Kilauea volcano takes home on Hawaii

With the lava from Kilauea flowing like a slow paste, observers weren't sure whether the eruption would last long enough for the lava to reach the small village of Pahoa. On November 11, the lava did reach and consume a home - the first destroyed by Kilauea since 2012. No one was harmed, as the house had been evacuated when it became clear the slow-moving lava would reach it.

Like glowing blood vessels, the molten lava is visible through cracks in the cooled-down surface of the Kilauea volcano on Hawaii's Big Island. The volcano has been active without interruption since 1983. In June 2014, the lava started slowly but surely flowing toward the nearby town of Pahoa.

A smoking black branch of lava had been flowing relentlessly toward Pahoa. In October 2014, locals could see the lava just meters from the town. A shed and the local cemetery had already been entombed before the house was incinerated. The perimeter of the lava flow has since come to a standstill.

The lava stream - 50 meters (164 feet) wide at points - moved at a speed of up to 16 meters-per- hour. In the Hollywood thriller "Volcano," Tommy Lee Jones stopped a similar flow with a half-dozen firetrucks and some well-placed concrete median dividers. In reality, however, mankind can do little to stop moving lava.

Orange flames lick the leading edges of the lava flow as the melted rock comes in contact with atmospheric oxygen. Generally, lava's temperature is dependent on the volcano's geographic position. Shield volcanoes, like on Hawaii, are known for having the hot stuff. The distance from earth's interior to the surface there is relatively short.

This house was effectively cut off in July. For many in Hawaii, the photograph is a symbol for an omnipresent risk: Volcanic eruptions are a constant threat, and with them, the fear of losing one's home and property.

Typically, Hawaiian lava meanders toward the Pacific Ocean. When those two forces collide, their true energy potential goes on full display: The extreme difference in temperature results in explosions of hot steam.

Viscous materials from earth's interior push through a volcano's crater and onto the surface. Kilauea is in fact a chain of craters. Predicting future volcanic activity is therefore difficult.

Where green shoots of grass once sprouted from the ground, a black blanket of smoldering rock leaves nothing. Interior tunnels allow the magma to keep flowing, causing it to cool slowly from its original temperature of up to 1,000 degrees Celsius. As a result, its devastation can encompass large distances.

Lava flows cannot be stopped. The damage they cause, however, can be minimized. Electric cables on Pahoa's main street, for example, are protected from the lava's flow. But many in Hawaii see such efforts as futile.