Kaʻū News Briefs Friday, June 8, 2018

Pride of America returns to Hilo and Kona ports beginning next week, after staying away from the volcanic air and the closure of most of Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park. Photo by Peter Hamling/Ship Parade

THE CRUISE SHIP PRIDE OF AMERICA RETURNS TO HILO next week, after avoiding Hilo and then Kona during the ongoing volcanic eruption. Calling on the ports of Hilo and Kona begins June 12. The May into June loss of the ship bringing visitors weekly to Hawaiʻi Island meant millions of dollars in losses to Hilo, Volcano, and Kona, as well as more rural destinations where tour companies drive people to scenic sites, such as Punaluʻu Black Sand Beach and Punaluʻu Bake Shop. Another favorite stop was Volcano Winery, Volcano village restaurants, and Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park, where two-thirds of the park remains closed during current volcano activity.

Scientists remain unsure if lava flowing in Puna, like this fountain from Fissure 8 at 3 a.m. today, is coming from the lava that has drained from Halemaʻumaʻu at Kīlauea's summit. USGS photo

MORE GROUND SHAKING, LESS ASH AND GASSES are recent changes at Halemaʻumaʻu, described by Tina Neal, Scientist in Charge at USGS Hawaiian Volcanoes Observatory. She addressed community members at Cooper Center in Volcano Village last night, June 7, among a group of experts addressing the future of Kīlauea Volcano and its Halemaʻumaʻu vent. The vent is sending up ash and rock explosions, accompanied by frequent earthquakes. The ash sometimes lands on Volcano Village. The earthquakes, broadcast widely on television, radio, and social media, are scaring people away from visiting Volcano.
     Neal said that with the walls of the Halemaʻumaʻu vent caving in and filling it with rubble, as magma moves farther down inside the volcano, it's the rubble that may be responsible for some of the change in the summit eruptions. She said that rubble blockage of the vent on May 29 may have led to the slowing down of subsidence - the vent floor lowering and falling in. She said pressure may be counteracting the effects of magma withdrawal.
     The few gas measurements scientists have been able to make indicate magmatic gas is more plentiful than steam from groundwater right now. It is groundwater mixing with lava that is known to lead to the large explosions of ash and rock out of the vent.

Outgassing from Halema‘uma‘u produced twin pillars that rose in the  still morning air and merged into a towering cap above the summit of  Kīlauea just after sunrise, today, June 8. USGS Photo

     Neal pointed out that SO2 measurements at the summit are now similar to the days before the recent volcano activity.
     Neal also said that the magma that has drained from the summit has not been “unambiguously identified” as the lava exiting through fissures in the lower East Rift Zone and doing all the damage in Puna.

     Kyle Anderson, of HVO, said USGS scientists are seeing magma continuing to evacuate to the lower East Rift Zone. Subsidence continues in Halemaʻumaʻu with additional collapse of its walls and its floor. The crater enlarges. There are moderate earthquakes, weak to moderate ash plumes, ashfall, and vog. He said there is no definitive line to determine “when this will all be over,” though earthquakes should be felt less, as an indication.

     During the meeting, community members asked if pyroclastic - stronger explosive - events could happen at the summit. Neal responded they could not be taken off the table, but “we see no evidence that we’re moving in that direction.”

     One attendee asked for a more regular report of the subsidence at the summit. Anderson responded that one of the GPS instruments fell into the crater during these events, and others have varying placement - further away from the vent or right by the edge - so “it’s challenging to say how much the caldera has subsided.” He said the broader caldera has subsided quite a bit less than areas where faults have appeared.

Dramatic changes at Halema‘uma‘u could be seen through gases rising from  the crater during HVO's overflight of the summit this morning at 10 a.m.  The view here looks to the southwest, with the former overlook  parking lot barely visible to the left of the gas plume. USGS photo

     A community member asked that without knowing for sure if the magma from the summit is erupting in the lower East Rift Zone, does that mean the activity will go on for quite some time?
     Anderson responded, “That magmatic plumbing system is complicated right now. In the old days, magma would rise up below the summit, go down to Puʻu ʻŌʻō, and it would erupt. Since that time, Puʻu ʻŌʻō has collapsed, we’ve drained a lot of material from the middle East Rift, and we have the lower East Rift eruption.”
     Anderson said the 6.9-magnitude earthquake, on May 4, may also have opened up space for magma storage. He said the questions are: How much magma can be stored now, before going down to the lower East Rift Zone? And when will the lower East Rift eruption stop?

     In the 1955 and 1960 eruptions, said Anderson, the eruptions lasted from weeks to months. He said, “Just because the summit magma has not necessarily reached the lower East Rift, does not mean this is going to go on for years – but we don’t know how much storage there might be for summit magma. So, it’s very hard to say how long deflation might continue.”
     See the whole June 7 meeting here: naleo.tv/vod/

The new EPA air quality site adds Nāʻālehu with monitoring at Nāʻālehu fire station. Blue is for good air, including S02 and particulates. See the map and more online.

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AIR IN PĀHALA REMAINED GOOD THROUGHOUT THE DAY. In Nā’ālehu, Ocean View, and Volcano, it was moderate and good, from sunrise into evening. See the new EPA air quality report online, with an additional monitoring site at Nā’ālehu Fire Station.

     In other reports, Hawaiian Volcano Observatory reported Pele's hair and other lightweight volcanic glass from high fountaining of Fissure 8 were falling downwind of the fissure and accumulating on the ground within Leilani Estates in lower Puna.

     The National Weather Service reported high levels of vog and sulfur dioxide from the fissure system in lower Puna moving north, and settling in the Saddle area between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa volcanoes. Civil Defense warned that vog would limit visibility to a quarter mile on some roads and urged motorists to drive cautiously.

Clear conditions at Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō on Thursday provided good views into the crater. A little  more than a month ago, the crater floor collapsed, and the lava lake drained. The crater  showed a funnel-shape geometry with a deeper cylindrical shaft. Rubble filled the base of the shaft. On Friday, June 8, 12 rockfalls were recorded, with a red dust  plume coming out of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō. See the USGS video. See today's Civil Defense Video of lava flows in lower Puna today and USGS evening update at Big Island Video News.

     HVO reported that, following a magnitude-3.2 earthquake at the summit, 12 rockfalls were recorded in Puʻu ʻŌʻō between 10:31 and 10:56 a.m., with a prominent, but brief, red dust plume ejected into the air around 10:50 a.m. See the most recent map of lava flows.
     See video of the coast at the ocean entry of the lava in Kapoho today with much laze on Ikaika Marzo's facebook.
    See Civil Defense Video and update for evening of June 8 from USGS on Big Island Video News.