June 23: Pele’s Latest Trick – Lava Boats (Lavabergs)

Today’s Eruption Summary

Fissure 8 just keeps on going, as if it’s settling in for a Pu’u O’o eruption rather than a 1955/1960 eruption.  Once again, there’s minor overflows upriver that don’t go anywhere. The ocean entry is mostly via the channel on the south side of the lava delta, but there’s also trickles along a kilometer-wide stretch of shore. Fissure 22 showed incandescence but no lava during the USGS morning overflight.

The USGS was skimpy on images today but gave us a treat: a timelapse of what they call “lava boats.”

Here’s their explanation: “Geologists captured this time-lapse video of the perched lava channel issuing from fissure 8 on Kīlauea’s lower East Rift Zone. Rafts of accreted lava move down stream and look like boats moving down a river. These are termed lava balls or lava boats and form when portions of the fissure 8 cone or levees break away and are rafted down stream. As they move along in the channel, additional lava can cool to their surface to form accretionary lava balls.”

After lots of minor earthquakes and rockfalls that sent up small plumes of dust, the daily summit “collapse explosion” occurred at 4:34pm. It sent up a 2000-foot plume, once again equivalent to 5.3 earthquake. Again, I couldn’t resist a video capture:

The runup to today’s explosion was impressive. There was one cascade of dust and rubble all the way around the walls that I would’ve taken for the day’s explosive event, except that there was no camera shake beforehand. Doubtless it was one of these:

There’s not much news today, so let’s hitch a ride with the Hawaii County Fire Department and follow the lava river to the ocean. But first….

USGS: “On June 23, 2018 at 4:32 p.m. HST after approximately 17 hours of elevated seismicity, a collapse explosion occurred at the summit if Kīlauea. The energy released by the event was equivalent to a magnitude 5.3 earthquake. During the intense shaking, rockfalls cascaded down the northern margin of the caldera wall just below Uwēkahuna Bluff sending rock dust into the air.” (Full-sized)
More on Lava Boats

I’d asked about the “lava boats” before that video was posted: “What’s forming those so-called “lava bergs”? Are they chunks off the sides of the levees? Do they indicate erosion/undermining of lava channel’s banks analogous to meanders of an H20 river, with risk of wearing through?”

@USGSVolcanoes offered some additional info in response:  “They are chunks of the sides of levees as well as bits of the cone. As lava moves by them in the channel, they can be coated, dislodged, etc. Different than water – lava cools against cooler surfaces (channel sides) & we’ve started to see portions roofing over (forming tubes).” And when someone else asked if the whole 8 mile channel might become a lava tube: “It’s a possibility, but not necessarily guaranteed. It’s easier in places where the channel is already narrow.”

Which doesn’t answer my question about erosion/meanders, but looking back, they answered another question about braided lava channels on June 11 with this paper, which emphasizes that viscosity is a major factor in lava flows, whereas in H2O it’s particles in water.

Someone else’s Q on “lava boats”: ” Are these what’s floating beyond the ocean entry?
USGS: That’s a different process. The chunks floating beyond the ocean entry are bits of very bubble-rich lava-rock. When lava enters the sea there is sometimes an explosive process that expels rocks – the heat of the rock combined with the amount of bubbles causes these pieces to float for a while. Eventually, they cool, fill with water, and sink. 

  • Awkward place to stick this, but so I don’t forget: this week’s HVO “Volcano Watch” newsletter focused on “Mauna Loa Back to Normal.
More USGS on Social Media

Q: What will happen if the summit collapse continues?
USGS: There are several options: It could enlarge to a point and then the explosive activity could stop, or it could enlarge the crater and the explosions could change character.

Aha! It turns out the USGS posted photos today only on Facebook. Someday when things calm down, they need to comb their social media channels and make sure they’ve archived everything on the HVO website and/or USGS media library.

USGS: “Fissure 8 fountain, as observed from the Leilani Estates subdivision. USGS-HVO crews noted that during the overnight hours, the lava fountain typically reached heights similar to the height of the cinder cone, with sporadic bursts sending lava higher than the cone (as pictured in this image).
USGS image taken June 23, 2018, around 12:46 AM.” (Full-sized)
USGS: “HVO field crews are on site in the lower East Rift Zone, tracking the fountains, lava flows, and spattering from Fissure 8 as conditions allow and are reporting information to Hawaii County Civil Defense. Crews also make measurements and observations of ground cracks in the area, as shown in this image taken near fissure 9.
USGS image taken during the afternoon of June 22, 2018.” (Full-sized)
USGS: “View of the lava channel from ground level, with the Kapoho Crater in the upper left. The active channel is the horizontal silver-colored line in the upper third of the photo. Lava travels about 5 miles per hour in this area.
USGS image taken during the afternoon of June 22, 2018.” (Full-sized)
From Other Scientists

From Fissure 8 to the Sea with HCFD

If the USGS is too busy to post photos, the Hawai’i County Fire Department takes up the slack. (Unlike Facebook, Flickr is Google-able). Today Civil Defense shared their latest photo album, and once again I’m impressed by the definition of the camera they’re using compared to everybody else.

A small sample:

Looking southeast towards the “Y” junction at Pokoihi Rd, Kapoho Rd and 132 (Google Map) with Puna Geothermal Ventures in the background on the left:

06/19/18 Kilauea, HI - East Rift Zone Eruption Event

Left and right, as different as night and day:

06/19/18 Kilauea, HI - East Rift Zone Eruption Event

A disagreeable neighbor:

06/19/18 Kilauea, HI - East Rift Zone Eruption Event

Looking towards the new lava delta:

06/19/18 Kilauea, HI - East Rift Zone Eruption Event

Past the Lava Rooster house (near that mast):

06/19/18 Kilauea, HI - East Rift Zone Eruption Event

Past the Cinder Pit:

06/19/18 Kilauea, HI - East Rift Zone Eruption Event

Around Kapoho Crater (and former Green Lake):

06/19/18 Kilauea, HI - East Rift Zone Eruption Event

To the sea. (Note upwelling.)

06/19/18 Kilauea, HI - East Rift Zone Eruption Event

New land.

06/19/18 Kilauea, HI - East Rift Zone Eruption Event

Effects extend offshore…

06/19/18 Kilauea, HI - East Rift Zone Eruption Event

So far, so lucky. (Note the 1960 lava flow with roads on it.)

06/19/18 Kilauea, HI - East Rift Zone Eruption Event

(warning: helicopter noise)

06/19/18 Kilauea, HI - East Rift Zone Eruption Event

Sorry, got carried away. But there’s another 98 photos/videos in that album, including video all along the route and detailed views of houses, farms, even a dock.

From News Outlets

HNN is taking the weekend off; they’ve more than earned it. (Today they just altered a headline and called it a day: “637 homes destroyed by lava amid explosions, eruptions on the Big Island“) But KHON2 took up the slack:

Moment of Aloha

While we wait for daily explosions, the people living on Kilauea endure earthquake swarms, as Dispatches from Volcano describes today. Also, he waxes eloquent on the topic of naming Fissure 8.

STill More Photography/Videos

First up, Mick Kalber getting up close and personal with whatever it’s called. Good views of a spillover, Fissure 22 incandescence, and the red lava at the ocean entry. (Blog post on this overflight)

Here’s that spillover with streets labeled:

Other pros are still hitching rides with Paradise Helicopters and/or the National Guard:

Fissure #8, new Pu'u 'O'o? (06/21/2018)

A post shared by Janice W. (@janice_weicool) on

A lava sun. A sunset behind gas plume from fissure #8.

A post shared by Janice W. (@janice_weicool) on

(East is left in the Kilauea livecam)

June 13-22: Kilauea Webcam Timelapses

Hawaii 24/7 puts out weekly timelapse videos collecting all the screencaps from the USGS/HVO webcams.

Lower East Rift Zone (Fissure 8)

Past timelapses: May 5-10 |  May 10-17| May 17-24May 24-31| Jun 1-7Jun 7-14

Wide Angle HVO Observation Tower

Past timelapses: May 10-17| May 17-24May 24-31| Jun 1-7| Jun 7-14

Kilauea Caldera (Halema’uma’u Panorama)

Past timelapses: (older) |  Mar 29-Apr 5 |  Apr 5-12Apr 12-19 |  Apr 19-26 |  Apr 26-May 6  | Apr 26-May 3May 3-10May 10-17May 17-24| May 24-31Jun 1-7 | Jun 7-14

Halema’uma’u Overlook Vent (former!)

Past timelapses:  (older) |  Mar 29-Apr 5Apr 5-12 |  Apr 12-19Apr 17-26Apr 26-May 6 | Apr 26-May 3May 3-10May 10-17May 17-24May 24-31 | Jun 1-7 | Jun 7-14

And here’s a search for Pu’u O’o webcam timelapses on this channel. (Why, Google, don’t you let us sort them in order?!)

June 22: Four Weeks of Changes at Kilauea Summit

Today’s Eruption Summary
USGS: ” Lava continues to erupt at a high rate from Fissure 8 and flow within the established channel to the ocean. No channel overflows were observed during this morning’s overflight. The fountains have built a horseshoe-shaped cone as lava fragments are intermittently hurled onto and over the growing rim. Lava exiting the cone forms a series of standing waves in the uppermost section of the channel.” (Full-sized)

Fissure 8 continues as usual, sending its lava river down to the ocean at Kapoho, with a “dominant ocean entry on the south edge of the flow front…producing a large laze plume.” Minor, brief overflows upstream aren’t traveling past previous lava flows. Fissure 6 is inactive; 16 incandescent; 22 woke up and was fountaining weakly during  the USGS morning overflight.

USGS: “Halema’uma’u crater at 8:30 a.m., view is toward the south. Several benches are clearly visible within the crater. The benches are sections of the former crater rim and adjacent Kīlauea caldera floor that have incrementally dropped or slumped into the crater as the summit area has subsided since early May.” (Full-sized)

Seismicity at the summit was “elevated overnight” according to today’s only HVO status update at 8:45 am. There appeared to be a lot of rockfalls/isolated slippages on the livestream today, especially on the left rim, but the really-truly “collapse explosion” (as USGS is now calling them) occurred at 6:52pm, 5.3 energy equivalent, 500 foot ash plume.

I spent this afternoon putting together a gif of the last 28 days of HVO wide angle Kilauea images, using screencaps I’ve taken supplemented with screengrabs from the same webcam archived by Hawaii247:

Halema’uma’u Crater, May 24-June 22. Animation of screencaps from USGS/HVO Kilauea Summit wide-angle webcam. (Full-sized)

Yikes.

In today’s digest:
  • Video capture of today’s summit explosion (warning: dark)
  • USGS Questions and answers
  • crisp LERZ photos/videos from HCFD
  • Local news stations turning from lava to recovery
  • Double dose of Mick Kalber overflight vids
  • Usual striking images from great photographers

In case you missed it:
Transcriptions of June 19 Steve Brantley Presentation at Puna Community MeetingJune 21 Conference Call

Continue reading June 22: Four Weeks of Changes at Kilauea Summit

June 21: USGS Media Conference Call

Here’s my transcription of the June 21, 11AM USGS media conference call.

  • Host: Leslie Gordon, USGS Public Affairs
  • Mike Zoeller, UHI Geologist
  • Matthew Foster, NWS meteorologist
USGS: “The USGS UAS (unoccupied aircraft system) team took this photograph of Halema‘uma‘u Crater from the Kīlauea Overlook on this morning. They are preparing for a flight to map further subsidence at the summit.” (Full-sized)
Summary:

Update: Status quo at Fissure 8, LERZ, Summit. New “tidbit”: front of lava is sitting on ocean floor that was 60 meters deep. Also, using term “collapse explosion” for daily explosions, because not 100% clear whether explosion triggers collapse or vice versa. Tradewinds and showers through weekend.

Questions & answers: 

  1. Q: Possibility of new fissures opening, or if not, why not? Has seismicity in LERZ decreased? A: Not ruling it out, but magma has found a good conduit to Fissure 8, seems stable. Seismicity in LERZ “pretty quiet.”
  2. Q: Trump administration tightening rules on USGS speaking to reporters; will that impact our communications? 

Leslie Gordon, USGS Public Affairs: That will not affect what we’re doing here at Kilauea. I think the department realizes that this is an urgent situation. We have people’s livelihoods endangered. People have lost their homes and businesses. And so we— it will not affect what we’re doing here regarding Kilauea Volcano.

3. Q: Do you think it’s safe local residents to view lava if they’re outside mandatory evacuation zone?  A: Not our call. It’s up to Hawaii County.
4. Q: What’s process for naming fissure 8? A: Hawaiian elders, community, Board on Geographic Names decide when and what to call places in Hawaii.
5. Q: Will delta collapse? How far out? A: Can’t rule out collapse, but it’s on fairly stable slope so far; 100-200 meters from where it is now the slope steepens. [Didn’t say what would happen there, but I think implication is that it will be less stable and more collapse-prone.]

Continue reading June 21: USGS Media Conference Call

June 21: Mauna Loa Green, Kilauea Red

Today’s Eruption Summary

The LERZ eruption continues as it has for several weeks now, which is actually remarkable. Fissure 8 has added bulk (width) but not much height to its cone. Fissure 6 was active again last night with a sluggish little flow, while 16/18 and 22 showed early-morning incandescence.

USGS: Fissure 8 continues building a tephra cone and producing a robust channelized lava flow on Kīlauea Volcano’s Lower East Rift Zone.” (Full-sized)

Fissure 8’s lava flow cruises along at 17mph in an elevated channel 50-60 feet high, slowing gradually to 2mph by the time it rounds the bend at Kapoho Crater. Its 8 mile journey concludes in the ocean and a burst of laze and fresh black sand, just a little further out each day. The lava delta has grown to 380 acres.

Halema’uma’u Crater at Kilauea’s summit continues to expand its gaping cavity by about 14 million cubic meters a day.  The summit explosion for today occurred at 1:13pm HST, as usual registering as magnitude 5.3, with a minor ash & gas plume about 1000 feet high:

summit explosion caught on livestream

Captured from the USGS/HVO Kilauea Livestream. That enormously long crack on the right especially impressed me. Below, I’ve made a before-and-after animation to show some of the changes at Halema’uma’u over the last two days, using screengrabs from HVO’s webcam.

Before-and-after photos of Halema’uma’u from HVO webcam. First screengrab morning of June 19; second is afternoon of June 21. (Larger-sized)

While Kilauea can’t sit still, Mauna Loa’s status has been downgraded to GREEN following six months of “near background level” seismic activity. See the “remarks” section of the USGS June 21 Mauna Loa update explaining the context for this announcement and Mauna Loa’s behavior over the past five years.

 June 19 Montage of Leilani Estates at Night

Good video reminding us of where it all started, Leilani Estates, as well as the unforgettable sound of Fissure 8 roaring:

Continue reading June 21: Mauna Loa Green, Kilauea Red

June 19: Steve Brantley USGS Talk on Eruption Status

On Tuesday, June 19, there was a Puna Community Meeting at Pahoa High School at 5pm. As usual, Steve Brantley of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory/USGS gave an excellent slide presentation reviewing the current state of the Kilauea eruiption. He covered the “perched lava flow” in the Lower Rift Zone and the dramatic changes at the summit, placing each in context with previous similar events. (I didn’t realize there were records of many past Halema’uma’u collapses).

Video of the entire meeting is posted here. The USGS talk starts at 42:40. I’ve transcribed it below, adding photos when I have something close (and restoring his graphs/diagrams which don’t come through very well on video recording).

Steve Brantley, HVO/USGS:

Continue reading June 19: Steve Brantley USGS Talk on Eruption Status

June 20: Jaggar Museum Collection Rescued

Today’s Eruption Summary:

Status quo continues, with Fissure 8 feeding a large, fast-flowing channel to the ocean, where it’s entering on the south side of the lava delta today. Upstream along the river, there’s occasional spillovers, but these never travel far from the levees. Top speeds on June 18 were measured at 20mph, by the way. Fissures 6 and 16 have reverted to fuming. (I see no white speck left of Fissure 8 on the LERZ webcam [correction: it’s back at 9:45pm]). Today’s summit explosion occurred at 4:22am (5.3ish), with a minor ash plume rising 6,000 feet above sea level (2000 feet above Kilauea).

Saying Goodbye (At Least For Now)
USGS: “The rock wall at the Jaggar Museum Overlook is cracked and crumbling.
USGS image taken June 18, 2018.”

Today’s big news was confirmation that Jaggar Museum has evacuated its exhibits:

Hawaii Volcanoes NPS: “The cracks on the floor are from earthquake damage. Structural damage from the quakes may have already compromised the building. The observation deck has a new and noticeable tilt. The bigger worry is the increasing and dangerous instability of the crater rim under the building.”

Meanwhile, HVO staff is “making arrangements to remove as much archival and historical material as possible from the buildings,”  They’re so busy monitoring this eruption that I think they may need to hire movers:

Outside, it’s time to bid farewell to the old Halema’uma’u overlook & parking lot:

USGS: “View of the southern edge of the growing Halema‘uma‘u crater (middle right) during yesterday’s [Jun 19] helicopter-assisted work at Kīlauea’s summit. The once-popular parking lot (closed since 2008) that provided access to Halema‘uma‘u is no longer–the parking lot fell into the crater this past week as more and more of the Kīlauea Crater floor slides into Halema‘uma‘u. The Crater Rim Drive road (middle) now ends at Halema‘uma‘u instead of the parking lot. The view is toward the west-northwest.” (Full-sized)
More USGS PHOTOS

Continue reading June 20: Jaggar Museum Collection Rescued

June 19: Magnificent Desolation

Six weeks in, this eruption can still take one’s breath away.

USGS: During the helicopter overflight on June 18, crews captured this image of the growing Halema‘uma‘u crater viewed to the southeast. With HVO and Jagger Museum sitting on the caldera rim (right side, middle where the road bends to the left) it is easier to comprehend the scale of subsidence at the summit. The estimated total volume loss is about 260 million cubic meters as of June 15th. (Full-sized)

USGS: “Fissure 8 vigor increased overnight June 18-19 with lava fountains reaching up to 60 m (200 ft). Spatter built up the cone to the east and into the channel. In this photograph, spatter lands on the east cone and flows downward.” (Full-sized)
Today’s Eruption Summary

Today’s summit explosion came early, 5:05am HST, with a weak ash/gas plume that reached 5,000 feet above sea level (Kilauea is ~4,000). Every one of these explosions means more downdropping and subsidence, resulting in the colossal changes we’re seeing to Halema’uma’u.

In the Lower East Rift Zone, Fissure 8 climbed back up to 200 foot fountains last night, beefing up the sides of its cone with spatter (but not adding much more height).  This morning the river was full to the top of its levees with a few minor breakouts.

Some of these overflows made it past the edge of earlier flows. One went north up Pohoiki Road a short distance before stalling, while another crept northwest along Luana Street. Fissure 6, 15, 16 are “oozing” lava and steaming. Near the ocean, the channel has forked to create two ocean entries, but the only place where it’s still covering more land is a creeping southwest edge of the lava flow in the Vacationland area.

(Above vimeo channel is nothing but daily ocean entry videos.)

More USGS Images and Videos

Continue reading June 19: Magnificent Desolation

Jun 19: 11am USGS Conference Call

Fissure 8 from HCFC overflight, June 19, 2018. (Full-sized)

Link: Full audio for Tuesday, June 19 USGS media conference call

  • USGS Eruption update: Status quo continues for summit explosions and Fissure 8.
  • NWS: Tradewinds return Thurs eve/Fri, vog winds in meantime.
  • NWP tells about places that ARE open, park-related activities.
  • Question & Answer session…

Continue reading Jun 19: 11am USGS Conference Call

June 18: Harry Kim Needs to Rest

Today’s Eruption Summary
USGS gif of F8 lava flow  Jun 17.

Fissure 8’s still doing its thing, fountaining 150-180 feet overnight with 164 foot spatter cone. The usual minor spillovers on the channel to the ocean. Today the lava’s entering the ocean mostly on the south side of the lava delta in the vicinity of Vacationland. Fissure 16/18 are still oozing, and fissure 6 (the bright spot to the left of Fissure 8 on the LERZ webcam at night) is intermittently incandescent or spattering. Both are “forming small lava flows on top of the existing flows.

USGS on Facebook: “About midday, minor amounts of lava spilled over the channel levees but did not advance very far. USGS image taken June 18, 2018 of the upper flow field, just downstream from fissure 8. The ocean entry is marked by a visible plume in the upper left.”

The summit’s daily explosion occurred at 6:12 am, moment magnitude 5.3. It produced a “very small, minor plume that went no more than 500 meters above the ground.” (Brian Shiro in 11AM conference call):

I rewound the Kilauea livestream to watch. The crater was steaming with small white puffy clouds of morning condensation. I saw the window frame vibrate, but the short-lived plume of ash/steam obscured the crater rim, so I didn’t spot any downdrops or rockfalls like we’ve seen for the past few days.

Below: Lots of great photos of summit and LERZ lava field today, and excellent Q&As from USGS on social media.

Continue reading June 18: Harry Kim Needs to Rest