highway over water

[hotzcatz]

Daimond Head trail is paved for most of it's length. The inside of the crater has all sorts of bunkers in it and the ones at the upper rim that you have to hike to get to used to have gun emplacements in them during WWII. There's a set of really long stairs up near the top of the trail. The Civil Defense headquarters for Oahu used to be inside Diamond Head crater, I don't know if it still is or not.

Way back when, there used to be rock concerts inside the crater, but they don't do that anymore. A governor several govs back, I forget which one, also considered making an amusement park inside the crater.

I think you have to pay to park there now and perhaps even to go on the trail. It's been a really long time since I've been there but it used to be a fun hike with an incredible view at the top.

[whtviper1]

Originally Posted by hotzcatz

I think you have to pay to park there now

You do

[Compression]

Originally Posted by whtviper1

I doubt it will ever reopen - there are always stranded hikers seemingly on a monthly basis.

Just this past month, a hiker disappeared, never to found.

Daylenn Pua Still Missing After Climbing Hawaii's Infamous 'Stairway To Heaven'

Here's hoping it made it.......


CN.......

[oldtoiletsmkgdflrpots]

Ok, so when you talk about "craters" you're making reference to old volcanoes? In my small world the word crater is only used in reference to the moon. Once a crater does it never have a chance to erupt again? What/who determines a volcano will never become active again?

[Grassyknoll]

Originally Posted by oldtoiletsmkgdflrpots

Ok, so when you talk about "craters" you're making reference to old volcanoes? In my small world the word crater is only used in reference to the moon. Once a crater does it never have a chance to erupt again? What/who determines a volcano will never become active again?

Pele?

[hotzcatz]

Diamond Head is the cone of an old volcanic eruption, the inside of the cone is called a "crater" since it's a big round depression inside. I've heard the moon craters are from being struck by asteroids, does the moon have any volcanic action? I've never thought about it.

There's a hot spot of magma coming up between or through the tectonic plates or some such deep down in the ocean. It pushes out lava which starts layering and piling up and eventually there's enough lava to break the surface of the water. Let it cool down, add a few coconut trees and hotels and that is what has become the Hawaiian Islands. As the tectonic plates shift, the parts of lava that have already come out above the magma spot shift over sideways. Once the magma spot is no longer below them, they are no longer active volcanoes. I think Diamond Head might be considered a dead or extinct volcano and half the Big Island (made of about five volcanic mountains) is considered dormant although how that's different from dead, I'm not precisely sure. The vulcanologists would know. The other half of the Big Island is still growing and Pele is busy over there. There's also a new island being formed. It's been named "Loihi", I think, and it won't break the surface of the ocean for hundreds if not thousands of years. Building islands isn't a very quick process.

So, the volcanoes won't become active again unless the tectonic plates shift back the other way and bring them over the hot spot again. I have no clue if the hot spot can shift anywhere or not, I don't know why it stays in one spot. It seems impervious to the shifting of tectonic plates so that's a pretty tenacious hot spot.

[melaniej65]

We used to find spent rounds (shells) when I was little (late 60s/early 70s. It was a lot of fun for us kids to see whom could collect the most.