Shield volcanoes are the largest type of volcano on Earth and in the Solar System. Kilauea is so large and its slope is so gentle and gradual that many people visiting Volcano National Park at its summit don't realize that they are standing on the volcano. Park personnel say that people are always asking. This first photograph taken near the peak of Kilauea shows a former lava lake, now with a thick skin covering the still-molten magma a short distance underneath. The wispy white spots on the floor of the crater are places where steam and other volcanic gases are emerging from the magma.
Visitors can take a hike along a trail crossing the lake surface.
This photograph, taken from a helicopter, shows the vent that was active in 1996. Lava flows have covered roads and neighborhoods on the seaward side of Kilauea. Trees are killed by being overrun by a lava flow, of course, but often basalt casts of the tree trunks remain, producing odd igneous fossils. Eventually, the lava flows into the sea, where it solidifies to form new, but very unstable, land. A lot of the lava flows underground through lava tubes.