Lava flows, Hawaii 1980

Chain of craters road winds 32km down the southern slopes of Kilauea volcano, (1250m; 4090ft), the youngest and most active of Hawaii's volcanoes. The road passes by several older small craters and across lava fields of various ages. The road access comes to an abrupt end on the southeast Puna coast at the latest lava flow from Kilauea's East Rift Zone. The basaltic Hawaiian lavas have two distinct forms, although chemically they are the same: aa (viscous, rough) and pahoehoe (smooth, ropy, billowy).This image shows a mixture of aa and pahoehoe flows as they flowed over the Holei Pali (cliff), a 1000ft escarpment on the way to the Puna coast in the south-east of the island.