Shadow of Mauna Kea

One of nature’s breathtaking anomalies happens almost every night at the summit of Mauna Kea, Hawaii’s majestic volcanic peak. Because of an inversion layer that pushes the often prodigious cloud cover several thousand feet below the summit, I witnessed just before sunset Mauna Kea’s giant triangular shadow being cast over the lid of the clouds to the east, like that of the Great Pyramid over the Sahara. For added drama, sulfuric acid particulates from Kilaeua wind up as a russet haze on the horizon.