VOICE ONE:
This is Steve Ember.
VOICE TWO:
And this is Sarah Long with theVOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today, we visit two of themost unusual national parks in the United States. They are VolcanoesNational Park and Haleakala National Park, both in Hawaii.
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VOICE ONE:
Let me ask you a question: What is the tallest mountain on Earth?Most school children will say the answer is Mount Everest near theborder between Nepal and Tibet.
There is something that is three-hundred-four meters taller thanMount Everest. However, it is mainly underwater. It begins at thebottom of the Pacific Ocean, and rises more than seventeenkilometers from the ocean floor.
Its name is Mauna Loa. In theHawaiian language, Mauna Loa means “Long Mountain.” Mauna Loa ismore than half of the island of Hawaii, the largest of the HawaiianIslands.
It is also the largest and most active volcano on Earth. It hasproduced liquid rock called lava more than thirty times sincerecords were first kept in eighteen-forty-three. Today, Mauna Loa isquiet. It is not producing lava. However volcano experts say it isonly a matter of time before this happens once again.
VOICE TWO:
Mauna Loa is not the only volcano on the island of Hawaii. Thereare four others. Three of them are no longer active. One of themstill is active. It is named Kilauea. It has produced lava more thanfifty times in the last one-hundred years. At this moment, red hotlava is pouring out of Kilauea. It has been doing this sincenineteen-eighty-three.
Sometimes the lava moves slowly. At other times it pours out veryfast as huge amounts of pressure force it from the volcano. Duringthese times, it moves almost as quickly as water moving down theside of a mountain. Sometimes Kilauea produces large amounts of lavathat seem like rivers of fire.
VOICE ONE:
When the lava from Kilauea reachesthe ocean, its fierce heat produces great amounts of steam that riseinto the air. The lava is so hot it continues to burn underwater forsome time. The lava from Kilauea continues to add land to the islandas the volcanoes of Hawaii have always done. It is these volcanoesthat formed the islands of Hawaii.
Most of the time the lava ofKilauea seems to move peacefully toward the ocean. Yet it is not aspeaceful as it seems from a distance. In recent years the lavadestroyed one small town on the island. The liquid rock slowlycovered the town. It blocked roads and destroyed them. Nothing canstop the lava of Kilauea. Experts say the volcanoes of Mauna Loa andKilauea are a serious threat to property on many parts of theisland.
Experts say the volcanoes of the island of Hawaii are proof thatthe changing environment of Earth is and will always remain beyondhuman control.
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VOICE TWO:
Mauna Loa and Kilauea together form Volcanoes National Park inHawaii. But another national park has a huge volcano. It is on theisland of Maui. It is the Haleakala National Park. Haleakala in theHawaiian language means “House of the Sun.”
Haleakala is another huge volcano.Together with a smaller, much older volcano it helped form theisland of Maui. It is no longer considered to be active. In aboutseventeen-ninety, two areas in the side of the huge volcano openedand lava came out. The lava moved down the mountain and into thesea. That was the last recorded activity at Haleakala.
The volcano that contains Haleakala National Park risesthree-thousand-fifty meters above the sea. We would like to take youfor a visit to Haleakala. For a few minutes, sit back while we drivethe road up to the top of the volcano.
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VOICE ONE:
Our trip begins near the ocean today. We drive through the cityof Kahului. We see businesses and homes, the buildings you find inany American city. There are more flowers than in many Americancities. The Hawaiian Islands are famous for their flowers.
Soon the road begins to go up. The road moves back and forth andaround corners as it moves up the face of the mountain. At times ourdriver must slow the vehicle and turn very sharply. Soon, there areno more homes or stores.
From the city of Kahului to the top of Haleakala is aboutfifty-five kilometers. We will be three-thousand-fifty meters higherat the top of the mountain.
Very soon, we no longer see trees. We have traveled too high forthem to survive. Soon there are only a few plants. Then there isnothing but black lava rock. At one place, we begin to enter theclouds that hang close to the mountain. Our driver turns on the headlights of the vehicle. Ten minutes later, we are above the clouds inthe bright sunshine.
The road is good, so the trip takes only about an hour.
VOICE TWO:
The National Park headquarters is about two kilometers from thetop. Park officials at the information center tell you about thehistory of the volcano. They say that it is very safe … today.They also tell you that it could very well become active again. Theexperts just do not know.
We soon leave the park headquarters and travel up again, thistime to the top. There is an area here to leave our vehicle. We walkthe last few meters to the top.
As we reach the top, almost everyone says similar things. Howstrange! Did the violence of a volcano form this? This is sobeautiful!
VOICE ONE:
We are on the top looking down inside what was the most activepart of the volcano. The shape is almost like a circle except thesides have been stretched, almost the shape of an egg but longer.
There are only a few plants here and no trees. However thevolcano has left thousands of different shapes of lava stone.Hundreds of years of rain and bright sun have cut long paths in thestone.
Time has turned the oldest lava to a soft sand. There are hugemountains. There are also smaller hills that seem to be made of ashor sand. The place is a riot of color.
One big mountain seems to be a deep dark red. Another area seemsalmost yellow. Another is green, and still another is a beautifulbrown color. One area is colored gray that seems to move into a deepblack. It looks as if some one has spilled many colors of paint overthe huge area. The volcano produced these colors because the lava isvery rich in many kinds of minerals.
VOICE TWO:
The area we are seeing stretches for a long distance. Thismorning, high on the mountain in the bright sun, we can see almostforty kilometers of the park. And this is only part of it. There areeleven-thousand-five-hundred-ninety-six hectares of land in thepark.
Some of the park is closed to visitors. Scientists do research inthose areas. Experts are trying to learn how to grow and protectsome of the very unusual plants that live in Haleakala.
One of these plants is called the silver sword. It grows only inHawaii. It has long thin silver leaves. It is very beautiful andunusual.
The Hawaiian nay-nay goose also lives here. It is a large bird.Visitors are asked not to come too near the nay-nay. Experts arehelping both the silver sword plants and the nay-nay geese toreproduce so they will not disappear from the Earth.
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VOICE ONE:
Thousands of visitors each year enjoy Haleakala National Park onthe island of Maui, and Mauna Loa and Kilauea on the island ofHawaii. Ships stop at the two islands and buses take the groups ofvisitors to see these huge volcanoes.
Many people also fly over the volcanoes in airplanes orhelicopters. This is a safe and popular method of watching Kilauea’slava moving slowly toward the ocean. Other people see it fromships.Visitors also may walk into the rain forest created by thevolcano thousands of years ago. Here they can see Waimoku Fallswhere water drops one-hundred-twenty meters down the face of amountain.
Both parks offer visitors a sight of nature that most peoplenever have the chance to enjoy. Visitors can see how an activevolcano adds mass to the island. And they can see inside a volcanothat has been silent for hundreds of years.
The United States Park Service is responsible for both Haleakalaand the Hawaii National Volcanoes Park. It works hard to keep boththese areas as nature created them.
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VOICE TWO:
This Special English program was written and produced by PaulThompson. Our recording engineer today was Bob Phillips. This isSarah Long.
VOICE ONE:
And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for anotherEXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America.