Exploring Hawaii Volcanoes National Park: The Southwest Rift Zone

by Donald B. MacGowan

Southwest Rift presents a Mars-like geography, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park: Graphic from Photo by Donald B MacGowan

There are many wondrous, enigmatic and fascinating attractions on the Big Island of Hawaii, some better known than others, many out of the way and generally off the beaten track. Tour Guide Hawaii has produced an encyclopedic collection of the most up-to-date information, presented as short GPS-cued videos, in an app downloadable to iPhone and iPod Touch that covers the entire Big Island, highlighting the popular and the uncrowded, the famous and the secluded, the adventurous and the relaxing.

Southwest Rift

Fissures at the Southwest Rift, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park: Photo by Donald B MacGowan

A major fissure, or crack, extending across the volcano from its summit out to the coast and down to the sub-sea root of the volcano, the Southwest Rift crosses Crater Rim Drive in the vicinity of the HVO. It is worth the time to stop along the road here and check out this natural weakness, a fissure and vent that goes all the way to the heart of the volcano.

This roadside pullout is infamous for having been featured in an episode of the Discovery Channel television series “Man vs Wild”. Pretending to be dozens of miles in the forbidding volcanic backcountry of Kilauea, Bear Grylls leaps foolishly about the fissures like a gecko on crack, just a few meters from the roadway. In one scene you can actually see car traffic on the highway right behind him. Viewer outrage was so vehement at this obvious, and odious, fraud that the episode is no longer available on DVD.

A Lava flow that poured over the side of the open fissure at Southwest Rift, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park: Photo by Donald B MacGowan

NOTE: Currently The Southwest Rift is inaccessible, as a portion of Chain of Craters Road has been closed due to the current eruption in Halema’uma’u Crater.

To see the new iPhone/iPod Touch App, please visit http://www.tourguidehawaii.com/iphone.html.

The best of Tour Guide Hawaii’s free content about traveling to, and exploring, the Big island, can be found here.

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All media copyright 2010 by Donald B. MacGowan. All rights reserved

Aerial view of the Southwest Rift and Halema'uma'u, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park: Photo by Aelbert Aehegma