Saturday, December 31, 2011

Pulama Pali lava flow today ~and~ 2011 lava flow, year in review

Above: Pulama Pali lava breakout and sky taken late last night with a 15mm fisheye lens (click on it for large size)

I hiked to Royal Gardens subdivision, or the tattered remains of it, and talked with Jack Thompson. Above is his beautiful hand-built home, taken from the same spot as the view looking down his road remnant that leads to the active lava flow 350-feet away, and an ever present tour helicopter over the fuming lava.
And here, below, is what we can see of Jack's house from the other side of the hot lava flow at sunset last night. The lava is inside tubes and heading down to the sea. Jack's home is hard to see, but it is in the distance nearly hidden in the trees on the left, and is the same location I filmed that flow at its peak (that blog post here)

This December lava flow has just slowed down after covering miles of the coastal plains and pouring into the ocean, but late last night I witnessed an new large breakout of a`a lava on the top section of Royal Gardens about 2000 feet above Jack's house. Below is a photo of the Pulama Pali I took today with my notes indicating significant places and dates: Click on any image to open them all in larger viewer window.

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LAVA YEAR IN REVIEW, 2011:
January: Some of JANUARY 2011 highlights You can scroll down them all at once, but not all of January will show. We also lost a home to lava on the 18th.(house frame in upper left and circled in notes on aerial below:

February 2011provided some wonderful photo opportunities to me with some active surface flows: FEBRUARY postings

MARCH 2011 : On March 5th That day was the last coastal plains lava flow until the recent December Royal Gardens flow currently happening. That same day we had a major floor collapse within the Pu`u O`o Crater. Lack of acceable lava caused my blog postings to become very slim in the months following, but there were some reports:
April 2011
In June the action was inside the Pu`u O`o Crater as it also was in July & August. On August 4th, the crater floor collapsed again, spilling out volumes of molten lava fissures from its flanks.
This continued slowly expanding through SEPTEMBER, OCTOBER, NOVEMBER
And leading, finally, to the spectacular arrival of molten lava rivers down the Pulama Pali December 4th. spilling across the coastal flats at a rapid speed, and pouring into the ocean. All recorded on my five DECEMBER posts HERE

Thanks for dropping by my blog, it has been fun to share this ongoing Kilauea Volcano eruption with you,
All the best in 2012,
Aloha,
Leigh
-Oh, and this is my self portrait taken today, December 31st, 2011-- The Earth according to Leigh ;)

3 comments:

  1. Pulama Pali lava breakout and sky - GREAT PHOTO! Of course, all of your photos are great!

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  2. Is Jack's Bed & Breakfast still operating?

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  3. Well Anne, when I spoke to Jack at his house on New Years Eve he had guests arriving the next day (friends I think), and he said he had a few bookings later in the month… but he also said the State is hassling him about his retreat business and about the helicopters landing on the 'road' fragment out front--- But basically he is still open for business. Your question would be best answered by Jack himself though.

    @Susan--- Thanks!!

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