Tag: janet babb

July 23: Pohoiki Going Tonight (I Think)

July 23, 2018. View of lava channel from F8 where it bends to south and heads for ocean (laze plume in background). USGS: “The fissure 8 channel continues to carry lava toward the coast on the west side of Kapoho Crater (vegetated cone, far left). Northwest of this cone, overflows (lower left) of the channel occurred overnight, but lava was confined to the existing flow field and did not threaten any homes or structures.” (Full-sized)
Today’s Eruption Summary

The USGS has updated the energy release for yesterday evening’s summit collapse to  M5.5. (For more info: “Why Do Earthquake Magnitudes Sometimes Change?” from a 2016 issue of Volcano Watch by HVO.)

Fissure 8 exhibited surge behavior afterwards. Overnight, drone crews observed minor overflows just northwest of Kapoho Cone, most of which were confined to the existing flow field and/or stopped before traveling far enough to threaten structures.

July 23, 2018. USGS: “Lava continued to enter the sea near Ahalanui during HVO’s early morning helicopter overflight of Kīlauea’s lower East Rift Zone (view to northeast). The southern margin of the flow was still about [a quarter mile] from the boat ramp at Isaac Hale Park this morning. The jetty along the launch ramp is visible near the center of the photo.” (Full-sized)
The main ocean entry and southern margin of the flow haven’t moved much in the past few days. However, USGS reports “a new lobe has started from the southern lobe and is active along its southwestern margin, slowly heading towards the ocean.” Today’s 1 pm map clarifies the new lobe’s location:

July 23, 2018, 1 pm USGS map of LERZ lava flow field. Note small overflow by Fissure 8 as well as upstream of Kapoho bend on the north side of the braided channels. (Full-sized)

Ikaika Marzo, a lava tour boat operator who stays a sensible distance from shore, reportedly saw lava is in Isaac Hale Park, within 50 m of Pohoiki boat ramp at 7:15 this evening.

No summit collapse today, unless the pattern changes; the next one ought to occur tomorrow morning.

Here’s highlights of the USGS Media Conference Call from this afternoon:

Full audio file archived here.

Continue reading July 23: Pohoiki Going Tonight (I Think)

July 19: USGS Media Conference Call

Thursday 1 pm USGS briefing to media. Most important part of briefing:

Full 1/2 hour audiofile here.

  • Leslie Gordon, USGS Public Affairs
  • Janet Babb, geologist, USGS/HVO
  • Patricia Nadeau, geochemist, USGS/HVO
  • Jessica Ferracane, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park
  • Matthew Foster, meteorologist, NWS

Janet Babb, Kīlauea Update: Good afternoon, everyone.

On the Lower East Rift Zone, Fissure 8 is still active. It continues to erupt lava into the perched channel that extends down on the west side of Kapoho Crater and feeds lava into the ocean. This morning, the main ocean entry was a little bit west of Ahalanui, with the flow margin about 500 meters, or 0.3 mile, from the Pohoiki boat ramp. There’s still some weak ocean entry points to the north of this main entry over near the Kapoho Bay lobe of lava where there were some weak, wispy plumes there. The flow front along the ocean, along the coast is still about 6 kilometers wide or 3.7 miles wide. On the Lower East Rift Zone, the sulfur dioxide emissions remain high, and the ocean entry hazards include the laze plume, as well as the possible hydrovolcanic explosions, what we referred to on Monday as “littoral explosions.” Hydrovolcanic is a little more intuitive word to explain the lava-seawater interaction.

Up at the summit, as we speak earthquakes are occurring at a rate of about 25-30 per hour as the volcano builds up to the next collapse event [this phonecall at 1 pm, collapse came at 4:33 pm.] The previous collapse event weas at 1:28 am July 18, so it’s been about 36 hours. We are within that time interval where we typically see these collapses occur. At the summit, the sulfur dioxide emissions are low. We’ll be posting some new photos and a new map shortly after this media call. That’s all.

Continue reading July 19: USGS Media Conference Call

July 12: USGS Conference Call

There was a lot of good info in the Thursday conference call with members of the media. BigIslandVideoNews posted a recording of most of it:

Full audio archived here.

  • Leslie Gordon, USGS Public Affairs Officer
  • Matthew Foster, meteorologist, NWS
  • Jessica Ferracane, NPS, HVNP Public Affairs
  • Janet Babb, geologist, HVO/USGS
  • Mike Zoellner, geologist, Center for the Study of Active Volcanoes, UHI
Transcript – July 11 Eruption Update

Janet Babb, USGS:  On the Lower East Rift Zone, Fissure 8 continues to erupt, and overnight the channelized flow that was diverted from the main channel that went west of Kapoho Crater advanced to the ocean, and, unfortunately, in its path, it destroyed the Kua O Ko La Charter School and the Ahalanui Beach Park area. And there’s now a new, very robust ocean entry plume near the Ahalanui Beach Park area. So in all, the flow front at the ocean now is about 3.7 miles wide.

In this morning’s overflight, there were no other fissures that appeared to be active.

At the summit, following yesterday’s early morning collapse/explosion that released energy equivalent to a magnitude 5.3 earthquake, the earthquakes have resumed— there was a period of quiet, but the earthquakes have resumed and currently the summit area is experiencing about 25-30 earthquakes per hour. This pattern is expected to continue.

As far as gas emissions at the summit, the gas emissions remain low, and on the Lower East Rift Zone, the gas emissions remain high. And with that, of course, the problems with vog continue with those high emissions.

Continue reading July 12: USGS Conference Call

June 4: Lava Enters Kapoho Bay

june 4 Kilauea Eruption Summary / Infographic by USGS
Text version at link: June 4 Kilauea Infographic, HVO/USGS

Latest numbers: 
Lava coverage ~7.7 square miles, 19.9 square km, 4917 acres.
Janet Snyder, spokesperson from Hawai’i County Mayor’s Office, says at least 117 homes destroyed, but Civil Defense admin Talmadge Magno says probably “a lot more”

Here’s a video clip and two screengrabs to sum up Kilauea’s activity today: a half-mile-wide a’a flow pouring into Kapoho Bay and slowly filling it, while the summit steams weakly after a 5.5 earthquake yesterday.

Kapoho Bay, USGS overflight, 6:13am (HST) this morning:

Screengrabs from the Halema’uma’u and LERZ webcams about 3pm:

Taken from Overlook Vent Wide Angle Webcam, HVO/USGS, Jun 4, 3pm local time. Only light steam.
Screengrab from USGS/HVO Lower East Rift Zone webcam, June 4, 3pm. Fissure 8 still fountaining away with broad lava flow issuing to right (northeast), heading down to Kapoho.

ETA: Oh, look. Perfect angle of the sun right now.

Jun 4, 6:20 pm – Nice webcam image from HVO.

Additional info from HVO morning status report: “Local videographers reported that lava entered the ocean at Kapoho Bay at about 10:30 PM HST on June 3. […] A lava breakout is also occurring upslope [north] of the Kapoho cone cinder pit, with active flows about 330 yards southeast of the intersection of Railroad Avenue and Cinder Road..   […]Following the small [M5.5] explosion at about 3:50 PM HST on June 3, earthquake activity at the summit has been low. Inward slumping of the rim and walls of Halema`uma`u continues in response to persistent subsidence. ”

June 4 Kilauea Eruption Digest:
  • USGS Info/Updates
  • Posts from Other Geologists
  • National Park Damage Report
  • News from Hawaiian Media
  • Images/Videos From Social Media

Continue reading June 4: Lava Enters Kapoho Bay

Oct 2017: Lava Lake at Kilauea’s Summit, Nine Years On

Excellent retrospective the USGS put out in 2017 on the then nine-year-old lava lake at Kilauea’s summit, with great information and spectacular views:

USGS video description:

In March 2008, a new volcanic vent opened within Halema‘uma‘u, a crater at the summit of Kīlauea Volcano in Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park on the Island of Hawaiʻi. This new vent is one of two ongoing eruptions on the volcano. The other is on Kīlauea’s East Rift Zone, where vents have been erupting nearly nonstop since 1983. The duration of these simultaneous summit and rift zone eruptions on Kīlauea is unmatched in at least 200 years.

Since 2008, Kīlauea’s summit eruption has consisted of continuous degassing, occasional explosive events, and an active, circulating lava lake. Because of ongoing volcanic hazards associated with the summit vent, including the emission of high levels of sulfur dioxide gas and fragments of hot lava and rock explosively hurled onto the crater rim, the area around Halemaʻumaʻu remains closed to the public as of 2017.

Through historical photos of past Halemaʻumaʻu eruptions and stunning 4K imagery of the current eruption, this 24-minute program tells the story of Kīlauea Volcano’s summit lava lake—now one of the two largest lava lakes in the world. It begins with a Hawaiian chant that expresses traditional observations of a bubbling lava lake and reflects the connections between science and culture that continue on Kīlauea today.

The video briefly recounts the eruptive history of Halemaʻumaʻu and describes the formation and continued growth of the current summit vent and lava lake. It features USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory scientists sharing their insights on the summit eruption—how they monitor the lava lake, how and why the lake level rises and falls, why explosive events occur, the connection between Kīlauea’s ongoing summit and East Rift Zone eruptions, and the impacts of the summit eruption on the Island of Hawaiʻi and beyond.

Additional Credits:
Producers: Janet Babb and Steve Wessells
Writers: Janet Babb, Donna Matrazzo, and Steve Wessells
Director of Photography: Richard Lyons”

Continue reading Oct 2017: Lava Lake at Kilauea’s Summit, Nine Years On