Notes from the Underground – on Easter Island.

Still on with my intercontinental switcheroo, today we’re back on Easter Island!…

The topic of volcanoes is really interesting and diverse. It’s not just volcanos’ cones, the lava that sometimes flows out of them, and the smoke from eruptions. There are also all the colors, hot springs, and geysers – which all come under the “volcanisms” banner. There’s also a unique, lesser-known phenomenon – lava tubes. And they look something like this:

This amazing natural phenomenon forms in the following way. Lava flowing from an erupting crater cools and solidifies at the edges, while on the inside it stays hot and liquid. As a result, lava tubes are created, and then more layers of lava pour over the top of them. The lava flowing inside the tubes holds its heat and viscous state, then eventually drains out. What’s left behind are tunnels of all shapes and sizes: from a few dozen meters to several kilometers (!) long, and from a meter wide (barely enough to squeeze through) up to tens of meters – like in a huge hall. And on Easter Island the tunnels are half filled in, the ceilings are anywhere from around two to maybe five meters high, and their width runs from ~three to ~ten meters:

Welcome to the Ana Te Pahu lava fields!

First you have to walk across landscapes like these, with rocky (lava) outcrops poking out from the grass:

Then you come across areas where the ground’s collapsed: that shows where there’s a lava tunnel underneath. Like this one where the roof’s caved in and formed a massive pit:

Suddenly – a designer tree, all on its lonesome:

And it turns out it’s growing out of a collapsed lava tunnel:

Of course, we couldn’t resist it: we just had to get inside the tunnel! ->

Clearly the volcanic soil is super-mineralized: perfect for… banana trees! ->

Next, helmets on – and we head deeper into the tunnel:

In some places you have to duck and even crawl through the narrowest parts:

But overall, it’s spacious and comfortable:

Watch out for the ceiling and protect your head!

Another crawl-through stretch:

An amazing phenomenon!

The ceiling in the light of the flashlights sparkles like a swarm of fireflies:

We crawled and walked through about 200–300 meters of tunnel (or did it just seem that long to me because I was somewhat nervous?). But we could have walked/crawled much further: if the internet’s to be believed, the explored part of this tunnel (or tunnel network) is around seven kilometers long!

That’s all for today folks, but I’ll be back with more from Easter Island soon.

You can find the best hi-res photos from Rapa Nui here.