unleashed its latest stage of eruption, residents in Puna watched the forest around them begin to die. The fruit trees, flowers, and ferns quickly began to turn brown from the noxious, sulfur-dioxide-filled air. Then the lava came through, effectively paving over formerly verdant forest with rough and barren volcanic rock. On Hawaii’s Big Island, lava from the latest flow has covered over tide pools and coral gardens, boiled a 400-year-old lake until it evaporated, and killed various sea creatures, reports The Guardian.
Scientists say that this is part of life on the state’s youngest island, where new land gets continuously created by the lava reshaping the natural environment.
“From a human point of view, what’s happening is tragic,” said David Damby, a volcanologist with the United States Geological Survey (USGS). “But from the volcano’s point of view, that’s the job she does: to build new land and change the landscape. That’s the way the earth works.”
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