Wednesday, August 25, 2010

~ No surface lava visible from viewing area but ocean entry is strong ~

The ocean entry steam plume is still fuming strongly during the day and glowing orange and red at night and at times appears as two or three plumes. Two cruise ships went by the coast there last night and one of them actually stopped to let their passengers see the lava pouring into the sea. In the photo above I caught them just pulling away and back out to sea.

Recent surface lava outbreaks that we have been seeing south and west from the Hawaii County lava viewing area were not visible last night--- changing daily it seems.

Coastal lava viewing
Yes there will be lava sights to be seen from the viewing road even though the eruption intensity has diminished down in that area in the past couple of weeks: fuming/degassing lines down the mountainside, the possibility of vegetation fires or lava breakouts near or far, vast areas of shiny new lava fields with fumes wafting from them, and steam rising into the air where lava continues entering the ocean a mile away and will glow red-orange after dark.

The county viewing area is located at the terminus of Highway 130 near Kalapana. For direct information on what is being seen from the viewing area each day you can phone the JanGuard security staff, stationed right on site, between 2:00 PM and 9:00 PM daily at (808) 430-1966 or the Lava Viewing Hotline: 961-8093

Halema’uma’u Crater
The Halema’uma’u crater has been degassing sulfur dioxide fumes by day and glowing strongly at times after dark from lava deep within the craters pit vent. The broiling molten lava moves up and down inside this massive eruptive vent at times, in kind of a pistoning action. Great views of this impressive crater are from the Jaggar Museum balcony within the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, depending on the weather; and the park is open to the public 24 hours a day with a nominal entrance fee by dayPhoto taken from the Jaggar Museum balcony.

No comments:

Post a Comment