Week 4 - Hawaii Volcano

This post ties back to a previous post of mine when my Wife and I went to Hawaii. This one specifically ties to the Volcano Kilauea. Since we were there just before the massive eruption I thought it would be nice to speak in regards to the eruption in 2018. Starting in late April and lasting through June the length at this eruption was most impressive to me. Starting in April earthquakes violently shook the big island of Hawaii as they reached over a 6 on the Richter scale as the flowing magma under the crust created the movement. Once the eruptions started they maintained in over 20 fissure and reach a maximum cloud height of 6 miles in the sky. Much of the flows of the main lava rivers traveled up to 6 miles per hour and moving many miles to reach the shore. This lava is known as ropy lava which has dissolved gas within it make it much more fluid allowing it to travel faster and farther, this flow is much hotter than other slower flows. Miles of Hawaii on the southeast has been forever changed with the recent flows there. Another amazing factor was how the fissure would sprite up and create additional areas of flows. The below picture was taken 20-ish days after the flows started and you can see how active the fissure was, it reached 160 feet high at its max and was the 22^nd fissure to pop up during the eruption. While active there were pahoehoe lava flowing from a number of fissures that the Hawaii Volcano Observatory kept a close watch on. During the main large explosion at the summit, the form of the volcano shifted and the large plume of gas became a large concern as it reached so high in the sky. Fissure 8 was unique as it released stands of glass known as Pele's hair as its lava fountained within the Leilani Estates. This fissure had a very rare phenomenon to Hawaii, it had volcanic tornado. While we had not been there during the large eruption, we are going back soon so it will be interesting to see how the landscape has changed.