Tuesday, November 30, 2010

~ Lava breakout high on Pulama Pali affecting coastal flows ~

Above: A zoomed-in photo of the lava glowing into degassing fumes and low cloud high up on the Pulama Pali. Taken at 10:00 PM last night.

Apparently pilots reported seeing lava flowing on the surface yesterday afternoon somewhere around the 1500-foot elevation or higher.
We should know more later today. A large pali breakout will very much affect all activity downstream, and already has, as mentioned below.

On my photo above, viewed larger, it seems to me we are seeing the brightest glow beyond the 1800-foot elevation but are also able to see a smaller glow much further down the pali at maybe the 1000-foot elevation, but sill not visible on the surface from the angle I took the shot, which was from Kalapana Gardens; it is really hard to guess the elevations at night from far below.

When this new pali flow broke out there was a correlating drop in all surface breakouts down on the coastal flats and adjacent Kalapana Gardens vicinity. At around dusk we witnessed a large dark steam-cloud soar up from the ocean entry zone, which looked to me to be a bench collapse. Soon aftrwards there was no ocean entry steam plume to be seen for awhile.

After dark we could still see a few small breakout glows and the ocean entry was barley visible. Below is a poor-quaility zoomed in photo showing a few weak breakouts and very subdued ocean entry. (click the images for a larger size)I think the triangle shaped glow on the lower left is actually the corner of Gary Sleik’s lava-burned roof, which is reflecting lava glow that is in front of it. I will hike out there again soon and see what further changes took place at his site.

Public lava viewing:
Light winds could possible close the county viewing area, as they did two days ago.
Phone the lava hotline at 961-8093 for updates, or better yet; phone the Janguard personnel who are on site after 2:00 PM at 430-1966 or 217-2215

No comments:

Post a Comment