Man Dies While After Falling Down Lava Tube While Gardening in his Yard
A highly unusual event took place in Hilo, Hawaii.
A 71-year-old man in was killed after he fell down a lava tube that had opened up in his own garden.
It is believed that the man, who lived in the town of Hilo, had been clipping the bushes in his garden when the ground gave way beneath his feet and he fell into an old lava tube beneath the property.
The alarm was raised after a friend called the police having not seen or heard from him in days.
When officers arrived at his house, they found the hole and realized that he must have fallen inside.
His body was later recovered by the Hawaii fire department. His injuries were consistent with a fall and there are not believed to be any suspicious circumstances surrounding his death.
While accidents like this are very rare, lava tubes can and do pose a danger to those living in Hawaii and other places with a significant amount of volcanic activity.
Lava tubes are underground tunnels that form from rivers of molten rock. Once they cool down, most are quite strong and can even survive having large buildings constructed on top of them.
Some, however, can collapse under the right circumstances.
The lava tube that the man fell into was thought to have formed during an eruption back in 1880.
