Cave climate 100 meters below the surface in the pseudokarst of the Kilauea Southwest Rift Zone, Hawaii

Kīlauea volcano hosts numerous pit craters that are inferred to have formed in competent bedrock (lava flows with minor tephra and other sediments), including Wood Valley Pit Crater. The Wood Valley Pit Crater is a 50-meter-deep, nearly circular pit that includes access to a cave entrance, which provides an opportunity to monitor cave climate throughout a cave that is ordinarily inaccessible. Cave climate observations in this volcanic pseudokarst area included cold trapping, cave breathing, possible effects from geothermal heating, and possible atmospheric thermal tide-induced cave fog.