[skeeter]

A couple of years back I visited the Kona side of Hawaii & was surprised to notice all the vapor - smog - coming off the side of Moana Loa. Not anything like the clear skies I remembered from before.

I was told that this smog, which is considered a health hazard, has really depressed real estate values on that side of the island.

[cogitator]

I was told that this smog, which is considered a health hazard, has really depressed real estate values on that side of the island.

The common term for it is "vog", short for volcanic smog. It's considerably worse than your everyday city smog, because it's got a lot more acid mixed in. Considering that this eruption of Kilauea has been going on for over 20 years now, I'm not surprised that the vog has depressed real estate values on that side of the island -- but I think that the actual destruction of many of the homes that were built that by the ongoing lava activity might have had something to do with it, too.

This used to be the Kalapana black-sand beach at Harry K. Brown State Park.

This is what it looked like when fresh lava covered the beach:

But there are new black sand beaches forming on the coast; they just don't have big palm trees behind them yet.