Reporting RISE Field dispatches · 2013–2022

A volcanologist surveys a hardened lava flow in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.
June 2015 · Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, Kīlauea

Hawaii · HI-SEAS

The Big Island's Hard Rock Café

There are 13 microclimates and a continent's range of terrain on the island of Hawaii. Of all of them, it's the lava fields of Kīlauea that draw planetary scientists from around the world — terrain that approximates the Moon and Mars closely enough to rehearse on. In June 2015, the RIS4E field team flew in from Johnson, Goddard, and Stony Brook for a ten-day trial of new geology instruments. A small group of student journalists came with them.

Filed 25 dispatches