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"The All-Seeing Eye," an irregularity in pahoehoe.


Location: Sullivan Bay, Santiago, Galápagos Islands, Ecuador
Year: 2004
Merckslides catalogue number: 16(06)-18750
Comments: The century-old lava flow at Sullivan Bay is covered with pristine, textbook quality pahoehoe everywhere you look.

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A bubble in flowing lava


Location: Sullivan Bay, Santiago, Galápagos Islands, Ecuador
Year: 2004
Merckslides catalogue number: 16(06)-18731
Comments:

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Pahoehoe with embedded cinders


Location: Sullivan Bay, Santiago, Galápagos Islands, Ecuador
Year: 2004
Merckslides catalogue number: 16(06)-18749
Comments: Which came first, the cinders or the lava? In this case, the lava was still soft when the cinders landed.

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Driblet cone


Location: Sullivan Bay, Santiago, Galápagos Islands, Ecuador
Year: 2004
Merckslides catalogue number: 16(06)-18730
Comments: What happens when a lava flow covers moist ground? The water vaporizes and bubbles up, forming driblet cones (aka hornitos). Sort of like blowing through your straw into a slurpee.

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"Intestinal" pahoehoe


Location: Sullivan Bay, Santiago, Galápagos Islands, Ecuador
Year: 2004
Merckslides catalogue number: 16(06)-18741
Comments: Yeah. You can see why they call it this. Is there some special process that causes this formation? I doubt it. Is there also "pancreatic pahoehoe," "pulmonary pahoehoe," etc.? I doubt it. Probably just an ad hoc name for a unique occurrance.

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Cinder cone kipuka


Location: Sullivan Bay, Santiago, Galápagos Islands, Ecuador
Year: 2004
Merckslides catalogue number: 16(06)-18745
Comments: "Kipuka" is a Hawaiian word for an island in a lava flow. Ecologically, these often function like real islands, isolating their biota in a sea of sterile basalt.

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Textbook pahoehoe


Location: Sullivan Bay, Santiago, Galápagos Islands, Ecuador
Year: 2004
Merckslides catalogue number: 16(06)-18727
Comments: "Pahoehoe is Hawaiian for "ropy lava." At Sullivan Bay, you could point in any direction to see good examples.

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Pahoehoe with two rows of parallel bubbles


Location: Sullivan Bay, Santiago, Galápagos Islands, Ecuador
Year: 2004
Merckslides catalogue number: 16(06)-18743
Comments: A driblet cone forms in places where the lava is still liquid but not moving. Here a moving lava flow passed over two sources of gas, leaving two parallel rows of bubbles.

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A second all-seeing eye and cinders on pahoehoe


Location: Sullivan Bay, Santiago, Galápagos Islands, Ecuador
Year: 2004
Merckslides catalogue number: 16(06)-18742
Comments: Saw several of these eyeballs. Not sure what process forms them. Spooky, though.

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portrait

Sullivan Bay lava flow from Bartolomé summit.


Location: Summit, Bartolomé, Galápagos Islands, Ecuador
Year: 2004
Merckslides catalogue number: 16(06)-18714
Comments: Even though I took this from Bartolomé I include it here because it shows the extent of the Sullivan Bay flow. The low peak at left is the source of the lava.

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portrait

Recent landslide scar and deposit in kikapu


Location: Sullivan Bay, Santiago, Galápagos Islands, Ecuador
Year: 2008
Merckdigitals catalogue number: 06-51467
Comments:

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