Lava Fountains in the Streets Cause Hawaii to Declare State of Emergency

[Yazata]

Lava is at the intersection and has crossed highway 137, the horizontal road in the photo in the previous post.

https://hawaiicountygis.maps.arcgis.com/...2761793078

[Yazata]

Here's a air photograph of the Kapoho area with thermal imaging of the lava superimposed. Unfortunately it's old, showing the situation as of yesterday. If you look closely you can see where the houses are, their roofs creating little white dots. Since the photo was created, the lava has cut the only road leading out of the coastal area in the middle of the picture, at the point lebeled 'four corners'. Then the lava kind of turned right into the fertile area, following a local creek bed and heading for the little circular inlet (where houses are).

Hopefully everyone is already evacuated from around there. Warnings have been going out for several days and firemen were going door to door. Hawaii civil defense is asking anyone aware of anyone remaining in the cut-off area to contact them. (I expect that the Hawaii National Guard or somebody will send in rescue helicopters to look for stragglers.)

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[Yazata]

Moderate magnitude 5.5 earthquake this evening, roughly located at the Kilauea summit vent. Too small to cause a tsunami.

https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/...#executive

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It isn't just Hawaii. This photo is from Guatamala, where a local volcano is putting on a major eruption, lots of ash and lava flows reported. Estimated 25 dead, thousands being evacuated, ash falling in the capital, army called out, airline flights halted. It sounds like a few small villages near the volcano got a full Pompeii treatment, with hot ash and gases burning people to death.

https://www.rt.com/news/428612-guatemala...ns-rescue/

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[RainbowUnicorn]

http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/38310...-generated

Scientists say the earthquakes are directly tied to volcanic activity as it releases pressure from magma moving underground.

[Yazata]

The confirmed death toll in the Guatemala eruption has risen to 69.

In Hawaii news, the lava flow at Kapoho has entered the sea.

USGS photo

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A USGS map

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[Yazata]

The litttle Kapoho bay has been completely filled in (Hawaii's getting bigger!) and most of the houses scattered around it are toast.

It's kind of sad, since before this happened Kapoho bay looks like it was a little tropical paradise spot.  Now the bay's gone, the tropical trees and greenry are gone and it's going to just be bare rock.

But this is how Hawaii got there in the first place, so we can't really complain that the process continues.

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[Yazata]

It sounds like a few small villages near the volcano got a full Pompeii treatment, with hot ash and gases burning people to death.

A very sad photo from Guatemala, apparently showing a dead family, asphyxiated by the volcanic ash and the hot gases.

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Summary of the Hawaii eruption

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[Yazata]

At the moment, the only fissure (out of 20 or more) that's active in the eastern rift area is fissure 8. It's still vigorously fountaining lava. Fissure 8 has constructed a new volcanic spatter-cone around itself and is starting to form a little mountain. See USGS photo here:

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Besides building a cone around itself, it's putting out a flood of lava that's feeding a lava river that extends 6 or 7 miles to the ocean (creating big plumes of toxic gas), where it's totally destroyed some small beach communities. Notice how the ocean is kind of boiling offshore, due to hot lava flowing onto the ocean floor beneath.

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But unlike Guatemala, this Hawaiian eruption has proceeded at a slow pace, giving people enough warning to evacuate. It hasn't been a sudden Mt. St. Helens style explosion. As far as I know, there are no fatalities in Hawaii, even though several thousand people have been evacuated. The confirmed death toll in Guatemala is about 100, with several hundred more missing.

[Yazata]

It's been a month, so it's time to check in again.

Flowing fluid lava is still being emitted by Fissure 8, which has built a volcanic cone around itself out of spatter. The lava is still flowing to the sea, several miles away. That flow is occurring through a solid stone channel that the eruption has constructed. The edges of the lava flow solidify and gradually form dikes that contain subsequent flow. There are still some plumes of volcanic gas where the lava enters the ocean, but not as bad as it was.

Back at the main Kilauea mountain crater, seismicity is increasing, with a magnitude 5 earthquake being the biggest and they expect a modest explosion later today. These have apparently been a recurring event over the last month and they are getting confident about predicting them. The aviation warning level (about volcanic ash that can clog jet engines) has been reduced from Red (warning) to Orange (caution).

All the other vents in the eastern rift zone, apart from #8, seem to be (relatively) quiescent. None are erupting lava though one has been making noise (literally, it's emitting sounds).

The geologists are still out-and-about observing things. An erupting volcano must be like a new toy for them.

https://volcanoes.usgs.gov/volcanoes/kil...tatus.html

http://www.hawaiicounty.gov/active-alerts

This could conceivably go on for years.

Recent July 16 USGS photo with the fissure 8 cone in the background and the lava river in the foreground:

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USGS July 16 photo of the current ocean entry plume:

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[Magical Realist]

Lava bomb explodes near tour boat!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IT1BXCl_ZLY