Kīlauea Update, TUE, May 29, 2018, morning

ahhhh...That was a well-deserved and much needed break, and Iʻll be taking another later today, into tomorrow (WED).  I attended a joint birthday party for a grandniece (6) and her brother (1) in North Kona.  It was a delight, spending time with younger generations of bright-eyed and energetic people, and the foods...the potlucked foods were abundant, varied, and ono!  Mahalo piha to all.

And then there was the abundant noe uahi (volcanic haze or vog).  So widespread, so thick; so headache, stuck nose, and dry-eye-making.  Puʻuʻōʻō, at its elevation of 2,500 feet or so, and Halemaʻumaʻu at 4,000 feet sent their uahi ʻawa (sulphur smoke) up at higher elevations, and so I think that the noe uahi was better dispersed.  Now we have seriously hauna (smell of volcanic sulphur) poisonous fumes emitted from vents at near sea level, smoke from burning vegetation, laze and its gases from the (intermittent) ocean entries, along with the lehu (ash) and fume from Halemaʻumaʻu, most of the time being blown by trades around the south of the island, and collecting in the Kona Districts.  And up into the Saddle between Maunaloa and Maunakea too, the brownblue air makes an impressive display.  And always remember that for hundreds and hundreds of years, all these things have impacted residents here.  And somehow we deal with it all.


PLEASE READ and become better informed:  the 1955 USGS report by Gordon Macdonald about the LERZ eruption that year.  It details various phases during the eruption, various places and styles of eruption...Do Not Become Complacent!

1955 USGS Eruption Report: Macdonald


At the summit

ʻŌlai (earthquakes) continue as Kīlauea settles still.  The graphic below depicts ʻōlaʻi of magnitudes 3 and greater, for the last 24 hours or so.  Many, if not most of them can be felt, if only as queasy-making movement.  If you visit the Seismic page on the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory website [google:  kilauea webcam], you can fiddle with the buttons to the right of the map and see what else seismic is happening .  

The cluster of three ʻōlaʻi at the bottom are along Kulanaokuaiki, a pali ma kai of Hilina Pali Road, and part of the Koaʻe Fault System.

And of course here are "All" in the Summit Region.

The "big" news, though perhaps a bit late for the more-informed of you, is the presence of a second lua on the floor of Halemaʻumaʻu.  This new one is apparently emitting only white clouds of steam.  And too, note enlargement of the original lua.  See the screenshots on previous postings for other steam-ash duo shots.  Hereʻs the radar image from USGS HVO:

Below, the closer, white cloud is mainly steam on this rainy foggy morning up here.

at Puna ma kai, Pele is BUSY!!!  Perched Pond, Fountaining, Fast Flow

To me, the biggest recent news was the breaching of a perched pond on Sunday, 052718 at 7p or so.  

A perched pond forms when lava pools on a flat area or in a slight depression.  The volume of the feeding stream usually pulses, and the height of lava in the pool goes up and down.  The pool repeatedly overflows, and levees of hardened lava are built on its edges, allowing the surface of the pond to become perched higher than its original elevation.  Kinda like a bird flying higher and higher, and perching (halakau) to rest.  [[Yes.  Halakau.  Not Hakalau like the ahupuaʻa in Hilo Palikū (Hilo of the upright cliffs)]].

And I cannot help but mentioning a verse in Hanohano Wailea.  Kumu NK choreographed it exquisitely for us Makuanani.  And we tried our best:

"Halakau ʻo Kaʻiwa i luna lilo lā,   
Neʻe mai ʻo Ahiki i ke kualono.
Kaʻiwa rests high above,                
Ahiki moves closer to the mountain ridge"

Back to perching...So the pond gets deeper and deeper, and sometimes, if the levee is fragile, it breaks, allowing lava to flood out, as it did Sunday evening past.

And why "Mandatory Evacuation" does not seem to mean that, perplexes me.  Auē for the communities affected.  Now is when kuleana (responsibility) should be more than a slogan.

Transitions:  Fountains and Flows

The fountain below is perhaps two hundred feet tall.  Very active pāhoehoe on the right  is a flow headed toward HWY 132 (the road from the Lava Tree park intersection to Kapoho).  Compare with the image below posted Sunday.

The grassy area below at the right is now buried.  HWY 132 is to the right.

And just last Friday:

SEISMICITY

Seismicity at the coast is, thankfully, low, so weʻll not include that graphic.  

OCEAN ENTRY LAZE

The Reports inform us that only residual lava is making its way into the Pacific, thus the laze plume is lazy, if present at all.

FLOW MAP

And hereʻs the most current Flow Map:

The weathers today:  rainfogfograin here there.  Pelehonuamea has gone undercover for the time being, at least from our webcam views.

Till next time, as always, with aloha,

BobbyC