When a Volcano Creates Golden Lava; The Highly Unusual Pele's Hair
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- čas přidán 22. 05. 2024
- Just outside of the erupting Kilauea volcano in a Hawaii is a strange geologic oddity. There, mysterious golden strands of what looks like hair or fur coat the ground. However, these pieces are not organic but rather are a type of volcanic rock. They formed during Kilauea's repeated effusive and explosive eruptions, leading to the material coating parts of the Ka'u desert. So, how this golden lava or volcanic glass form? This video will answer this question and discuss what is known as pele's hair.
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Graphics of eruption dates are courtesy of the Global Volcanism Program, Smithsonian Institution. volcano.si.edu/
Images with a list of eruption dates have their dates sources from the GVP of the Smithsonian Institution.
Google Earth imagery used in this video: ©Google & Data Providers
Thumbnail Photo Credit: USGS, Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, Public Domain
Sources:
[1] USGS, "Volcano Watch - Amber waves of … Pele's hair?"
[2] Hawaiian Volcano Observatory
[3] Global Volcanism Program, 2013. Kilauea (332010) in Volcanoes of the World, v. 4.11.1 (18 Aug 2022). Venzke, E (ed.). Smithsonian Institution. Downloaded 01 Sep 2022 (volcano.si.edu/volcano.cfm?vn.... doi.org/10.5479/si.GVP.VOTW4-...
0:00 Kilauea's Ongoing Eruption
0:14 Pele's Hair
0:51 Volcanoes with Pele's Hair
1:04 Comparison to Obsidian
1:51 Pele's Hair Formation
3:50 Other Types of Volcanic Glass
Pepe’s hair is such a beautiful and unique variety of volcanic glass! However, unlike obsidian it is quite brittle.
it is very pretty.
How does red obsidian form? Better question...where can it be found?
Pepe's, or pele's? I'm afraid people called José (nicknamed Pepe in Spanish, after p. p., standing for pater putatibus, Latin for foster father, the role of St. Joseph in Christian mythology) have nothing to do with this mineral.
@Eperogi Limousine haha..
rare pepe's hair
This stuff is extremely sharp and dangerous! ONLY approach with protective equpment, starting with GOGGLES and RESPIRATOR. You do NOT want this stuff in your eyes or lungs! When it shatters, it can fling tiny to microscopic fragments everywhere, and silicosis is no joke. You will also probably want tough gloves, and thick, tough clothing you can either wash or throw away afterward.
Reminds me of asbestos but huge. I believe IR would be super hazardous.
So, loft insulation then
Reminds me of freaking fiberglass! :O
If you blow glass and pop a glass bubble its also very dangerous.
It reminds me of glass wool insulation.
Fun fact: Alolan diglet and dugtrio have hair made of Pele's hair.
The shattering effect is the same as what happens with molten glass drops in water called Prince Ruperts drop. The entirety of the strand literally shatters at any break due to the internal stresses solidified within the strand. It’s also spectacularly resistant to compressive forces such as breaking with a hammer but a simple snap of the strand and the forces holding all the stress in place releases all at once shattering into a thousand pieces.
That's almost exactly what I was just about to post lol you did it better though lol
I've seen them destroy hydraulic presses as well.
Why is it called that?
@@haven_lady675 …… I believe it was his messing around in a grass makers shop centuries ago where this was discovered. Not sure if it was him (Prince Rupert) proper or the glassmaker but something like that.
@@michaelgeisdorf6641 it is not uncommon that processes,results and products during previous eras were attributed to the patrons,nobles or maesters etc whom either presided over such processes, supplemented them with either capital or material or just plain owned the building
During our 2018 eruption our home was inundated with Peles hair.We saw a strand over 6 feet long.I found taro leaves that were skewered with pieces of Peles hair.I had at least 20 or more Pele hair splinters in my toes.One good thing was it knocked out our slugs and snails for several months.
Did it ever break down into the landscape? It seems like it would be near impossible to clean it up around your house.
@@jonathoningles2703 Isn't sand just broken down rock. You can make sand with glass too. I believe that once it breaks down it just turns to dust, but I guess it would still be bad if it got in your lungs or eyes afterwards.
So THATS what it takes to keep the slugs away.
At 42 seconds that's an excellent shot with the flowers too
I would guess that stuff would have a consistency of mineral wool made from iron smelting slag. Nasty stuff to get in your skin.
Requested topic: Pele's Seaweed and Pele's Tears.
I knew of Pele's hair, but never heard of the other two types. Wind can also roll a bunch of Pele's Hair up into what sometimes looks like tumbleweed. Especially if the wind catches it early in its cooling stage.
I second that 👍
I’ll see what I can do. However, I was unable to find a decent assortment of copyright free photos of those two types of glass.
During the Fountaining phase of Kilauea volcano, 1984/ 86, with Some fountains reaching 600 meters On windy Days or nights Pelly's hair Was known to be blown As far as South Lone two districts away
South Kona
Interesting! I live around those obsidian volcanoes you discussed and have heard lots of geology lectures, but nobody's ever mentioned Pele's Hair. You really do learn something new every single day! 🤯
Try lighting does Obsidian
Maybe it could create a Portal
- That one kid whose addicted to Minecraft
Another unusual form that I came across during my 2008 holiday in Iceland is something they called Pele's Tears. As you can guess from the name, they are small droplets of black volcanic glass. The pair of Pele's Tears I got had been made into drop earrings, which I've paired with pierce work silver earrings I made a few months beforehand. THey make a soft chiming sound when worn together. I wish now I'd bought more examples, but at the time my money was somewhat limited, and I didn't know what else I might find... Oh well, next time...
👍👍👍
More can be found at very recent basaltic eruption sites!
Im thinking more will be found with Iceland's recent and some future eruptions, more definitly will occur, that area has them goes off in close spurts and for a while. Their maybe more such eruptions elsewhere soon too. Keeping an eye out on Hawaii's kilueaha and definitly Loa statuses too.
Wow- that's so clever of you- to make earrings from them! I wonder who else does this? And do they sell them? Amazing... 👍👏👏👏
"In Hawaiian religion, Pele (pronounced [ˈpɛlɛ]) is the goddess of volcanoes and fire and the creator of the Hawaiian Islands.
Often referred to as "Madame Pele" or "Tūtū Pele" as a sign of respect, she is a well-known deity within Hawaiian mythology and is notable for her contemporary presence and cultural influence as an enduring figure from ancient Hawaii."
- Wikipedia
She's also apparently known for being very, VERY easily pissed off. Like, you blink at the woman wrong and she loses her shit. Sounds like my ex, honestly.
Pele pronounced "Pele"
? 🤣you mean pronounced (pay-lay)
They were showing the name in the International Phonetic Alphabet the second time bc it provides an objective pronunciation instead of relying on the readers accent to produce the words in your guide the exact same way you do. (Also pay-lay would be incorrect Hawaiian pronunciation bc the -ay is a diphthong instead of a single solitary vowel sound)
Sorry to be obnoxious just that as a linguistics major I found it rude to laugh at someone for using what is literally standard practice
So with this video does that make it that Madame Pele is a blondie
@@SupahTrunks7
THANK YOU.
.
A voice of true information in an ocean of recreational indignantion !
I found some Pele's hair once while hiking Kīlauea Iki, but it was just a few strands glinting in the sunlight as the wind shifted. I'll have to go looking for those great mats of it in Kaʻu sometime, that's pretty incredible!
Of course, the mats shown were post 2018, when it covered the parking lot in 2-4 inches of material. Might have blown elsewhere since then. Just ask / email USGS the best spot to find chunks of Pele’s hair for photography. They can be quite helpful.
@@GeologyHub Ahh, right, I hadn't considered that! Thanks for the tip. I'll have to try that, especially if we get another big eruption. :)
I live over the Missoula Glacial Floods deposits. I learned about it from a local friend. Then I watched 100's of hours of lectures by Nick Z and other profs about the subject of this and geology on the whole.
You have one of the absolute BEST channels on the internets. The amount of information contained in these rather short videos is intense compared to other content creators that take 65 minutes to get to any real point.
My time is so important. I don't know if you think this way it or comes naturally but being concise....that's a gift....a good teacher you are. I'm a flight instructor (back in the day). In many teaching environments there is NO time for being anything but concise.
You just keep on exactly like you are. I'll watch these vids form stem to stern.
Collect these three artifacts to form Pele's Set, grants +15 points to your Geology skill.
You can level up and unlock weapons such as chalcanthite, +10 poison points
I've never seen Pele's hair, but here in the Canary Islands there is obsidian near El Teide on Tenerife. Not sure how old it is though. Also after the submarine eruption near El Hierro, the first life that re-appeared was a new bacterium called "Venus's Hair." If Pele's hair ever appears anywhere here, I will remember not to touch. it. Thank you for all these fascinating videos; I am learning a lot.
Although Teide has produced numerous basaltic eruptions, its large caldera has numerous very tall viscous rhyolite lava flows. Those rhyolite flows have some obsidian!
Please do a video on the different types of obsidians: Rainbow, Velvet, Golden Sheen, Silver Sheen, Green, etc. Thank You!
Just when you think volcanoes are dangerous enough you are introduced to explosive glass grass.
When you think you’ve seen it all, there’s always something lovely (dangerous) just around the corner.
Is there any danger accidentaly inhaling Pele's hair if someone is nearby? It has to be like inhaling tiny particles of glass.
Yes its quite dangerous to touch or inhale. It can also get in your eyes which can be really really bad
I'd imagine that wind and shifting/settling masses of pele's hair would throw out some inhalation hazards. I'd be cautious until proven safe.
It's very fragile, so I guess you can't find Pele's hair being sedimented in areas of former volcanic eruptions, right? Or is it possible to identify remains of Pele's Hair in old volcanic rocks?
Nice video about this fascinating stuff.
I guess it's very dangerous, like asbestos, if you accidentally get this into your lungs.
🖐👴
Another great video, explaining things I've not even heard about before. 👍🙂
wonderfully done and explained.
Comprehensive explanation of a volcanic term.
Just fascinating! Elegant explanation.
It is a fascinating type of mineral. It reminds me of stretching molten glass tubes in the lab to make long, flexible capillaries. The contents of SiO2 in both glass and basalt must be a factor in such stretching.
Yeah the process is quite similar at least from a thermodynamic perspective. All these kinds of glass are various kinds of amorphous solids which can form whenever a material is effectively flash cooled enough that it is able to solidify before crystallization can happen. This aspect however doesn't really depend on the material properties too much as long as the conditions to achieve flash cooling are met.
In terms of shape however material properties are extremely important as the shape depends on the structure of the molecular bonds as well as the remnant surface tension that got frozen into place. This surface tension is thus going to vary depending on the original liquid properties of that material since the molecular arrangement of atoms in an amorphous solid is that of the material's liquid phase prior to getting flash frozen.
Incidentally this surface tension is why glass can be quite a bit stronger than its crystalline (mineralized) form but yet the substance shatters catastrophically if this strain is exceeded.
Also this technical distinction means that glass by definition does not have a crystalline lattice arrangement and thus by definition glass of any kind even if naturally occurring can never be a mineral. ;)
That said if a piece of glass does have a connecting section which did crystalize the crystalline portion will actually drive spontaneous crystallization as the crystal component serves as a seed which allows the surrounding molecules to much more easily settled into the lower energy level crystal phase.
As a consequence of amorphous solids always being an excited state they are what is known as thermodynamically metastable and given enough time this means they statistically will always have a nonzero chance to spontaneously settle into their crystalline state. Thus this effectively gives any kind of glass a half life before parts of the glass start to crystalize eventually seeding a radial zone of crystal formation.
It is for this reason that obsidian or any other kind of natural glass is almost always Miocene age or younger as most older glass has had enough time to begin to seriously crystalize. That said small glass inclusions can last a surprisingly long time especially if say there were say incompatible elements that got frozen into the glass impeding crystal formation. In this context the oldest known glass inclusion within a volcanic rock dates back to the Ordovician period though from what I've read finding such small inclusions in volcanic rocks older than the cretaceous is extremely rare.
I used to do that w/ Kimble disposable glass pipettes heated over a flame in a lab very long ago but I can't recall which we used them for--sucking up tiny amt's of liquid or dispensing tiny droplets.
I really appreciate you taking the time to tell us about all of this. Your videos are informative and enjoyable.
Love the animations in this vid, great work!
That was fascinating! I live in Oregon and have hiked to the top of that huge obsidian flow in the Newberry Crater. What an amazing site to behold. It’s such a humongous mountain of obsidian it’s enough to make a rock hound break out in seizures from excitement alone.
I used to catch our drinking water off the roof and I remember sweeping several large shopping bags full of Pele's hair off the roof after the 83 eruption . I designed our water filtration in several steps to keep that shit out of our livers. Still alive in 2022.
I had no idea that Junji Ito based Sensor on an actual natural 'golden hair' phenomena. The more you know!
This is cool I never saw this or heard of it before. Thanks for sharing!
Cool video. I had never heard of this before, thanks for this.
Fascinating! I'd never heard of Pele's hair before. Not surprising though that it shatters into tiny fragments, since it apparently formed under a jolly old lot of stress.
Fascinating. Thank you 😊
Thanks! Enjoyed this!
Thank you for the information 🙂
Fascinating! thank you!!!
3:39 I used to see fluffy spun sugar; straw on a barn floor. Now? A haystack comprised of needles. Good video! Informative upload.
Also: Pelé's hair is so called after the Hawaiian Goddess of legend Pelé, who is said to reside in the active volcano.
Great video thank you
I'm still hoping for a video on the Chesapeake Bay impact crater
Suggested topic : ' Gold bearing lava '.
How beautiful !
I wish I'd known about that desert w/ Pele's hair last time I visited Hawaii. Is the golden color from high olivine content?
P.S. I love Big Obsidian Flow @ Newberry Volcanic N.M.--one of my favorite places to visit!
I like learning geology. I never heard of Pele's Hair before. It is good to learn something new and interesting everyday, today, this was my new and most interesting thing. Thanks for the vid.
The manga "Sensor" by Junji Ito does a great story that involves Pele's Hair.
That was very interesting! Thanks for the video :o)
Its a hot materially, quickly stretched thin and rapidly cooled. So, it's basically volcanic cotton candy!
I appreciate your over 9000 hour mspaint graphical demonstration of the lava splatter.
My request is a video on Pele’ seaweed. Thanks for this video Geology Hub for it gave a more detailed insight into Pele’s hair.
I love Pele's hair and have seen the golden strands, even if it was a long time ago. I was surprised to know that Pele's hair can also be seen at other volcanoes in other countries, but you learn something new everyday. I took a photo of Pele's hair, but the picture came out too blurry because this was the time when people used film instead of digital cameras.
Can you do a video about Pele's seaweed and Pele's tears in a future video? I do not think that I have heard of her seaweed before and I would like to learn more about it. In a future video, could you please talk about the potential dangers of the Mayon volcano and what are the chances of another eruption repeating History? Stay safe and take care out there.
Welp, here is the links to his other vids mentioning mt Mayon. Havent had a super most recent update but here are these: ( nine days ago) czcams.com/video/ppP0htAxEHA/video.html and (four days ago) czcams.com/video/2b261L1-0Ok/video.html
I know - National Geographic always had blurry pictures cause they were using film.
Great explanation and execution. 👍
Short to the point and interesting content
omg thanks learnt something new😉Peles hair and do not touch...churr for share💯👍🏻
Do vids on pele’s other glass type never heard of them before
Very good. Everyday, for about a month, I watched Kilauea erupting. I read comments and warnings about Pele's Hair. I kind of had an accurate concept of what it was. Now, I really get it. There were warnings because the fine bits of volcanic glass could blow into the air and people could take these small glass partials in their lungs. Many were going out to access the damage to their property or just observe the stunning natural phenomenon of Kilauea. As they walked, they could crush Pele's Hair under their feet.
Thanks for posting this.
fascinating, but now you have to describe Pele's seaweed and Pele's tears. I am assuming that the Pele referred to is a Polynesian deity and not the Brazilian soccer (futbol) legend.
beautiful
It's almost as if asbestos and a Prince Rupert's drop had a baby
Imagine being someone in the middle ages thinking they're blessed with gold lava only to realise it's not. Ouch mentally and physically.
Thank you
Excellent!
A fountain of airborne fiberglass!
One more phobia...
Basically natures own spicy cotton candy
Super neato! 👍
Was going to ask about the seaweed and the tears but the fact that you mentioned them properly means that you plan on doing something on it in the near future
I'm glad you mentioned that one shouldn't pick it up because that would be probably the first thing I would do if I saw something like this. lol
Just imagine what the landscape may look like in exoplanets.
Just beautiful. Do I get points for guessing what it was immediately?
I live on the island of hawaii and hear people talk about Pele's hair time to time.
Most treat it like it is pretty deadly.
Oh, it is sooooo pretty!
Pele’s hair was the inspiration for rock wool used for wall insulation
Glass is actually classified as a ridged liquid as it has no crystalline structure
Its debatable in the case of glass as to be a liquid generally the definition used says that flow has to be demonstrated at some long timescales and this has not been observed in any kind of glass both natural or man made. Thus its typically referred to as an amorphous solid.
Note we can't rule out the possibility of glass flowing on timescales beyond 480 million years but even if it does this is far longer than the typical timescale for spontaneous crystallization of obsidian which has an effective half life on the order of tens of millions of years.
Thus far glass has never been observed to flow and the geological record for natural glass indicates that if some effective flow rate does exist it must be much longer than the timescale for spontaneous crystallization by over a full order of magnitude.
My crude back of envelope calculation says around 24 times longer likely far more as I used a very generous upper limit on the effective half life for crystallization.
That is to say if glass does flow it thermodynamically isn't stable enough to last long enough to ever do so.
I imagine the splinters you'd get wouldn't be very fun to deal with.
It looks soft and fluffy, but anyone familiar with fiberglass insulation will understand why that golden carpet is more of a hellscape than wonderland. The volcano wasn't getting fast enough internet, so it tried to make its own fiber optics, lol.
Natural fiberglass insulation, wild
I am a student in geology sciences and i have been given a different explanation for obsidienne. According to my teachers it form when magma rich in some elements that prevent cristal formation cools because when magma cools really fast, we have like regular volcanic rocks with very small Cristals. And it makes sense to me
1:20 Great snowmobiling in that area, if it even still snows there. Not been there in 20 years.
Pele's fiber optic cable.
Makes me think of angel hair quartz aka rutile quartz. Very pretty!
Found a TON of Peles hair at vent 8. Also, just about 500 or so feet below the caldera at Mauna Loa there are lava fields that have that same color. Lava is crazy sharp and glassy there too. I wonder if that could be peles hair that has been broken down a bit.
OMG Skyrim has this everywhere!
I made the mistake of putting my backpack down on the ground while visiting Kiluea. I didn't realize that it had collected pele's hair on it and put it back on. I ended up getting thousands of little pokes and had to suffer till I got back to the car. The backpack had to be scrubbed with a stiff brush before I could wear it again.
How beautiful it is to come from a volcano!
Interesting geologic phenomenon.
Natures fiberglass, nuff said.
So it's natural rock wool. Neat.
Question: Was the 2 meter/6 foot obsidian boulder which you referenced large enough that it took long enough to cool that the center crystallized❓❓
This guy's got a bizarre speech pattern.
"This is Pele's hairrrrrr" "hard to remove from the skinnnnn" "from separate locationnnns" "long strands of materiallllll"
Like the fabled Golden Fleece.
Imagine falling onto it, it be hell X.x
Cool, hope some videogame developer could make a new type of volcanic biome.
0:42
Requested topic: geology of the other terrestrial planets in the Solar System!
It would be fascinating for you to cover the different rock types and differences between the geology of Earth and Mercury, Mars or the Moon. Doesn't have to be a frequent thing, just one video here and there between Earth-related videos.
I was looking at some lava flows last week that clearly had iron in it. How the heck does that work if anyone wants to answer? Does it just oxidize when it gets exposed? I was under the impression that lava was iron poor.
? Huh where did you get the idea lava is iron poor? Volcanoes are the main source for replenishment of Earth's mineral cycling.
Now notably the iron content does vary with more silica rich crystal fractionalized magmas tending to contain far less iron but iron is quite frankly everywhere in the universe for the same reason it causes stars to effectively "die" namely it has the strongest binding energy per nucleon of any atom which can be produced by stellar nucleosynthesis.
As for what happens when it does get exposed to air yep it does indeed oxidize which can be a useful means to gauge how old a lava flow is if more precise methods of dating aren't available.
Note that it isn't just molecular oxygen which reacts this way however as iron and other metals in volcanic rocks such as calcium manganese react readily with carbon dioxide as well as water which plays an important role in Earth's natural carbon cycle.
For example the iron in olivine can react with O2 to form magnetite.
Sure Earth's crust is highly depleted in iron compared to is cosmic abundance but that doesn't mean iron is scarce since cosmically Iron is literally everywhere being the 9th most abundant element in the observable Universe and as iron has a strong chemical affinity for oxygen the 3rd most abundant element in the Universe this means that where oxygen exists some iron will too.
@@Dragrath1 Thanks.
1:27, this is awesome but what about 70% Silicon Dioxide and 14% Sodium Dioxide?
I have a lot of cats, so I’m used to hair everywhere,,, but that stuff is weird.
I remember Pele having slightly different hair.
From what you're describing, Pele's Hair is like fibreglass
GOLD!!!!
So what specifically can we use it
Is it Usable or not
And what type or kind product can used or use
So, I need to go to Oregon to mine the Dragonglass? Useful, considering the undead in Portland.
ahh, so that's why alolan diglett and dugtrio have luscious golden locks..