What is "pele's hair"

Pele's hair \Pe"le's hair\ [After a Hawaiian goddess associated with the crater Kilauea.] Glass threads or fibers formed by the wind from bits blown from frothy lava or from the tips of lava jets or from bits of liquid lava thrown into the air. It often collects in thick masses resembling tow.

Pele's hair is a form of lava. It is named after Pele, the Hawaiian goddess of volcanoes. It can be defined as volcanic glass fibers or thin strands of volcanic glass (Shimozuru, 1994). The strands are formed through the stretching of molten basaltic glass from lava, usually from lava fountains, lava cascades, and vigorous lava flows.

Pele's hair is extremely light, so the wind often carries the fibers high into the air and to places several kilometers away from the vent. It is common to find fibers of Pele's hair on high places like top of trees, radio antennas, and electric poles. This ease of travel interferes with the geomorphology.

Pele's hair does not only occur in Hawaii. According to Duffield (1977), it can be found near other volcanoes around the world, for example in Nicaragua (Masaya), Italy (Etna) and Ethiopia (Erta’ Ale). It can be found all over the place, but it is usually found in gaps in the ground, mostly near vents, skylights, ocean entry, or in corners where Pele's hair can accumulate.

It is not recommended to touch Pele's hair, because it is very brittle and very sharp, and small broken pieces can enter the skin. Gloves should be worn while examining it.

Pele's tears might occur with Pele's hair (Duffield et al., 1977). They can tell volcanologists a lot of information about the eruption, such as the temperatures and the magma's path to the surface. According to Katsura (1966), plagioclase starts to crystallize from the magma of Pele's hair at around 1,160 °C. Also, the shape of the tears can provide an indication of the velocity of the eruption, and the bubbles of gas and particles trapped within the tears can provide information about the composition of the magma chamber.