Day: June 16, 2018

June 16: Things Moving Sideways or Down Quite Rapidly

HVO’s Kilauea Summit Livestream caught today’s Halema’uma’u “subsurface explosion” (is that what we’re calling them now?) and — wow!

Halema’uma’u BEFORE: screengrab of USGS/HVO Kilauea Livestream before the day’s explosive event. I’ve boosted the exposure to bring out details. (Jun 16, 2018)

(a few hours later, when, luckily, it was still possible to rewind the livestream back to the time of the explosion, since I missed it.)

Halema’uma’u Crater AFTER: screengrab of USGS/HVO Kilauea Livestream taken later in the day after the dust had settled. Look at that big chunk of the rim that dropped on the right!

We’ve been hearing about subsidence, slumping, and rockfalls for weeks, but there’s nothing quite like seeing it, even if the video’s a bit fuzzy. I took the liberty of saving a clip:

Radar showed the plume was less than 7000 feet, and as usual the energy release checked in at 5.3.

While I rewound the livestream to grab that clip before it fell off the “back” of the livestream conveyor belt, it looks like I jumped right over this:

There was still a column of steam at that spot when I checked an hour later, but I don’t recall it spinning.

Okay, enough fiddling with the livestream. 

What else happened today? Same as the last few days, to the point that I had to double-check the date on today’s HVO  Kilauea status report.  Fissure 8’s cone is holding at 170 feet, fountains currently around 185-200 feet. Fissure 16/18 continues to ooze.

The lava river is running as fast as ever:

Despite the increased vog due to lack of tradewinds, that’s the clearest overflight video I’ve seen in days.

Mick Kalber notes the pahoehoe channel now cuts all the way through the a’a field to the ocean, which may explain recent videos of lava racing at amazing speeds…

Continue reading June 16: Things Moving Sideways or Down Quite Rapidly