LAVA TUBE NEAR MY HOUSE

About 100 yds mauka from my driveway is an entrance to a lava tube.  Legend has it that in olden days, locals numbering up to 100 would gather down in a chamber in the tube for cock fights and the accompanying betting.  Also, the tube was said to wander underground all the way down to the ocean, a linear distance of about five miles.  It was thus with curiosity that my neighbors and I did some exploration of the tube.  Its opening had been blocked by a huge lava boulder which had been put into the entrance.  After removing the boulder, the opening was found to be large enough for a person to maneuver through it down to a shelf which was about 12-15 ft above the floor of the lava tube.  The walls from the floor up to the shelf were too sharp and jagged to permit sliding down to the floor.  However, on looking along the tube, light was seen entering the tube and efforts were made to find the hole through which the light entered.  That hole was found and adjacent to the hole was seen what appeared to be the chamber's collapsed ceiling, the chamber no longer in existence.  Thoughts were that an earthquake had caused the ceiling to collapse.  Light then could enter the tube from the area of the collapsed ceiling.  No efforts were made to explore the tube at that time.  A later adventure. . . .

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