Kīlauea Update, Wednesday, May 23, 2018, 915a

As they do most of the time, tradewinds blow...Itʻs overcast, and a bit foggy and cool up here.  And for some reason, things to me feel almost "normal".  Maybe because weʻve escaped all but a dusting of ashfall, ʻōlaʻi have moderated (the last one I felt was at 811p yesterday), and the pele seems to be almost steady and regular.  And yes, all this is up here.  And yes, almost always in the back of my mind are the what-ifʻs of kona wind ash, swarms of more ʻōlaʻi, etc.  
Life is different in communities in the parts of Kaʻū district downwind from the Halemaʻumaʻu plume.  Lots more ash and respiratory distress, badbadbad air quality at times, people, animals, and crops suffer.  And of course at Keahialaka in Puna ma kai, Pele works tirelessly, at least for now.

a little about the composition of some lava

The pele (lava) being erupted now is fresher, hotter, and contains a lot of gas because it may be the lava intruded downrift from Puʻuʻōʻō or thereabouts the first week of May.  While we await definitive chemical analyses of lava samples, some say that the pele of Fissure 17, the one just uprift of Kapoho cone, has dwelt in a dike in the East Rift Zone perhaps since 1924.  In that year there was a massive withdrawal of magma from the summit, and no apparent eruption at the surface on either the East or Southwest Rift Zones.  That withdrawal caused the floor of Halemaʻumaʻu to collapse, followed by phreatomagmatic explosions (water + magma = steam).

Excellent information about that event at the link below.  And scroll to the bottom of that page for photos.  Obviously, life, liability, and lawsuits were lots different back then.  

1924 Halemaʻumaʻu text and pics

Back to F17...analyses apparently show that the lava is andesitic.  Higher in silica, a bit lower in temperature, thus stickier and more explosive.  If so, that andesite-ish pele likely started as regular Kīlauea lava, and if itʻs been sitting around since 1924ish, the heavier minerals precipitated, leaving the silica-rich material to be erupted.  Like that "experiment" or demonstration I remember from elementary school. Put dirt in a jar with water.  Cover and shake then leave on table.  The heavier bits settle out first, and the fines, last.  Nice layers form.  Lava stored in the ground "evolves" or "differentiates" over time.  Like flows from Mauna Loa containing lots of big olivine crystals as in the 1868 flow in Kahuku, and the Kanikū and Kanimoe flows at the shore that straddle the boundary of North Kona and South Kohala.  And I just remembered a little roadcut, pre-invasive albizia etc., between Pāhoa and Lava Tree State Monument.  Pretty sure it was the 1840 flow with big olivines eroding out.

Letʻs move along here.  Yup.  I get distracted easily these days, and sometimes (often?) flit from topic to topic to...

OK.

voices of two Native Hawaiian women with things to say

Kekuhi, whom Iʻve known for nearly 45 years, was on HPR with Noe Tanigawa yesterday.  Take a listen.  Two main words:  Energy and Re-frame.  Itʻs self-explanatory and admirable.

Kekuhi Keliʻikanakaʻole on HPR 052218

Same with Piʻilani Kaʻawaloa, whose family has lived in Puna ma kai for generations.  Google her and listen to her testimonies at various community meetings. My favorite from 2014:

“Whether you believe it’s Tutu Pele or you just believe in the scientific fact that it’s lava,” Kaawaloa said during a Sept. 4 meeting of Puna residents, per Big Island Video News. “You cannot change the direction. It’s Mother Nature. It’s like me telling you, ‘Move the moon because it’s too bright!’”

The above in:

Piʻilani: (cannot) Move the Moon

at Halemaʻumaʻu

She still going...I asked someone who knows, "How come thereʻs no sound when the "explosions" happen"?  Itʻs because itʻs infrasound, like how elephants and some whales communicate.  Too low,so we canʻt hear it.  Read some of the captions on the 1924 photos mentioned above.  They heard rumblings...

and at Keahialaka

She still going there too... Fountains seem, to me, a little taller.  Again, fresher pele, more gas, maybe more volume, more fluid.  Or itʻs my imagination.  And the thing to watch out for:  Pele is still hopscotching.  Her māwae (fissures) open and close, almost whimsically capricious in their activity.  And what we see now is not necessarily what weʻll get later.  The entire rift is active, and we must be prepared for anything.  Now is not the time to be blase.


and then the screenshots for the day

First, the Puna Geothermal (PG) cam.  The facility is just below and to the right of the fountains.

And then Halemaʻumaʻu early morning today from Volcano House"

Finally, the Earthquake Graphics.  Note the very few RED from the summit region to Kumukahi (the east tip of our island)..  WHEW for now...

An Overview:  The Island of Hawaiʻi:

That wraps it up for today.

As always, with aloha,

BobbyC