Kīlauea Update, Saturday, June 16, 2018, Subsidence

I know...kinda late...Awakened just before 3a by a smallish ʻōlaʻi, then dozed fitfully in between the three or four that followed during the next few hours.  We finally had the most recent exploquake at 10a [???] or thereabouts.  Iʻve been wondering why the obsession with numbers and lists and times.  Maybe because it helps us make sense of extraordinary events.

Exploquakes are fascinating.  They arenʻt violent, and after the initial shaking, often brief, there is the sensation of being on a boat in confused seas.  No single direction of swell so the vessel (in this case my little home) wobbles gently in the way an ʻami ʻōniu does, swiveling hips in a figure eight.  Very very odd.  But then the works of Pele up here are something we havenʻt experienced before, and to us, theyʻre odd too.  But as Kumu said, the motions of hula are based on motions performed during daily life.  Stomping or pressing the earth with your feet when planting or harvesting, the act of digging with an ʻōʻō, the motions of your arms when treading water or swimming, casting nets, etc.  Some events, like those weʻre privileged to witness now, happen rarely...decades or more may pass... but perhaps they were recorded in movements of hula passed down through the ages.  Perhaps...

And the one I just mentioned was a "5.3 equivalent earthquake magnitude" at 1018a, seen below amongst the confetti.  And Kawaiapapane, my home, is just to the right of the first white dot down from the upper right corner.  Yup..."No wonder he keeps talking about house wobbles...".

And of course, at the risk of being repetitive, subsidence is why the explo- and regular ʻōlaʻi are happening.  Repetition is one way we retain memories.  Watching, seeing the photographs and videos of the stupendosity of something we canʻt quite fathom, no matter how much we think we "get it", I believe, helps us get used to this reality.  It helps us see and understand why, after five years of regular walks to Keanakākoʻi, we canʻt do that anymore.  At least for now.  

The two radar images below are pretty self-explanatory.

And then, for those like me who are very visual, and are/were intimately familiar with the landscape at the summit, screenshots from a USGS video:

June 13, 2018 drone video of Halemaʻumaʻu

The white squiggly line middle left side of frame is the Halemaʻumaʻu Trail from Volcano House.  Look close and you can see it continue, to the right, across that first big slumped block, to the left of the April 1982 spatter rampart.  The trail and the spatter rampart lie on the bigger block, the next kaulu (ledge) down.

And this, just in, posted this morning on the HVO site, just after the exploquake at 1018.  The first big slumped block is even more slumped = ʻōlaʻi...

Looking west, toward Mauna Loa: the green of Kapāpala Ranch.  To its right, and on the flats, the dark green of the eucalyptus grove at Nāmakanipaio Campground.  Below the trees at the edge of the first pali, the buildings of Jaggar Museum and the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.  Both are coated in lehu (ash), as is the ground, camouflaging the buildings.  The dark pali at the lower left is the fresh subsidence pali, now the edge of Halemaʻumaʻu at the base of the lowermost caldera-bounding fault.

Halemaʻumaʻu Parking Lot at bottom, Crater Rim Drive leading up to the dark lua of Keanakākoʻi.  The grey area at center right is the September 1982 flow, the first I worked at the Park.  Hump at the horizon is Maunaulu.  Light patch below it with white puff of steam at its left is the Puhimau Hotspot, just to the right of Chain of Craters Road.

And yes, the summit continues to deflate.  The vertical offsets result from exploquakes:

And lest you think weʻve forgotten about Keahialaka (the fire of Laka) and Māwae ʻEwalu (Fissure 8)...She still going.  Yesterday afternoon, June 15, fountains were 100 - 130 feet tall, with bursts to 180 feet.

And at the sea...that circular area at the bottom middle is a previously mentioned upwelling, indicative of lava flowing on the sea bed.

And we like numbers for context.  These from an HVO briefing yesterday:

ʻEwalu mile (Eight miles) from Māwae ʻEwalu (Fissure Eight) to sea.

Speed of river near vent:  15mph
Speed of river near Waiapele (Kapoho Crater):  2mph

320 acres:  size of lava delta

From the 9a Civil Defense Report this morning:

5,914 acres buried (9.5 square miles)

467 homes lost

Nuff for today...

As always, with aloha,

BobbyC