Hawaii's Kilauea volcano eruption

[Janus]

great to hear from you Janus ... hope you are having fun

Dave

Well are. Have seen some great scenery, saw green sea turtles basking on beaches of two islands, and even caught sight of a dolphin jumping out of the water during breakfast the other day. Am spending the afternoon of our last night at hotel watching the waves crash against the rocks, before heading for dinner. Catch a red-eye tomorrow night for home.

 

[davenn]

The lava fountain from the fissure 20 area is still pounding out tons of lava
a few screen captures I have done from the live stream today

first one around 1pm 23 May 2018 Hawai'i time
second one close to midnite 23 May 2018 Hawai'i time

courtesy of Honolulu Civil Beat live feed
Dave

 

[davenn]

The fountaining went through a quieter session early today

Strangely, I have noted on a number of days now and I cannot explain it. Maybe just coincidence with the changes of activity and timing.
I have noted that activity is often quieter during the day than the night.Dave

 

[OmCheeto]

...

Strangely, I have noted on a number of days now and I cannot explain it. Maybe just coincidence with the changes of activity and timing.
I have noted that activity is often quieter during the day than the night.Dave

It might be the change in contrast, and camera aperture setting. Hard to tell without being there.

Friday, May 18, 2018 [ref video]

Maybe they should add a thermal imaging camera.

One reason I won't try and quantify it is because I just scrolled through the video, and the plume changes shape and direction over time.

2:18 Fan to the right. 3:30 shoot straight up. 4:32 fan to the left.
Using the blue highlighted tree in the foreground as reference.
Same video.

 

[nsaspook]

 

[nsaspook]

Crazy dangerous.

 

[BillTre]

Here is a zoomable Google map of the lava areas, with several interesting overlays.
I have spent a lot of time in the Kapoho tide pools (to the east of the lava) which are great. Have friends with a house very close to there.

Several of the videos I have seen here have a lot of chirpy sounds in the background. They are from invasive tree frogs. I like tree frogs and don't mind the sounds, but a lot of people around there are annoyed by them because they increase the ambient sound levels.

 

[nsaspook]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-44294418

The US Geological Survey has responded to a social media query on whether it is safe to roast marshmallows over a volcanic vent.

The answer is no.

It's good to see that things are returning back to normal.

 

[OmCheeto]

...
Strangely, I have noted on a number of days now and I cannot explain it. Maybe just coincidence with the changes of activity and timing.
I have noted that activity is often quieter during the day than the night.Dave

I just watched a live feed with geologist Philip Ong, and the cameraman mentioned the same thing, that the activity is quieter during the day.
Phillip didn't mention anything that I mentioned (being a possible optical illusion), so maybe things are more active at night.

 

[BillTre]

Here is a local news conference (short text and video) from Hawaii earlier today.
Discusses recent news, changes, and some hypotheses about what might be driving the eruption.
Good Pictures/videos.

 

[nsaspook]

Looks like the crater is blocked.

 

[NTL2009]

Question: When we see 'geysers' of lava bubbling up into the air, is that a continuous supply of 'fresh' lava from below, or is much of that lava dropping down and being thrown up again? I'm guessing it is mostly (90% ?, 99% ?, ?) 'recycled' lava, or a mountain/river would build up quickly, but it's hard for me to tell from these videos.

 

[nsaspook]

Question: When we see 'geysers' of lava bubbling up into the air, is that a continuous supply of 'fresh' lava from below, or is much of that lava dropping down and being thrown up again? I'm guessing it is mostly (90% ?, 99% ?, ?) 'recycled' lava, or a mountain/river would build up quickly, but it's hard for me to tell from these videos.

From what I can tell it's mainly fresh lava now. Very liquid, hot and full of gasses that cause it to bubble up in the air. Once that falls down it travels down the lava river rather quickly now as the areas near the supply have buildup high banks that increase the slope down around the fountains.



This Google map shows the current path of the lava is expected to cross right through the beach side housing.
https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?urp=https://www.facebook.com/&mid=1CvBhH9wEeztBrqYbsGDi4YjU1k1QH5AL&ll=19.50403815516964,-154.8307863302307&z=16

 

[nsaspook]

 

[nsaspook]

 

[BillTre]

Well, there goes the Kapoho tide pools and all the houses in that area.

I wondering how much volume of lava this eruption has put out.

 

[davenn]

Well, there goes the Kapoho tide pools and all the houses in that area.
I wondering how much volume of lava this eruption has put out.

we need a "sad" button as well. Clicking the "like" button just doesn't seem right

My heart goes out to all the people that have lost their homes and businesses over the last 5 weeks
'Dave

 

[dlgoff]

we need a "sad" button as well. Clicking the "like" button just doesn't seem right

It's good that @Greg Bernhardt kept the Retro Smilies so we can show how sad we really are.

 

[davenn]

lava flow maps for the 5th June and the 6th June

5th

6th

The whole subdivision has now pretty much gone

 

[BillTre]

The white (on the maps) offshore in the ocean, defines the outer reaches of the tidepools.
That's where the waves break as the water gets shallow just off shore of the tidepools.
They were many acres in size.
Taught my kids snorkling there.

 

[OmCheeto]

...
I wondering how much volume of lava this eruption has put out.

Between 6 and 9 million cubic meters.
ref: 4:10 in the following video


Scientist [Steve Brantley, Deputy Scientist-in-Charge, USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory] Describes Eruption Changes (Jun. 6, 2018)
Big Island Video News
Published on Jun 6, 2018

One fun thing I've been doing over the last few days is trying to figure out what "Earthquake numbers" mean, as there have been A LOT in the Kilauea caldera.
I came up with: joules = 2.825×10^(1.5×(Magnitude+2.9))

It seemed to match pretty closely what the pdf chart on page 4 from the British Geological Survey stated, so, I'm sticking to it.
https://www.bgs.ac.uk/downloads/start.cfm?id=661
Earthquake_magnitude.pdf

 

[Borg]

From the HVO Webcams:

Live Panorama of Puʻu ʻŌʻō Crater Single Frame from the North Rim [POcam]
Last Updated 2018-06-08 06:12:11 (HST)

I'm guessing that they might have to replace that camera.

Doh. Thanks Om!

 

[OmCheeto]

From the HVO Webcams:

Live Panorama of Puʻu ʻŌʻō Crater Single Frame from the North Rim [POcam]
Last Updated 2018-06-08 06:12:11 (HST)
https://www.physicsforums.com/attachments/226724

Ummmm... Before anyone interprets that image as "It looks like ejecta!", I would like to point out that camera has a dirty lens.

It's looked like that for about a month.

 

[Borg]

I was wondering why the image appeared to get brighter over the last hour. I saw that the 'ejecta' hadn't moved but it didn't occur to me that the lens was just dirty.

 

[OmCheeto]

I was wondering why the image appeared to get brighter over the last hour. I saw that the 'ejecta' hadn't moved but it didn't occur to me that the lens was just dirty.

Aside from the rise and fall of lava levels in that vent/tube, there has been almost no seismic activity there over the last 30 days.

Now, although not quite as "Hollywoodish" as vent #8 and its flows, the Halema'uma'u crater expansion is a great maths/physics problem.

According to my always suspicious maths, the earthquake (energy) activity in the vent matches, within an order of magnitude, the energy released by the collapse of the east crater wall.

Expressed as a function of volume:

9,000,000 m^3 (magnitude of earthquakes)
13,000,000 m^3 (eyeballing the volume)​

 

[OmCheeto]

hmmmm...

That's weird. I've seen that number before:

Expressed as a function of volume:
9,000,000 m^3

9 million cubic meters.

Might be just a coincidence.

 

[davenn]

Between 6 and 9 million cubic meters.

and that's not total

that is PER DAY !

 

[BillTre]

So this seems like a rather smallish eruption by volume.
This one might be 9 x 30 days (my approximation) = 270 x 1,000,000 cubic meters

Big eruptions seem to usually be measured in cubic kilometers (1,000,000,000 cubic meters).

It looks like explosive type volcanoes eruptive volumes are usually measured as volume of tuff, which to me seems like a fluffed up version of lava (due to released dissolved gasses) while effusive eruptions are just a volume of lava (gas free).
Big eruptions of both kinds can be 1,000's of cubic kilometers.

 

[OmCheeto]

and that's not total

that is PER DAY !

Good catch! Not sure why I left off the "per day" in that post.

Now I want to kick myself for not posting what I saw just a few minutes later.

USGS Volcanoes
Yesterday at 12:12

How much lava has erupted since May 3?
113.5 million cubic meters (0.11 cubic kilometers, 4008.2 million cubic feet)
That's enough to fill 45,400 Olympic-sized swimming pools, cover Manhattan Island to a depth of 6.5 feet, or fill 11.3 million average dump trucks.​

I recall thinking, "11 isn't that much more than 9", I'll just leave it at that.
Maybe this is why people keep sending me links to "eyeglass sales".

So this seems like a rather smallish eruption by volume.
This one might be 9 x 30 days (my approximation) = 270 x 1,000,000 cubic meters

Not that bad for an approximation.

Big eruptions seem to usually be measured in cubic kilometers (1,000,000,000 cubic meters).

It looks like explosive type volcanoes eruptive volumes are usually measured as volume of tuff, which to me seems like a fluffed up version of lava (due to released dissolved gasses) while effusive eruptions are just a volume of lava (gas free).
Big eruptions of both kinds can be 1,000's of cubic kilometers.

Someone should calculate the volume of "The Big Island", from its peak down to the sea floor. It's all old (and new) lava.
hmmm... I've got nothing to do.

Roughly 100,000 km³

Age of the island: 500,000 years ?
(Is it really that young?)

If so, that's only 1/5 km³ per year.
Or 200,000,000 m³ per year.

hmm... If these calculations are anywhere close to being correct, it would appear that the people living in the "rift zone" have been very fortunate.

From the USGS reference above; "That's a lot of lava, but it's only 1/2 the amount of the 1984 Mauna Loa eruption."

But then again:

Mantle supply rates [ref Oregon State University]:

...
Because the discharge rates of almost all tube-fed pahoehoe eruptions on both and Mauna Loa seem to have been between 2 and 5 cubic meters per second, this has been proposed to be the supply rate to each volcano from the mantle (Swanson 1972; Dzurisin et al. 1984; Rowland & Walker 1990). You may recall from the beginning of this review that dividing the total volume of Mauna Loa by its estimated age yields essentially the same value. This would imply that all magma supplied from the mantle is erupted onto the surface; this is definitely not the case. When the volume of lava erupted onto the surface at Mauna Loa since the arrival of westerners (1778) is divided by the time since 1778, the rate is only 1 cubic meter per second, and a similar calculation for Kilauea yields a value of only 0.2 cubic meter/sec.

These values are 3 and 15 times smaller than the proposed supply rate of about 3 meters per second. These relationships point out the pitfalls of looking only at the surfaces of volcanoes for short periods of their lives, and suggest that the ratio of intruded:erupted magma is high at both Mauna Loa and Kilauea.​

2 m³/sec = 60,000,000 m³/year
5 m³/sec = 160,000,000 m³/year (Woo hoo! My maths might be correct!)

0.2 m³/sec = 6,000,000 m³/year

Conclusion: None.
But it's interesting to think about.

 

[davenn]

Age of the island: 500,000 years ?
(Is it really that young?)

The oldest above sea level part is a bit older than that at around 700,000 to 1 million yrs.
Refer to one of my earlier posts describing the 5 volcanoes of the "Big Island"
So the undersea parts go back a number of millions of years earlier

 

[OmCheeto]

The oldest above sea level part is a bit older than that at around 700,000 to 1 million yrs.
Refer to one of my earlier posts describing the 5 volcanoes of the "Big Island"
So the undersea parts go back a number of millions of years earlier

I did that, and saw that my "500,000 years" comment was off by a factor of 2, if you were referring to post #41, and the "big island" only.
It says Kohala and Mauna Kea, the oldest, are both 1,000,000 years old.

Volcano      age(years)  sea breach
Kohala        1,000,000     500,000
Mauna Kea     1,000,000
Hualālai                    300,000   
Mauna Loa       700,000     400,000
Kīlauea         450,000     100,000  (age averaged from stated 300k-600k posted range)

I did some further research and came up with the similar numbers. (Actually quite fun.)

 

[BillTre]

Here is a link to a GIF-like zoomable Kīlauea lava flow map.

 

[davenn]

Here is a link to a GIF-like zoomable Kilauea lava flow map.

good … hadn't seen that one

here's the zoomable map of flows that I had been using

https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?hl=en&mid=1CvBhH9wEeztBrqYbsGDi4YjU1k1QH5AL&ll=19.483785342721027,-154.85507340355224&z=14

 

[nsaspook]

https://www.dvidshub.net/video/607849/river-lava-during-big-island-lava-flow
https://www.dvidshub.net/video/6073...-provide-security-during-big-island-lava-flow

 

[davenn]

WOW, some serious SO₂ ( Sulfur Dioxide) emission rates

just watching a USGS update video for the 14 June 2018

The summit emission rate is currently ~ 1,800 tons / day
The East Rift Zone emission rate is currently ~ 19,000 tons / day