eddie Posted May 18, 2018 Share Posted May 18, 2018 Live video of the eruption from fissure 17 (well, live at the moment)... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eddie Posted May 18, 2018 Share Posted May 18, 2018 Just to give you guys a bit of background to this event, Kilauea has been erupting continuously for 35 years, but over the last few weeks, there have been some significant and spectacular changes. Two weeks ago, a magnitude 5.0 earthquake struck, and immediately afterwards, new fissures started opening, slap bang in the middle of the Leilani Estate in the Puna district of Big Island. One by one, new fissures opened as others fizzled out. The lava was viscous and aside from incinerating a few houses (note to self - do not build houses on the site of a previous eruption, especially one that occurred less than a century ago), it pumped large quantities of sulphur dioxide into the atmosphere. The main Kilauea crater had been full of lava to the point of overflowing, but suddenly, with the opening of the fissures, the level of lava started to drop. However, the stuff oozing out of the new fissures bore more resemblance to the lava of the 1955 eruption than the stuff in the main crater. Yesterday, it had dropped to such an extent that it reached the water table, and a large phreatic explosion occurred in the main crater sending ash up to 30,000 feet. Over the last few hours, another change has occurred. The 'old' lava seems to have been flushed out of the system, and the new super-runny stuff is making its way through the system into the Leilani fissures (see above live stream if it's still working, if not, search for "Honolulu Civil Beat" on the t'interwebs periodically to see if they have put a new link up). Hence the nice photogenic 'fountains' which are synonymous with fissure eruptions. How long will it last? This is the 64 billion dollar question (bloody inflation). It may be done and dusted in 5 hours, 5 days, 5 weeks ar 5 years. Nobody knows. The previous Puna eruption did not last long, but unfortunately for the people living in the Leilani Estate, it was long enough ago for people to think "Oh, what are the chances of it happening again? Not much. This is a nice spot for a house." My contempt for the general idiocy of humanity grows with each passing day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolfie Posted May 18, 2018 Share Posted May 18, 2018 Fascinating stuff & some great footage here & elsewhere. It's definitely on my bucket list to visit an active volano. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eddie Posted May 18, 2018 Share Posted May 18, 2018 31 minutes ago, Wolfie said: Fascinating stuff & some great footage here & elsewhere. It's definitely on my bucket list to visit an active volano. Us too. Waiting for Iceland to pop another pimple - it will be in the next year or two, for sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolfie Posted May 18, 2018 Share Posted May 18, 2018 18 minutes ago, eddie said: Us too. Waiting for Iceland to pop another pimple - it will be in the next year or two, for sure. Yeah, I'm hoping to kill 2 birds by going to Icelend & seeing the Aurora at the same time - which I know may be a long shot. Oi, @ramit, ? what's the best time of year to catch the northern lights round your gaf? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McRamFan Posted May 18, 2018 Share Posted May 18, 2018 1 hour ago, Wolfie said: Fascinating stuff & some great footage here & elsewhere. It's definitely on my bucket list to visit an active volano. 45 minutes ago, eddie said: Us too. Waiting for Iceland to pop another pimple - it will be in the next year or two, for sure. Costa Rica is a great place, has several that are constantly 'on'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eddie Posted May 18, 2018 Share Posted May 18, 2018 Another stunning feed (not sure how long this one will last... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaspode Posted May 18, 2018 Share Posted May 18, 2018 3 hours ago, Wolfie said: ......It's definitely on my bucket list to visit an active volcano. If you promise to take Eddie with you I'm sure we could have a whip-round.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eddie Posted May 18, 2018 Share Posted May 18, 2018 2 hours ago, Gaspode said: If you promise to take Eddie with you I'm sure we could have a whip-round.... Flounce in a minute, I'm gonna flounce in a minute... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ramit Posted May 18, 2018 Share Posted May 18, 2018 4 hours ago, Wolfie said: Yeah, I'm hoping to kill 2 birds by going to Icelend & seeing the Aurora at the same time - which I know may be a long shot. Oi, @ramit, ? what's the best time of year to catch the northern lights round your gaf? Continued earthquakes in volcanic areas indicate magma moving and where it comes up is a guessing game. The whole Reykjanes peninsula is active and overdue. and Katla has been waiting to blow. We natives are used to it but wary all the same, unless it's crazy tourists paying us well to show them hell up close. Northern lights are best observed in the dark winter months of November to January and you want to be well out of the city lights. A cold night with clear skies is perfect Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eddie Posted May 19, 2018 Share Posted May 19, 2018 I could have sworn that I posted a new live stream here an hour ago, and now it's gone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rev Posted May 19, 2018 Share Posted May 19, 2018 On 18/05/2018 at 11:03, Wolfie said: Fascinating stuff & some great footage here & elsewhere. It's definitely on my bucket list to visit an active volano. Probably best to make that the last thing on the list, just in case. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eddie Posted May 19, 2018 Share Posted May 19, 2018 All feeds appear to be offline at the moment (people have to recharge go-pro batteries, get some shut-eye themselves etc), but the eruption was progressing at a furious pace the last time I saw the feeds. There are two major breakouts - a very photogenic 'fountain' which is projecting lava around 100 metres into the air, and a fairly substantial fissure of a few hundred metres in length which is throwing up a 'curtain' at least 25 metres in the air and which is producing a lava flow which is moving towards the sea at a rate of 500 metres an hour. When the cameras are up and running again, I will try to get a few screenshots and post them in this thread. My vulcanologist pals are exceedingly non-committal as to how long this will last. One of them is walking around with a grin on his face like the proverbial Cheshire Cat, having predicted this exact scenario as soon as the lava lake in Pu'u O'o started draining over two weeks ago. It's worth pointing out that this is a disaster on a personal level for some individuals, but thankfully zero lives have been lost. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eddie Posted May 19, 2018 Share Posted May 19, 2018 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eddie Posted May 19, 2018 Share Posted May 19, 2018 Just to give you some idea of scale, the tree at the right hand side in the above screenshot is at least 50 feet high (I have just watched a couple of people walk past it). The lava often squirts out much higher than the frame of the screen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
angieram Posted May 19, 2018 Share Posted May 19, 2018 3 hours ago, eddie said: Seems wrong to 'like' this as it must be very upsetting for people who live nearby but nature is quite a spectacular force. Even though I know it to be true , I have always found it difficult to get my head around the nature of the earth's core and what goes on down there. Thanks for posting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eddie Posted May 19, 2018 Share Posted May 19, 2018 1 hour ago, angieram said: Seems wrong to 'like' this as it must be very upsetting for people who live nearby but nature is quite a spectacular force. Even though I know it to be true , I have always found it difficult to get my head around the nature of the earth's core and what goes on down there. Thanks for posting. I think I can help with respect to 'what goes on'. The earth's inner core is solid - basically an alloy of iron and nickel, but there is also uranium 235 and uranium 238, potassium 40 and thorium 232 in a liquid outer core. The last four are radioactive isotopes, and the energy released by their decay generates an awful lot of heat. The core is surrounded by the inner mantle (basically silicate rock) which would be liquid at surface pressure, but when subjected to the huge pressures of the interior, solidify. The outer 'shell' of the planet is a solid crust (otherwise we would get very wet and very hot feet). The outer mantle is rock which is more pliable, basically because the pressures are lower. It's sort-of like mixing a very thick paste of cornflour or custard, then trying to push your finger into it. The slower you do it, the less pressure you are subjecting it to, and therefore the less solid it feels. The mantle exerts pressure on the crust through its heat. The crust is covered in cracks, and the cracks form the boundaries of what we call 'tectonic plates'. These plates move v e r y slowly - a few centimetres a year. Some slide past their neighbour (this is called a 'transform fault'), where others collide, causing one plate to go under or over their neighbour ('subduction'). Volcanoes that form in subduction zones tend to be more explosive. This is because when one plate 'dives' under its neighbour ('dive' is a bit of a misnomer because it is an extremely slow process), it drags some water down with it. The water eventually mixes into that bit of the mantle and eventually finds its way to the surface through a volcano. The water is immediately released as super-heated steam, and you get a 'phreatic' explosion (it goes 'bang'). Hawaii is a completely different kettle of fish. It's not at a plate boundary, but it is in the middle of the Pacific tectonic plate. It does, however, sit on top of a 'plume' - an anomalous 'hotspot' in the mantle which keeps everything interesting, the crust relatively thin and, when released, the magma very runny indeed. This is why Hawaiian volcanoes are wide, shallow things instead of the steep, cone-shaped volcanoes you get elsewhere (like the classic shape of Etna, Vesuvius, Popocatapetl etc). All of the Hawaiian islands owe their very existence to the hotspot. In a few hundred thousand years, Kilauea will become extinct, Big Island will drift away from the hotspot thus cutting off the fuel, but behind it, a new island will eventually form. The process is already under way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eddie Posted May 20, 2018 Share Posted May 20, 2018 Night view... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ramit Posted May 20, 2018 Share Posted May 20, 2018 Spectacular aerial footage of the raw power of this eruption. Homes in peril for sure, but hopefully people have evacuated Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Day Posted May 21, 2018 Share Posted May 21, 2018 On 20/05/2018 at 00:31, eddie said: I think I can help with respect to 'what goes on'. The earth's inner core is solid - basically an alloy of iron and nickel, but there is also uranium 235 and uranium 238, potassium 40 and thorium 232 in a liquid outer core. The last four are radioactive isotopes, and the energy released by their decay generates an awful lot of heat. The core is surrounded by the inner mantle (basically silicate rock) which would be liquid at surface pressure, but when subjected to the huge pressures of the interior, solidify. The outer 'shell' of the planet is a solid crust (otherwise we would get very wet and very hot feet). The outer mantle is rock which is more pliable, basically because the pressures are lower. It's sort-of like mixing a very thick paste of cornflour or custard, then trying to push your finger into it. The slower you do it, the less pressure you are subjecting it to, and therefore the less solid it feels. The mantle exerts pressure on the crust through its heat. The crust is covered in cracks, and the cracks form the boundaries of what we call 'tectonic plates'. These plates move v e r y slowly - a few centimetres a year. Some slide past their neighbour (this is called a 'transform fault'), where others collide, causing one plate to go under or over their neighbour ('subduction'). Volcanoes that form in subduction zones tend to be more explosive. This is because when one plate 'dives' under its neighbour ('dive' is a bit of a misnomer because it is an extremely slow process), it drags some water down with it. The water eventually mixes into that bit of the mantle and eventually finds its way to the surface through a volcano. The water is immediately released as super-heated steam, and you get a 'phreatic' explosion (it goes 'bang'). Hawaii is a completely different kettle of fish. It's not at a plate boundary, but it is in the middle of the Pacific tectonic plate. It does, however, sit on top of a 'plume' - an anomalous 'hotspot' in the mantle which keeps everything interesting, the crust relatively thin and, when released, the magma very runny indeed. This is why Hawaiian volcanoes are wide, shallow things instead of the steep, cone-shaped volcanoes you get elsewhere (like the classic shape of Etna, Vesuvius, Popocatapetl etc). All of the Hawaiian islands owe their very existence to the hotspot. In a few hundred thousand years, Kilauea will become extinct, Big Island will drift away from the hotspot thus cutting off the fuel, but behind it, a new island will eventually form. The process is already under way. Yes but isn’t the world supposed to be flat? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.