June 27: Farm Animals Airlifted

Prelude

Here’s an excellent 13-minute retrospective of Kilauea’s eruptions from the early 20th century right through June 25, 2018.

Now back to the present.

Today’s Eruption Summary
USGS: “At 10:41 p.m. HST on June 26, after approximately 25 hours of elevated seismicity, a collapse explosion occurred at the summit producing an ash-poor steam plume that rose less than 1,000 ft above the ground surface before drifting to the southwest. The event was captured by an HVO webcam in moonlight (plume in bottom of photo), located in the HVO observation tower.” (Full-sized)

It’s 11:30pm HST, and it looks like today’s “collapse explosion” is going to happen tomorrow. Are the explosion spacing themselves out more now?  Too early to tell. There has been always some variation in their timing, despite the fact that it feels like we’re watching a magmatic equivalent of Old Faithful.

View of Fissure 8 cone and lava channel from USGS morning overflight. (Full-sized)

Meanwhile, Fissure 8 continues exactly what it has for— what, a month now? Fountains contained within its 180-foot spatter cone continue to pour out an 8-mile river of lava. Occasional spillovers near the head of the river usually don’t go past the margin of previous flows in this eruption. Fissure 22 is once again showing “incandescence” and pushing out small, short lava flows.

The ocean entry area fans out across a 1-km stretch of coast, but the bulk of the lava is dumping into the sea from Fissure 8’s main channel. Unfortunately, the northern margin of the lava flow has reactivated, too, pushing further into what’s left of Kapoho Beach Lots community.

USGS on Twitter: “Morning overflight revealed northern margin of flow field at the coast is oozing fresh #lava at several points in the area of #KapohoBeachLots. Small channel overflows feed short #pahoehoe flows.” (Full-sized)

USGS: “Lava continues to enter the sea along the southern Kapoho coastline. Lava enters the ocean primarily through an open channel, but also along a 1-km (0.6 mi) wide area. Also visible in the image (center right) is an area at the northern margin of the flow field that is oozing fresh lava at several points in the area of Kapoho Beach Lots.” (Full-sized)

And that’s about it. Except that even with status quo, there’s some unusual sights and itoday. Such as this literal “Lava boat”:

Today’s Lava Field Map
USGS: “This thermal map shows the fissure system and lava flows as of 6 am on Wednesday, June 27. The fountain at Fissure 8 remains active, with the lava flow entering the ocean at Kapoho. Small breakouts were observed this morning in the area of Kapoho Beach Lots. Very small, short flows were observed today near Fissure 22.” (Full-sized)
USGS FAQ on summit earthquakes
USGS Q&A on Social Media
USGS: “A small overflow from the lava channel (left side of image) captured by an Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS). Small overflows on both sides of the channel occurred shortly after midnight in the uppermost part of channel. None of these overflows extended past the existing flow field. Image by the U.S. Geological Survey and Office of Aviation Services, Department of the Interior.” (Full-sized)

Another reassuring comment on the ongoing collapse events: “This has happened many times before at Kilauea (see https://volcanoes.usgs.gov/volcanoes/kilauea/geo_hist_summary.html ). While different kinds of explosive activity are associated with a very deep caldera, we’re not anywhere near that point yet.”

Q: You say the “Overlook vent” [lava lake] is gone. Looks like Halema’uma’u is gone, too.
USGS: “Not just yet. Halema’uma’u is still visible as a nested crater within the larger Kilauea Caldera.”

Q: If the caldera drops another 200 meters, would an acidic boiling lake form in the bottom?
USGS: When this occurs at other volcanoes, it’s usually in ones that have not had active eruptions at the surface in some time. At Kilauea, which is still very hot in the shallow subsurface, that water would likely boil away before it had a chance to form a lake.

Q: If summit explosions are “ash poor,” then what’s in them?
USGS: The recent plumes have been largely composed of rockfall debris (ground-up rock fragments from the walls of the crater). Earlier in the explosive eruption sequence, we were seeing ash that had been fragmented by the explosions themselves.

Q: Will explosive eruptions end if enough rubble collects to cut off groundwater from hot material below?
USGS: At the moment, we’re not sure it’s predominantly groundwater-driven, but we’re still debating what’s driving it. Infilling of the crater cutting off the explosive events entirely is a possibility, but it’s not guaranteed.

USGS: “Overflows from the perched lava channel are seen as incandescent (glowing) fingers moving down the sides of the channel (left side of photo). Fissure 8 lava fountain in photo center.” (Full-sized)

Q: Is there a relationship between the material lost at the summit and the amount of lava erupted from the fissures?
USGS: Theoretically, it’s a direct relationship. However, in reality not all the magma from the summit or Pu’u O’o will erupt from the fissures. In this eruption, andesitic lava, which had clearly been sitting around in the rift for a while, erupted early on in the fissure activity.

Q: When was the last eruption of magma from the summit? When is the last time it got taller?
USGS: Since an ‘eruption’ is defined in a very basic sense by lava coming out of a vent, it was technically back in April of this year, when overflows were occurring at Halema’uma’u. As for the last time the volcano got taller, that was around 1000 to 1500 CE: https://volcanoes.usgs.gov/volcanoes/kilauea/geo_hist_summary.html

Q: I have a piece of lava rock that’s very light. Does lava ever harden enough to build on it?
USGS: Yes, much of the lava in Hawai’i is much more dense than the rock you mention (which sounds like it was pumice, a very bubbly and light form of lava). In many places, buildings are constructed direction on top of lava flows that were emplaced only decades before.

In Place of Mick Kalber’s Overflight Video

Paradise Helicopter’s chef lava pilot was busy with a tricky rescue operation today: airlifting livestock! There’s one surreal image in this video that’s going to stick with me from this eruption:

Accompanying the vid is a short article by Bruce Omori, one of the Paradise Helicopter frequent flyer photographers. He mentions the GoFundMe for KapohoLavaRescue.

From Local News Outlets

From a Not-So-Local News Outlet

Sierra Club: “Coral Reefs Lost to Kilauea Eruption”

This article is a week old, but it covers some wildlife impacts I haven’t seen mentioned elsewhere.

Photographers and Social Media

Here’s those earlier lava flows to the ocean from before Fissure 8 took off, crossing Kalapana-Kapoho Rd just SW of Mile Marker 13:

Posted by Andrew Hara on Tuesday, June 26, 2018

When not documenting cowlifting, Bruce Omori took a swing past the coast to check on today’s flow expansion.

Wednesday, June 27, 2018, 5:45 am – Kilauea's east rift zone overflight: A stunning amount of lava enters the sea at…

Posted by Extreme Exposure Fine Art Gallery on Wednesday, June 27, 2018

In addition to the usual dramatic overflight photos, Bruce Omori posted several photos of the new breakouts today with streets labeled. There’s more like these:

Wednesday, June 27, 2018, 5:45 am – Kilauea's east rift zone overflight: Active flows once again threaten homes and property in the Kapoho farm and beach lots.

Posted by Extreme Exposure Fine Art Gallery on Wednesday, June 27, 2018

Wednesday, June 27, 2018, 5:45 am – Kilauea's east rift zone overflight: Lava once again threatens homes and property…

Posted by Extreme Exposure Fine Art Gallery on Wednesday, June 27, 2018

Wednesday, June 27, 2018, 5:45 am – Kilauea's east rift zone overflight: A section of the channelized flow that has begun ponding, and overflowing its edges, sending lava laterally.

Posted by Extreme Exposure Fine Art Gallery on Wednesday, June 27, 2018

Wednesday, June 27, 2018, 5:45 am – Kilauea's east rift zone overflight: With clouds forming before our eyes over the…

Posted by Extreme Exposure Fine Art Gallery on Wednesday, June 27, 2018

Wednesday, June 27, 2018, 5:45 am – Kilauea's east rift zone overflight: The massive channelized flow has isolated the…

Posted by Extreme Exposure Fine Art Gallery on Wednesday, June 27, 2018

Wednesday, June 27, 2018, 5:45 am – Kilauea's east rift zone overflight: Fissure 22 remains active, as light spattering was observed as we hovered over the river.

Posted by Extreme Exposure Fine Art Gallery on Wednesday, June 27, 2018

Wednesday, June 27, 2018, 5:45 am – Kilauea's east rift zone overflight: Love this perspective of the channel. 🙂

Posted by Extreme Exposure Fine Art Gallery on Wednesday, June 27, 2018

Last but by no means least, I’ve been enjoying Brian Lowry’s volcano photography on his own website for many years.