CHALLENGE #22 – ANSWERED – Where is Carol Merrill?

December 10, 2020 PT

From this angle, you will have to take my word for it. But, that is a younger Carol Merrill apparently following a group of pathetic souls into the depths of Hell. Nope, that was a lie. This is not another Gate to Hell post, that was handled in a much earlier post (https://travelingwithpt.com/gates-of-hell/). This particular cave is quite a highlight within one of this nation’s great national parks. So…

Where is Carol Merrill?

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As I have said before, I can not tell the difference between apathy and ignorance. Whichever the case, there were no correct answers for the current CHALLENGE. I had a couple reasonable guesses of Mammoth Caves National Park. However, the rocks are not this color in Mammoth. No, for the correct answer, we have to leave the continental United States. Carol is venturing down a lava tube in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park on the big island of Hawaii.

The lava tubes are one of the many interesting formations from Kilauea, which is the most active of the 5 volcanoes on Hawaii. I will attempt to share my simplistic, geological understanding for lava tubes. Basically, the explanation is uneven cooling of a lava flow. As a massive lava flow cools, the exterior cools first. The cool exterior forms a hardened “tube” around the inner flowing lava which stays hot and liquid. The protected molten, inner lava then flows through and eventually out of the outer tube. Thus, the departure of the inner core results in the cave-like tube in this CHALLENGE.

If you are interested, here’s just a few more shots from Hawaii Volcanoes National Park…

Beyond the lava tubes, you are walking about an active volcano, Kilauea. While it rarely spits fiery lava onto stupid tourists, Kilauea still manages to entertainment tourists.