Heat and smells of sulfur, scorched earth and burning vegetation fill the air. Acrid smoke from the melted asphalt of a lava-covered highway chokes me and makes breathing difficult. It brings to mind the words of that intrepid early traveler to the Hawaiian Islands, Mark Twain, on his visit to the volcano in 1866: “ ... the smell of sulfur is strong, but not unpleasant to a sinner.”

Sinner or not, when one comes right up to Hawai`i’s lava flows and peers into the abyss of surreal beauty and incredible power, one is duly humbled by Mother Nature’s machinations. The eerie scene gives the illusion of being present at the beginning of life on Earth.

The awesome display of Mother Nature’s fireworks, or in this case, of Madame Pele, the Hawaiian volcano goddess, attracts thousands of visitors daily to Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park. The Big Island of Hawai`i is one of the few places in the world where an erupting volcano can be viewed close up in relative safety.

A surface lava pool attracts visitors at Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park.

To see the activity, visitors drive to the end of Chain of Craters Road in the national park and hike to the eruption site, on the southeast coast of the Big Island. Here the creeping lava flows into the ocean, creating huge billowing steam clouds of volcanic smog, known as vog, over a stark landscape of raw new land.

Hawai`i’s Kilauea volcano began erupting on January 3, 1983, and has been in a steady active phase since then. According to volcanologists, this is the lengthiest eruption from the volcano’s down-slope rift zone in more than 600 years.

Scientists at Hawai`i Volcano Observatory note that the eruptive activity has slowed down recently, in comparison with earlier stages. Activity changes almost daily and is unpredictable at the Kilauea volcano, one of the most active in the world.

The current activity began with cracks in the earth’s surface that created lava flows, which increased over time. The lava ran several miles down slope in vast surface flows, at times reaching the sea through underground lava tubes.

Since the eruption began, lava flows several feet deep have covered some 45 square miles (11655 hectares) of rain forest and desert. The eruption has also created more than 560 acres (226 hectares) of new land along Hawai`i’s southeast coast.

The eruption has claimed no lives, but it has had a serious impact on area residents. It has devastated the quiet seaside village of Kalapana and area subdivisions, wiping out more than 180 homes and other buildings, and disrupting many lives. Flows have covered beach parks, several miles of roads and power lines, archaeological and historical sites, and a national park visitor’s center. It has also destroyed rare plant and animal habitats.