Right now, a slowly moving river of lava from the Kilauea volcano is threatening homes in the small town of Pahoa on the Big Island, forcing people to evacuate. According to the US Geological Survey, the lava can exceed 1,650 degrees Fahrenheit and incinerate structures on contact. Residents may be nervous, but they are not surprised: Kilauea has been erupting pretty much continuously since 1983. Lava is a fact of life for them.
The Hawaiian islands are a string of volcanoes, holes in the Earth's crust created by a plume of hot, molten mantle flowing up from deep within the Earth. Known as a hotspot, this plume creates magma in the ocean crust that in turn creates a chain of volcanoes as the Pacific plate moves slowly over it.
You can step through Hawaii's fascinating and explosive history in this beautiful (nonfiction) comic by Jed McGowan. From the first hint of magma on the ocean floor about 500,000 years ago, through the human settlement of the island and into the future, McGowan illustrates each phase of the island's growth and eventual death beautifully.
"I have family on Kauai and on one of my trips there I also went to the Big Island to visit Volcanoes National Park and the summit of Mauna Kea," McGowan wrote in an email to WIRED. "It was a powerful, inspiring experience. I later researched the geology of Hawaii and saw a good story: the formation and eventual destruction of a volcanic island."
