KILAUEA UPDATE: THUR, 051718, 7a

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NOTE:  Pics posted below are from today, and/or have labels.

Well...woke to news of an explosion.  Didnʻt hear anything, though I likely wouldnʻt have anyway (light trades, 4.5 miles away, etc.).  No ash on roof here in Mauna Loa Estates, though Volcano Golf Course has ash and ashy water washed off roofs, partly because of its geographic location and proximity to Halemaʻumaʻu.  Here, light rain falling, birds singing.  Cardinals are so loud in the morning.  6a Summit Cam in the tower at HVO (Hawaiian Volcano Observatory) showed steam, and bits of ash stuck the glass, though theyʻve been there a couple days (see attached).

Weʻre all (well...maybe not "all"...) in this really odd dream-like state.  The goings-on are a bit surreal.  One thing at a time is dealable, but: HMM steaming ashing, LERZ unzipping in various places, ʻōlaʻi (EQs) of various sizes and character (shallow, deep, rolling, sharp, quick, long, dizzy-making), Pele exhaling in and near Keahialaka (the fire of deity Laka, the ahupuaʻa in which lies Leilani Estates), the various boomings heard here and there... Disconcerting.  To say the least.  

One thing with this, is that all comments are Right Now. Or a few minutes ago.  No one...NO ONE...knows what will happen in the next breath.  When will it stop?  When it stops.  Period.

Civil Defense last eve said that LERZ activity was waning.  Again.  Reminiscent of the 40+ pauses when Puʻuʻōʻō was getting going in the mid-late 1980ʻs.  Is she stopping?  She stopped.  OH. Sheʻs going again. Repeat, repeat, repeat...

CRACKS (no, not the paʻi kine)
The big news yesterday late morning was a series of EQs - high M3, low M4 up here, along with the cracking of the pavement on HWY11 between the Hilo-side park boundary, and just past the Park Entrance intersection.  Big news excitement.  And yes, Iʻm prone to crazy excited exclamations, but Social Media seems to exaggerate everything in peoples minds, and not having background or understanding, lots of things get overblown, people near-panic and spread rumors.  I wonʻt repeat any of them here, but Iʻve been told that the rumors are ridiculous.

And yet again, I digress.  Back to... with a crackcrack here and a crackcrack there, here a crack there a crack everywhere a crack crack...thank you old Macdonald...

Sent this out late yesterday:

The section of road where the cracks are, between the Hilo-side boundary of the Park and Kaʻū-side of the Park Entrance, are adjacent to a caldera-bounding fault.  As you drive toward Kaʻū, itʻs in the bushes to the right of the highway.  Itʻs name is pali ʻŌlapalapa.  See definition 3. below from the Hawaiian Dictionary by Pukui and Elbert:

ʻō.lapa.lapa

1. Redup. of ʻōlapa 1. Piʻi ʻōlapalapa kona inaina me ka huhū, his wrath flared forth angrily.

2. Same as ʻolapa 2.

3. vs. Full of ravines, projections, cornices, ridges [this may describe the upper edge of the pali before all the vegetation grew: bc]

For many years, the summit area was inflating slowly.  In two weeks, itʻs deflated (subsided) quickly, dropping three feet according to an HVO Update yesterday at 235pm.  The deflation stressed the rocks, causing ʻōlaʻi, and the road cracking.  Everything is adjusting.  Iʻm attaching a couple pics we took yesterday at noonish.  It seemed that the cracks were uplifts of 2 or 3 inches, on pavement built more or less on bedrock.  Kaʻū-side of the Park Entrance, a section of HWY11 is built on kind of a fill causeway.  No cracks there that we saw.

Next...Ash Fall.  Ash isnʻt poisonous.  Itʻs pulverized lava.  REALLY fine, like dust.  Mixed with rain, it forms a grey slurry (like the cornstarch or flour and water used to thicken gravy).  The BIG problem up here in Volcano, is that weʻre all on catchment.  The County waterline stops down in Glenwood.  Here, rain from the roof is collected in watertanks of various sorts.  That water is pumped into the house, through pressure tanks, filters, etc.  Ash can gum up the works, and probably isnʻt an ideal food additive.  Golf Course had ash this morning.  None here in MLE (Mauna Loa Estates) that I could see.

And a quick note on Sulphur Dioxide:  Those respirators, the kind with cartridges to filter the noxious gases, that wear out after a few days, are meant to help get you OUT and AWAY from hazardous air NOW.  SO2 is hauna (the smell of volcanic sulphur).  You not supposed to wear respirators, cook dinner, clean house, take nap.  I know.  No one wants to evacuate, but the gases are POISON.  The diurnal winds (from the mountain at night, from the ocean daytime) keep moving gases around.  Harsh.  And yes, everyone has rights, but if you stay in a Closed Area, youʻre pretty much on your own.  Donʻt expect to get rescued, or for First Responders to put their lives at risk to save yours, though of course they do.  Live Aloha.

OK then.  Now get thunder... Phones been ringing, so this is a bit late.

Hang in there, have compassion, be kind, and try not to worry.  Learn and be prepared for any and all eventualities.

As always, with aloha,

BobbyC

Grey ash slurry.  Black is old...early a.m. Golf Course, 051718

Toward Hilo, pali ʻŌlapalapa on left, noon, 051618

just past Park Entrance toward Kaʻū, noon, 051618