Evacuated residents of Leilani Estates were allowed back on Sunday May 6 to collect vital documents, pets and possessions. New fissures continued to open up and spatter, and officials warned about toxic sulfur dioxide gas (SO2) coming from fissures as well.
HVO Scientist-in-Charge Tina Neal gave an EXCELLENT evening briefing on the first 24 hours of the Leilani Estates Eruption, explaining very clearly what was happening and why.
[Big Island Video News, overlaid with video from Mick Kalber flyover]
Continue reading May 4: USGS Scientist Explains First 24 Hours of Eruption
Friday was a busy day. Starting before sunrise, more fissures erupted (USGS night video). Here’s a USGS video of Fissure 3: first cracks, then steam, and eventually lava spatter.
At 12:33PM. a magnitude 6.9 earthquake knocked out power to some customers, agitated the summit lava lake (video clip), sent up yet more ash from Pu’u O’o (video clip), and caused minor local sea level fluctuations (Good article: Honolulu Star-Advertiser). Also see informative HVO Volcano Watch photo essay.
Below: Interview of HVO geologist Jim Kauahikaua, prior to 6.9 quake. Big Island Video News added lava footage from David Corrigan, Mick Kalber, Ikaika Marzo.
Continue reading May 4: First Full Day of Eruption, 6.9 Earthquake
Today marked the ten-year anniversary of the opening of the “Overlook Vent” lava lake within Halemaʻumaʻu Crater at the summit of Kīlauea Volcano.
From March 19 post of HVO’s Photo & Video Chronology archive:
Today marks the 10th anniversary of the eruption within Halema‘uma‘u at the summit of Kīlauea Volcano. When thevent first opened on March 19, 2008, it formed a small pit about 115 feet (35 m) wide. Over the past decade, that pit (informally called the “Overlook crater”) has grown into a gaping hole about 919 feet by 656 feet (280 x 200 m) in size. Click on the above webcam images to watch the growth of Overlook crater over the past 10 years.
That post also shared a slideshow of the lava lake’s formation and widening over a ten-year period:
These were taken from HVO’s webcams, which at the time had been capturing images of the caldera and lava lake (“Overlook Vent”) every ten minutes for years. They give you a sense of what “normal” was for Kīlauea prior to the start of this eruption:
Views into the lava lake from two webcams that were some of the first casualties of this eruption:
At the time, there was no summit livestream. Webcams were plenty to keep up with the day-to-day fluctuations.
Dr. Matt Patrick (USGS) reviews the ten year history of the overlook vent lava lake. Around 8:55 the camera pans around to show the entire lake and other parts of Halemaʻumaʻu Crater. These are some of the last views of it prior to changes in May 2018.
Wind noise makes him a little hard to hear. The USGS also posted this video on their own multimedia library. Since their server sometimes times out, let me include the transcript below.
Continue reading March 19, 2018: Ten Year Anniversary of Lava Lake in Halema’uma’u Crater