Today’s Eruption Summary
Fissure 8 surged after last night’s summit collapse and sent brief-lived overflows towards Nohea Street and on both sides of the channel further down. Civil Defense reported an unspecified number of structures lost; Janet Snyder of the Mayor’s office said one in the mandatory evacuation zone of Leilani Estates.
Other fissures remain quiet.
Past Kapoho Crater, a pulse of a’a made its way to the ocean, overriding the existing channelized flow on the south side of the delta. Ooze-outs continue here and there along the edge of the delta.
We’ll have to wait another day to see how summit collapses look from the new Northeast Caldera Rim livestream. Today’s occurred at 1:28 am July 18. They seem to be spaced farther out, but it still registered as a M5.3.
July 18 Lower East Rift Zone Map
And the smoke from a fire on the saddle area of Mauna Loa this evening is NOT a volcanic eruption.
July 14 2:45 pm drone video
[USGS Caption: “In this July 14, 2018, video captured by the UAS (Unmanned Aircraft Systems) team, lava was erupting from within the 120-foot-high fissure 8 cinder cone built of chilled lava fragments.Lava emerging from the cone was traveling about 13-16 miles per hour, flowing freely over a small set of cascades (rapids) and into a perched channel that was as much as 50 feet above the ground surface. The fissure 8 lava flow channel extends about 8 miles to the active ocean entry. UAS are assisting in the USGS eruption response. Hovering at about 1000 feet above hazardous areas, UAS collect video and images to map lava flow boundaries, track overflows, and help assess channel velocities. UAS can also carry sensors to collect thermal and gas data.”]
[Note: someone asked for confirmation of the 120′ height, since it used to be 180′. USGS: “Cinder cones do change shape over the course of eruptions – growing and shrinking via tephra accumulation and collapse. So, yes.”]
USGS Recent Meetings/Talks
HC Fire Dept Overflight
Again posted two days later on Civil Defense’s Flickr.
July 16, day of the lava tour boat accident.
Blocked branch of braided channel:
Main ocean entry channel, south side of Kapoho Crater:
Old channel past Kapoho Crater. Hard to tell if it’s transporting any lava under the surface:
Lava delta over Kapoho Bay. Lots of a’a.
Tiny not-island:
New ocean entry in foreground (thicker laze plume) and “ooze-outs” dwindling into the distance:
Link: 29 more photos in album.
From Local News Media
- HTH: “Congress approves $4.8M to help with new HVO office”
- HSA: “U.S. House approves $4.7M for USGS Volcano program“
- BIVN: (Video and article): “5 pm Eruption Update – Lava 0.4 Miles From Pohoiki”
- HTH: “Lava about 700 meters from park, boat ramp”
- HNN: “‘An emphasis on safety’: Mayor Kim says he was unaware of reduced lava safety zone”
- HTH: “Lava boat tours to continue after explosion, injuries“
- HSA: “Tour boat operator involved in a lava bomb incident has history of passenger issues“
- HCB: “Big Island: Volcano Politics Play Out in Lava-Swamped Council District”
- HSA: “Some Leilani Estates residents may qualify for FEMA rental assistance”
- HNN: “Local non-profit provides comfort to families affected by eruption”
- BIVN: “(Video) Eruption Meeting Held in Pahoa 1/2 (July 17, 2018” Part 2 was Steve Brantley presentation
- And Dispatches From Volcano gives us a rundown on what a caldera is, where the boundaries are for Kīlauea Caldera, and where it’s subsiding.
Bruce Omori Photos from this morning
Here’s that “new, faster moving flow” creeping over the older but still active flow this morning, which I had a little trouble visualizing from USGS description:
Wednesday, July 18, 2018, 6:00 am – Kilauea's lower east rift zone overflight: A new wave of lava moves over the still active ‘a‘a flow on the coastal plain toward the sea.
Posted by Extreme Exposure Fine Art Gallery on Wednesday, July 18, 2018
Wednesday, July 18, 2018, 6:00 am – Kilauea's lower east rift zone overflight: A new, faster moving flow, moves over the older, but still active, mass of ‘a‘a.
Posted by Extreme Exposure Fine Art Gallery on Wednesday, July 18, 2018
Great close-up of the older, established a’a flow (darker, with breakouts all along the side) with this morning’s “surge” flow (lighter color) moving over the top:
Wednesday, July 18, 2018, 6:00 am – Kilauea's lower east rift zone overflight: The active ‘a‘a flow bleeds from its perimeter, while another wave of lava on the right, moves at a faster pace toward the sea.
Posted by Extreme Exposure Fine Art Gallery on Wednesday, July 18, 2018
And a few other views:
Wednesday, July 18, 2018, 6:00 am – Kilauea's lower east rift zone overflight: Although the flow's southward progression has slowed, we observed some areas of breakouts throughout the flow's periphery.
Posted by Extreme Exposure Fine Art Gallery on Wednesday, July 18, 2018
Wednesday, July 18, 2018, 6:00 am – Kilauea's lower east rift zone overflight: The channelized flow moves onto the…
Posted by Extreme Exposure Fine Art Gallery on Wednesday, July 18, 2018
Blog post and 8 more photos here.
USGS on Social Media
Here’s an interesting tidbit for today:
#Lavaboat: "Laci Mayton's video on board the #boat damaged by the #explosion shows 2 underwater flashes…I showed the video to #USGS and they agreed it was an underwater flash but could not explain it. "We're not sure what it is."
Fb link #Hawaii tracker https://t.co/ak82atBkVB pic.twitter.com/3ZPAazbK7l
— Christina Consolo ☢ aka RadChick (@RadChick4Cast) July 18, 2018
USGS: Hey. Can you please email the full video to vhpweb@usgs.gov? We would like to have some of our volcanologists take a look. Static charges often accompany explosive events, and lightning was visible in explosive plumes at the coast – this is an interesting observation.
USGS Followup: From our electrostatic expert. They do look like electrical discharges. It’s possible there were large subsurface air bubbles where charging could occur & then house discharges up to the surface, where they became visible. Lava flashes water to steam- bubbles would have occurred.
[Another person noted the lightning flashes in the laze cloud in Ikaika Marzo’s video.]
USGS: Those were lightning strokes caused by electrical charges between positive and negative charges between tephra (broken up lava pieces) and the surrounding air. Amazing, huh?! These are seen often in volcanic ash plumes.
There's a basic discussion here: https://t.co/103ddgB6p5, a slightly more detailed one here: https://t.co/k076vV1MXg, and the original research paper from the @AGU_Eos article: https://t.co/IXdoNOTkY3 The last might be a little more detailed than you want.
— USGS Volcanoes🌋 (@USGSVolcanoes) July 18, 2018
Q: How do these eruptions affect world weather?
USGS: There really isn’t any global impact on weather – for that, you’d have to have an eruption column that could put large amounts of ash and SO2 gas into the stratosphere (like Pinatubo in 1991). There can be local effects, however — like localized rainclouds forming due to air upwelling over the eruption site, or due to increased vog concentrations that can actually impact parts of the Pacific as far away as Guam.
Q: Where can we find numbers on gas emissions?
USGS: There are no specific numbers being recorded on a daily basis. In general, the amounts from the fissure system have increased through time – this corresponds to a shift to more primitive (less outgassed) magma. When crews have been able to measure emissions directly, the numbers since May 5 have been over 30,000 tons per day for sulfur dioxide. It’s hard to get quantifiable numbers of other species.
[FWIW, Pinatubo released 17 megatons of SO2 in a few days. And its high eruption column sent most of that into the stratosphere, where it could linger. That link summarizes climate impact.]
Crazy, right?? The energy released relates to physical processes of the collapse events – always the same! Check out our FAQ about this and other weird summit earthquake stuff. https://t.co/SjRwyWIiPc
— USGS Volcanoes🌋 (@USGSVolcanoes) July 18, 2018
Rumor Whack-a-Mole
Kīlauea Message Wed, 18 Jul 2018 20:47:09 HST: Mauna Loa volcano is not erupting. There are fires reported west of mile marker 44 on the Saddle Road near the Pohakuloa Training Center. Mauna Loa volcano is not erupting.
— USGS Volcanoes🌋 (@USGSVolcanoes) July 19, 2018
Q: What about the fissure in Grand Tetons NP? [The park service calls it a crack. I suspect some tabloids have changed it to “fissure” for clickbait purposes.]
USGS: It’s a different kind of fissure – while we’ve been using ‘fissure’ to describe cracks that spew lava, the Grand Tetons fissure is referring to a crack in a rock buttress on a non-volcanic mountainside. Geologists get a lot of mileage out of the words we use!
Q: Could it lead to a volcanic eruption?
USGS: This is not a volcanic event. There is not a potentially active volcano in the Tetons – just typical weathering and rock fracturing.
And on Facebook: USGS: We’ve gotten a lot of questions about a crack at Grand Teton National Park, and whether or not it was caused by #Yellowstone activity. Here’s the latest information directly from the National Park Service, complete with photos! In a nutshell, it’s a fracture in a steep cliff face that is unrelated to Yellowstone. Cracks in cliffs in steep mountainous terrain, like the Teton Range, are very common and can lead to rockfalls, which is why the immediate area around the unstable area has been closed.
From Other Photographers / Social Media
I think the “new flow front” is the surge flow that Omori photographed above.