Visit Kilauea Volcano and Hawaii's Growing Island

The largest and southernmost of the Hawaiian islands is shaking, spitting, and stretching as it slowly expands into the ocean.

In this July 14, 2008 file photo, people watch from a viewing area as an explosion takes place on...

In this July 14, 2008 file photo, people watch from a viewing area as an explosion takes place on Kilauea, one of the world's most active volcanoes, in Pahoa, Hawaii. Legend says the volcano goddess Pele dug fire pits as she traveled from island to island looking for a home with her brothers and sisters. She finally settled at Kilauea's summit, where she lives at Halemaumau crater.

(Leigh Hilbert/AP Photo )

You'll see and feel reminders of this almost everywhere during your trip to Hawaii Island, which most locals call the Big Island.

On the southern shore, streams of lava pour from lava volcano into the ocean where they form new land.

In some neighborhoods, you'll see fields of black, cooled lava that have poured from Kilauea and Mauna Loa volcanoes in recent decades.

Sometimes the ground shakes as gravity pulls on the accumulated piles of lava. But don't let a fear of temblors prevent you from visiting: the vast majority of these earthquakes are far too weak to feel. Big earthquakes measuring magnitude 6 or more tend to only hit the state about once a decade.

Volcanoes have been central to stories told by Hawaiians for centuries.

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Legend says the volcano goddess Pele dug fire pits as she traveled from island to island looking for a home with her brothers and sisters.

She finally settled at Kilauea's summit, where she lives at Halemaumau crater. It's said that Pele stomps on the floor of her fire pit when she wants to summon lava, hot rocks, steam and smoke.

You can see for yourself how Pele's lava is building the Big Island if you visit now. Kilauea volcano has been erupting simultaneously in two places for over a year, something that's unprecedented in 200 years of its recorded history.

The first of these eruptions has been spilling lava across the southern part of the Big Island since 1983, swallowing roads, homes and even entire towns.

Fresh flows from this eruption are currently slithering into the ocean near Kalapana, a formerly robust town that was mostly buried in lava in 1990.

Kilauea is also erupting from Halemaumau crater at the summit. That's where a large explosion opened a vent in March 2008, leading to the daily release of hundreds of tons of sulfur dioxide. Kilauea has spit small fragments of lava from Halemaumau but hasn't released any lava flows from here.