Molten lava again visible from Big Island coastal community

USGS/HVO images page caption states, "This photograph, looking east, shows a large skylight on the lava tube that is supplying lava to surface flows north of Royal Gardens subdivision. The tube trace, which heads southeast, is marked by the line of fume sources in the upper right portion of the image. The surface flows, out of view in this image, were 1.1 km (0.7 miles) north of the uppermost street in Royal Gardens today." Closer look at that huge skylight: photos courtesy USGS. Click any images for a larger size in new window.

Residents of Kalapana Gardens community have been notifying me that in recent days they can see, after dark, surface lava just above the area that once was the Royal Gardens subdivision. (The subdivision has been repeatedly inundated with lava flows since the early & mid 1980’s; only one home, apparently still occupied, remains intact.) Coastal lava abruptly stopped flowing on March 5th this year when a violent fissure erupted southwest of Pu`u O`o crater, which also significantly collapsed inside. The crater rebuilt its floor, collapsed again with another fissure rupture in August, and rebult again, only this time the fissures have been draining more steadily from the most recent southeast crater flank.

Leading easterly from that fissure on the southeast flanks of the Pu`u O`o crater, active lava tubes have been formed, insulating and carrying the lava further towards the coast. As depicted in the tilt graphs below, an up tick of inflation/deflation magma pressure cycling has likely helped to create this situation. Below - Nov. 9th to the 16th:and today's graph: 14th to 21st -nearly consistant day and a half pulses for the past two weeks or so - more closely spaced than previous weeks/months, which were averaging around 2 to 3 days per D/I cycle.

Current USGS/HVO flow maps, below and last updated on November 21st, show in red the new advancement of the lava, which is reported to be pahoehoe on the leading edge. This leading front is now about 3 ½ miles, or 5 kilometers, from Pu`u O`o and about a half mile north by northwest of Royal Gardens, and also about a half mile east of the national park boundaries. This puts the distance to the nearest coastline at around 4 miles or 6 ½ kilometers. Click on images for large size


If this flow of lava continues on its present track it will soon begin reaching the steeper terrain of the Pulama Pali, which could escalate advancement if magma pressures within Kilauea remain in this more compact cyclic pattern, or simply has a prolonged-sustained rise; time will tell.

As always, you can keep informed on Kilauea’s volcanic activity by following the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory updates and associated links.

Wild weather week! My house gets pounded at night by lightning storm! (video)

Starting with the above Jack-O-Lantern Halloween sunrise October 31st, and the spectacular sunset of the same day (at page bottom below), we experienced heavy rains on all the Hawaii islands the following four days, culminating in a spectacular thunderstorm the dark wee hours of Friday morning November 4th. (two Video choices below)

Friday’s radar image and advisories:This is hours BEFORE it got serious! The sidebar on the weather site had with it a long list of weather warnings.

Below is a video I just made of the lightning, winds and rains lashing my home. Underneath is my commentary to go with that

Turn your audio up and go for the storm ride!

A second version below is Fast and furious with some different footage! -

WHAM-BAM 90- seconds version of LIGHTNING STORM Hawaii from Leigh Hilbert on Vimeo.

At 4:00 AM Friday morning November 4th, 2011, as with many people on the east side of the Big Island, a sharp Ka-Boom of thunder and brilliant flashes of light abruptly woke me. I leapt out of bed and in the dark grabbed my camera and began filming the storm.

My home is three stories high with my bedroom -loft at the top above the ohia trees, from there I have a 360 degree view from ocean to mountain, with Cape Kumukahi and its lighthouse just to the northeast. (the lighthouse light & tower can be seen in lower left corner of the last flashes at the end of the video.

As I filmed off my decks on each floor, a serious set of thunder cells pilled one atop the other while the wind gusted up faster, the rains came harder (dumping six-inches here in ten hours!) and the sky lit with many-hued lightning flashes nearly continuously all to the sharp claps and heavy booms of rolling thunder.

This was not a short-lived event, lasting about three hours in all; though I think I slept through the early stages. The National Weather Service in Honolulu had the day before forecast for East Hawaii Island "A slight chance of thunder storms" ... I think the video footage tells the real story!

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Halloween:
Sunset sky on Halloween this week. To go along with my sunrise shot at top of page, the sunset that same day wash pretty cool too: The above shot was taken with a fisheye lens about ten minutes before the one below-- cool lacy blueish clouds in the middle of the bottom shot. Both images were from my home. Click any mage for larger size in separate window.

Inflation – Deflation roller coaster & Rain-bows & voggy crescent moon

The above image is from two days ago, and below is this morning’s; already switching back to inflation after a steep pressure drop.

On the ground this roller coaster of a magma pressure graph has been consistently translating into a rise & fall of the broiling lava lake deep within Halema’uma’u crater in Kilauea Caldera, as well as surface flow lava outbreaks inside and around Pu`u O`o crater.

Pu`u O`o continues sending lava off its east flank during inflation cycles, then mostly crusting over during deflation. These rapid cycles have prevented further advancement down slope over the past weeks/months.USGS:View looking southwest at the east flank of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō. The Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō cone is at the top of the photo. USGS/Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) have been getting some great aerial photos of the activity on Pu`u O`o. The aerial posted here is from their Images page, where they also give detailed descriptions for each image.

Meanwhile, down here along the lower Puna coastline, we have had some occasional heavy rain showers produced from an upper level cold front arriving from the north of the islands. Below is the sun setting as a rain shower lands on my home: The heavy showers also gave us morning and afternoon rainbows as compensation for the minor flooding. Here is this mornings offering:Photos taken off my lanai looking west: click on any one of them to open all these photos in a new & cool larger view window.

A few days ago, zoomed-in from the same vantage point, I also managed to get a lucky shot between the clouds of the crescent moon setting into the Kilauea degassing lava fumes with the planets Venus and Mercury just after sunset.

Unusual set of earthquakes near Mauna Kea Summit

Starting with a 4.5 magnitude, in the past two hours there have been over 23 earthquakes in a tight cluster located about six miles west-northwest of the summit of Mauna Kea. The depth of these quakes seems to average about 12 miles.
So far, besides the 4.5 there has been a couple over magnitude 3.0, with most around 2.3 or so (see complete list below). One small quake was very near Mauna Kea summit itself. 530 people reported feeling the 4.5
Mauna Kea is categorized as a dormant volcano, having last erupted about 4,500 years ago. However, Mauna Kea is likely to erupt again someday.

Also, perhaps unrelated, there was a short sharp drop on the deformation tilt graph monitior for Kilauea (upper right corner) that at a glance looks to be closely timed to the current quakes, though it is hard to be precise without a closer timeline.

You can keep track of these quakes and any new ones on the Hawaii Island Earthquake Map HERE.

CURRENT LIST OF QUAKES:
map 2.3 2011/10/19 16:14:31 19.844N 155.546W 14.8 8 km ( 5 mi) WNW of Mauna Kea Summit
map 2.0 2011/10/19 15:48:54 19.880N 155.548W 17.6 10 km ( 6 mi) NW of Mauna Kea Summit
map 2.2 2011/10/19 15:42:19 19.895N 155.554W 17.2 11 km ( 7 mi) ENE of Waiki`i
map 2.3 2011/10/19 15:29:13 19.881N 155.547W 17.0 10 km ( 6 mi) NW of Mauna Kea Summit
map 2.5 2011/10/19 15:24:05 19.875N 155.537W 17.9 9 km ( 6 mi) NW of Mauna Kea Summit
map 2.1 2011/10/19 15:22:20 19.890N 155.545W 17.6 11 km ( 7 mi) NW of Mauna Kea Summit
map 2.7 2011/10/19 15:11:01 19.863N 155.533W 17.0 8 km ( 5 mi) NW of Mauna Kea Summit
map 2.1 2011/10/19 15:04:37 19.880N 155.545W 18.0 10 km ( 6 mi) NW of Mauna Kea Summit
MAP 3.3 2011/10/19 14:59:00 19.884N 155.539W 19.5 10 km ( 6 mi) NW of Mauna Kea Summit
map 2.4 2011/10/19 14:57:03 19.855N 155.542W 14.8 8 km ( 5 mi) WNW of Mauna Kea Summit
map 2.6 2011/10/19 14:48:01 19.881N 155.541W 16.7 10 km ( 6 mi) NW of Mauna Kea Summit
map 2.4 2011/10/19 14:45:56 19.845N 155.546W 14.7 8 km ( 5 mi) WNW of Mauna Kea Summit
map 2.8 2011/10/19 14:45:17 19.879N 155.545W 15.2 10 km ( 6 mi) NW of Mauna Kea Summit
map 2.1 2011/10/19 14:33:40 19.886N 155.548W 18.1 11 km ( 7 mi) NW of Mauna Kea Summit
map 1.7 2011/10/19 14:31:52 19.858N 155.527W 16.2 7 km ( 4 mi) WNW of Mauna Kea Summit
map 2.0 2011/10/19 14:30:47 19.838N 155.408W 16.7 7 km ( 4 mi) ENE of Mauna Kea Summit
map 2.5 2011/10/19 14:27:44 19.878N 155.536W 18.6 9 km ( 6 mi) NW of Mauna Kea Summit
map 2.4 2011/10/19 14:25:25 19.874N 155.547W 16.3 10 km ( 6 mi) NW of Mauna Kea Summit
map 2.8 2011/10/19 14:21:04 19.884N 155.538W 18.7 10 km ( 6 mi) NW of Mauna Kea Summit
map 2.0 2011/10/19 14:18:11 19.865N 155.522W 16.9 7 km ( 4 mi) NW of Mauna Kea Summit
map 1.9 2011/10/19 14:16:15 19.883N 155.541W 17.8 10 km ( 6 mi) NW of Mauna Kea Summit
MAP 3.6 2011/10/19 14:12:34 19.888N 155.527W 18.2 9 km ( 6 mi) NW of Mauna Kea Summit
MAP 4.5 2011/10/19 14:10:04 19.883N 155.532W 18.8 9 km ( 6 mi) NW of Mauna Kea Summit

Volcanic eruption activity stays near craters

This wide-view map details the most recent efforts of the USGS to document the present flow fields in relationship to the coast and Kalapana.(click on it to open it larger)

Kilauea continues erupting with lava within both the Halema’uma’u and Pu`u O`o craters. Halema’uma’u has a 500-foot wide crater floor vent that broils fairly steadily with active lava at around the 250-foot depth (recent dusk cam shot below).

Pu`u O`o crater has been going through cycles of heightened activity and quieter days in the past weeks with lava breakouts within crater walls (image below).(Cam at midnight Oct. 3rd)... and surface flows down its flanks.

The activity at both craters has risen and fallen pretty close to the inflation/deflation magma pressure cycles, as displayed on tilt graphs (today's below), with the most pronounced activity being displayed at Pu`u O`o.

Pu`u O`o’s crater floor has sagged and refilled a few times during the ebb & peaks, while its surface flows have roared hot and heavy at times. During more intense surface activity the reflective glow from the molten lava can be seen for many miles after dark.

Thermal imagery from October 7th clearly shows Pu`u O`o flank hot zones: Due to the cyclic nature of the magma pressures feeding surface flows the down slope movement of the lava has cooled between events and has not advanced significantly over the past weeks.zoomed view of the USGS/HVO updated flowfeild map.

I would expect that if there were to be a large and prolonged rise in magma chamber pressures there may be a corresponding advancement of lava down toward the Pulama Pali or Royal Gardens areas.
I will add new updates as eruption events change. One of these days I hope to get some on-the-ground images to share with you :) …
… Meanwhile you can keep informed by checking in with the informative web page links on this page of USGS/HVO.Above is a webcam capture of Pu`u O`o looking west as the sun sets into it a few days ago.

Autumnal Equinox lava glow from Kalapana Gardens

Bright yellow-orange-red lava reflects beneath afterglow sunset light at 7:00 PM last night from Kalapana Gardens: some of the pictures I took last night from a friends place within the subdivision.

Below and to the southeast of Pu`u O`o, molten lava continues breaking out and moving downhill. Whenever low clouds passed overtop the new flowing lava the eruptive glow is striking and can be seen for many miles. One of the best viewing locations is from the Hawaii County official viewing area off the very end of highway 130, adjacent to Kalapana Gardens.

(Click on these images for a larger size and see the stars) Looking west at 8:00 PM last night. For perspective, the bright fan-shaped white glow on the lower right is from the Hawaii County viewing site parking lot. You can also just make out some of the homes in the Gardens.

According to today’s update from USGS/Hawaii Volcanoes Observatory, the flow of this lava has slowed down a bit.

Small random earthquakes continue all around the Big Island, most densely clustered near Kilauea.

Here is a zoomed-in shot of the reflective glow in the fumes and low clouds:

Lava rivers pour down Pu`u O`o’s flanks

USGS image -Looking southwest at Pu`u O`o.

Orange-red reflective lava glow was visible from many miles distant last night as a new, and sizable, thrust of flowing lava spewed from the flanks of Pu`u O`o Crater and is heading downhill.As the evening progressed last night, I watched the reflective bright glow of the new lava flow from my home in Kapoho, which is twenty miles away, and snapped this image above with a 300mm lens. The mountain silhouetted is the Green Mountain volcano.

Yesterday on the USGS/HVO Kilauea volcano update page yesterday described the first faze of the breakouts like this: “At about 2:25 AM, lava broke through the upper east flank of Pu`u `O`o and a channelized flow advanced rapidly downslope to the east. Seismic tremor levels are low, but increased at Pu`u `O`o when the new fissure opened. Gas emissions from the summit and east rift zone vents remain elevated. All erupted lava is within Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park or adjacent State land managed by the Department of Land and Natural Resources. If the eastern flows persist, they may pose a hazard to the Royal Gardens subdivision in the coming days. The flow's progress will be assessed during an overflight this afternoon.” The rivers of lava have moved a lot further since that posting; they will have a new update today.

There was a very steep increase in magma pressures within the tubing system feeding the Pu`u O`o its lava. Check out the graph below for yesterday’s spike.

I phoned the Janguard Security personnel who operate the Hawaii County Civil Defense Lava Viewing site adjacent to Kalapana Gardens and asked what they could see from there. Road manager David said there was no lava visible from there but the mountain lava glow was the brightest to be seen in quite awhile, and that many local people were driving down to take a look; as word spread about the red lava skies being seen from across the lower Puna district.

All the Kilauea webcams were showing heightened eruption lava yesterday and last night. Check them all out today too.

Here, above, is the cam that faces east from below Pu`u O`o. The bright white spots are the new lava rivers. Here is the same view this morning from the cam:


Halema`uma`u Crater overlook(above) and wide-view cam (below) at the Jaggar museum also had strong eruptive activity, as shown below at 11:00 PM last night.

If the activity continues today, I may drive out to Kalapana after dark and see what the lava glow looks like. New lava flowing down the Pulama Pali would be exciting, and if it makes it that far it would likely be well west of any homes but highly visible from the lava viewing site.

I’ll keep you posted as noteworthy changes occur ~~~

And check with the guys up on the volcano for their excellent updates and images

If you want to see an in-depth study of all the known Big Island lava flows up to 2006) this pdf USGS topography map has a great detailed history laid out.