Kilauea has been making national news the last few days, and for good reason. The volcano, which has been continuously erupting since 1983, opened a new fissure Thursday evening in the east side of the Leilani Estates subdivision pouring out lava that has now destroyed at least two homes. The purpose of this post is not to provide the most up-to-date information, there are plenty of news sources in Hawaii that are doing an excellent job of that, but instead, I will take a detailed look at the volcano itself.
Kilauea is the second youngest volcano in Hawaii and is the youngest on the Big Island. It likely broke through the surface of the Pacific Ocean to become an island about 100,000 years ago. Unlike iconic volcanoes such as Mount St. Helens and Mount Rainier, Hawaiian volcanoes are shield volcanoes.
Mount Rainier, a stratovolcano, was built by a combination of explosive eruptions and events where it issued out lava, allowing it to gain extremely steep slopes. By contrast, Kilauea has only experienced lava eruptions, causing it to have much gentler slopes. Eventually, Kilauea will reach the same heights as Mauna Key and Mauna Loa, which are also located on the Big Island. Those two volcanoes are so tall, that they receive snow on their summits in the winter and occasionally are issued Blizzard Warnings.
This isn’t the first time Kilauea has made it into the news. Since the eruption began, it has erupted over one cubic mile of lava onto the eastern side of the island. These lava flows have covered more than 48 square miles of land, and have added about 500 acres to the land area of the island. The area currently being affected by the eruption, Pahoa, was threatened by lava flows from upstream sources in 2014, but ended up being spared.
The volcano is home to not one, but two lava lakes. Unlike in Minecraft, lava lakes on Earth are extremely rare. There are currently only six volcanoes on the entire planet that host persistent lava lakes. Increased activity at Kilauea caused collapse into the lava lake at Pu’u ‘O’o (one of the vents of the volcano) on May 1 that led to an increased number of earthquakes. Beyond earthquakes, the magma moving through the volcano’s interior piping also caused ground deformation. Further earthquakes caused other collapses at Pu’u O’o this week.
An interesting feature associated with this magma movement was that the surface of two lava lakes began to drop, with the one at Pu’u O’o lowering as much as 100 feet. As magma moved into the Lower Rift Zone, which is located to the northeast of the summit, cracks in the ground were noted at Leiani Estates.
As late as Thursday, there was no change in the ground temperatures noted around these cracks, but as public works employees were surveying them, things began to escalate. Immediately before the lava eruption began, gas began issuing from the cracks. At around 4:45 pm Hawaiian Time Thursday, lava began erupting from a fissure that opened on the east side of Leiani Estates, prompting the evacuation of 10,000 people.
The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory notes that this eruption lasted for approximately two hours, with lava only spreading a few yards from the site. Two other eruptions have since occurred in the subdivision, damaging at least two homes. There are now at least six fissures.
Earthquake activity has picked up today, with the largest quake registering as a 6.9. This one, which occurred at 12:32 pm Hawaiian Time, was the largest to strike the state since 1975 and was felt as far away as Oahu. As of 4:35 pm Hawaiian Time, 413 earthquakes have occurred around Kilauea (and that number keeps going up). At one point, 14,000 customers were without power on the Big Island.
While it is impossible to predict future activity, the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory should be commended for their excellent response to this situation. Since May 1, they have been alerting residents and others of the possibility of a new lava outbreak, stating that “residents of lower Puna should remain alert and watch for further information.” Lower Puna is, in fact, where this outbreak occurred.
This does not mean that lava outbreaks will be restricted to lower Puna. It is extremely hard to predict what will happen next and where it will happen.
Sources for up-to-date information:
- Hawaii County Civil Defence Agency
- USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory
- USGS Earthquakes near Kilauea
- Hawaii News Now
The information presented in this article is accurate as of 7:30 pm Pacific Time, May 4, 2018. This is a dynamic situation that can abruptly change. The feature image was taken by Shane Turpin and posted on Facebook.
