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Mauna Loa eruption underway; lava no longer contained to summit
- perihelions 4y agoThe USGS webcam the article references is here, https://www.usgs.gov/volcanoes/mauna-loa/mlcam-mokuaweoweo-caldera-northwest-rim https://www.usgs.gov/volcanoes/mauna-loa/mlcam-mokuaweoweo-c... https://www.usgs.gov/volcanoes/mauna-loa/webcams https://www.usgs.gov/volcanoes/mauna-loa/webcams
- darau1 4y agoThe first image[1] confused me; it looks like a city [1]: https://www.usgs.gov/media/webcams/mlcam-mokuaweoweo-caldera-northwest-rim https://www.usgs.gov/media/webcams/mlcam-mokuaweoweo-caldera...
- sizzzzlerz 4y agoI thought the same. I kept wondering why they don't show me the eruption zone close by instead of across the city in the valley.
- giantrobot 4y agoI am relieved not to be the only one that thought that.
- Victerius 4y agoMagma City / Ta-Koro
- bombcar 4y agoThe 24 hour GIF is kinda nice.
- gbil 4y agothe 24h gif from the thermal camera is funny https://www.usgs.gov/media/images/last-24-hours-live-panorama-moku-weoweo-caldera-thermal-mtcam https://www.usgs.gov/media/images/last-24-hours-live-panoram... just see how the temperature legend changes all of a sudden when the lava appears EDIT:spelling
- bombcar 4y agoOh wow that's deceptive if you don't notice that - lava made it all cool down!
- coryfklein 4y ago> If you look carefully around early morning or late evening, you may see a few thermal areas emitting steam. You don't say! You never know when text on your website is going to suddenly become outdated haha.
- Overtonwindow 4y agoNeat! Pele’s hair is a volcanic glass formation produced from cooled lava stretched into thin strands, usually from lava fountains, lava cascades, or vigorous lava flows. It is named after Pele, the Hawaiian goddess of volcanoes.
- bombcar 4y agoAlready out of date; the lava has reportedly (on twitter) escaped the caldera.
- andsoitis 4y agoHas it? The USGS doesn’t indicate that - do you have another source? http://www.usgs.gov/volcanoes/mauna-loa/volcano-updates http://www.usgs.gov/volcanoes/mauna-loa/volcano-updates “The eruption continues at the summit of Mauna Loa. All vents remain restricted to the summit area. However, lava flows in the summit region are visible from Kona. There is currently no indication of any migration of the eruption into a rift zone.”
- bombcar 4y agoThat's what the article says, but I think there's a disconnect between "lava flowing out" and "eruption rifts".
- Kon-Peki 4y agoUpdate: https://www.usgs.gov/volcanoes/mauna-loa/volcano-updates https://www.usgs.gov/volcanoes/mauna-loa/volcano-updates > 2022-11-28 17:20:25 UTC > The eruption of Mauna Loa has migrated from the summit to the Northeast Rift Zone where fissures are feeding several lava flows.
- itcrowd 4y agoHow close is this eruption to settlements and/or telescopes?
- gonzo41 4y ago
- pwarner 4y agoTelescopes are on another mountain, Mauna Kea. Lava from Mauno Loa can't reach Mauna Kea. Ash or earthquakes I guess could be an issue. Settlements would be at risk if lava leaves the crater.
- ceejayoz 4y agoClose to settlements; the city of Hilo is built on a fairly recent lava flow. The telescopes are on another, dormant summit.
- philliphaydon 4y agoHow big is the island? I have a friend living there at the moment but worrying.
- richiebful1 4y agoAccording to the USGS: > Mauna Loa is among Earth's most active volcanoes, having erupted 33 times since its first well-documented historical eruption in 1843. It has produced large, voluminous flows of basalt that have reached the ocean eight times since 1868. It last erupted in 1984, when a lava flow came within 7.2 km (4.5 mi) of Hilo, the largest population center on the island. Mauna Loa is certain to erupt again, and with such a propensity to produce large flows, we carefully monitor the volcano for signs of unrest. Source: https://www.usgs.gov/volcanoes/mauna-loa https://www.usgs.gov/volcanoes/mauna-loa Edit: The island is decently big, so the impacts probably won't affect a significant amount of the island. That said, some settlements like Hilo are in the impact zone for a significant event.
- tediousdemise 4y ago
- ceejayoz 4y agoThis volcano's been erupting for 700k years. There are typically over a thousand potentially active at any particular time; 20-50 on any particular day. https://volcano.si.edu/gvp_currenteruptions.cfm https://volcano.si.edu/gvp_currenteruptions.cfm
- tediousdemise 4y agoAs have plagues and other pandemics. I'm curious to see if there will be any more interesting volcanic activity!
- UI_at_80x24 4y agoI was lucky to be able to go on vacation to Hawaii once. The morning TV news had a 'lava report' much like we have a 'weather report'. TV personality stood infront of a green screen with a map overlay show closed roads due to lava, and it's projected path/speed. It was a really cool memory from the vacation.
- sfusato 4y agoThis is a good map showing the flow areas and how long lava could take to reach those areas: https://www.usgs.gov/media/images/mauna-loa-eruption-response-times-over-past-200-years https://www.usgs.gov/media/images/mauna-loa-eruption-respons...
- badcppdev 4y agoSuper impressed by the units used on that map: Mm3/d = millions of cubic meters per day Edit: Largest average effusion rate is 12Mm3/d which is 138 cubic meters per second. So if that were all in a single lava flow it could be as high as a person, as wide as a football field and moving at 2+ miles an hour. And basically unstoppable.
- chris_va 4y agoRandom interesting fact That's about the flow rate of mafic rock required to offset global CO2 emissions, if it went into the ocean mix layer (and dissolved). Makes you wonder if all those evil villains blowing up volcanoes were really just maligned :).
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- foobarian 4y agoHow are property rights set up in Hawaii? If a lava flow suddenly creates 10 acres of new land who gets it?
- perihelions 4y ago
- eloff 4y agoYou mean Larry Ellison probably, since he owns the Hawaiian island of Lanai.
- perihelions 4y agoMaybe this is old news, but Thiel used to be famous for his interest in creating artificial islands, and claiming them. https://www.businessinsider.com/peter-thiel-seastead-dream-floating-city-2017-1 https://www.businessinsider.com/peter-thiel-seastead-dream-f...
- rootusrootus 4y agoLooks like he owns 98% of it, with the remaining 2% owned by the state, or by the few thousand inhabitants of the island. The 98% was already privately owned (pineapple plantation), he just bought that.
- andsoitis 4y agoOwned by the State of Hawai’i. Usually it is new coastal land. If formed within a national park, Federal.
- Victerius 4y agoOne could write a good story on the premise of an alien race who comes to Earth after the loss of their home planet. The aliens then attempt to reactivate dormant submarine volcanoes to create a new continent for themselves in the Pacific Ocean.
- goodcanadian 4y agoPerhaps of interest, Mauna Loa volcano updates: https://www.usgs.gov/volcanoes/mauna-loa/volcano-updates https://www.usgs.gov/volcanoes/mauna-loa/volcano-updates
- daedalus_f 4y agoGeologyHub did a short video update on the building warning signs of a likely magmatic intrusion and possible lava flow paths a couple of weeks ago (based off USGS info). I always find his videos interesting and informative. https://youtu.be/QbCpzcIh3Lc https://youtu.be/QbCpzcIh3Lc
- bell-cot 4y ago+1, and GeologyHub videos always seem very information-dense, brief, expert, and context savvy. Perfect if you want to be well-informed, with no wasted time.
- maaand 4y ago
- bitL 4y agoI climbed Mauna Loa a few times and seeing Mokuaweoweo almost full... It's a huge area, this is going to be monumental!
- dreamcompiler 4y agoYet again we see the big island of Hawai'i being "under construction". All the Hawaiian islands are made of lava from a single active magma hot spot. As the pacific plate moves northwest over this stationary hot spot, new islands are formed. The Big Island (Hawai'i) is the youngest as it's over the hot spot now. The other islands have moved off the hot spot and no longer have active volcanoes. Among the oldest islands is Midway (yes that Midway) which is geologically part of the Hawai'i archipelago even though it's not politically part of it.
- gangstead 4y agoIs the big island the biggest just because it is the newest? Were the other islands bigger and have eroded over time?
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- dreamcompiler 4y agoGood question. I expect so but I'm not a geologist.
- ouid 4y agoThey're pretty young geologically, <5 mya. Hawaii gets insane amounts of rain, but its hard to imagine that being enough to fully erode an islnd the size of mauna kea, and i think you would expect to see similar volume between the islands if it were just erosion, since it would mainly just be flattening them, rather than dissolving them, but i'm also not a geologist.
- vikingerik 4y agoThe volume from an eroded island is still there, it's just flattened below sea level, ultimately down to a wider base at the sea floor.
- RajT88 4y ago
- jfoster 4y agoI don't know much about volcanoes. Am I correct in thinking that even though Mauna Loa is the largest volcano on Earth, this eruption is not a global threat in the same way that eruption of Yellowstone could be, since it doesn't tend to be explosive?
- ddoolin 4y agoIt’s just the largest active volcano, not the largest period. Super volcanoes are certainly much larger.
- Tuna-Fish 4y agoNo, they actually aren't. The heat flow that powers Yellowstone is roughly similar to the one that powers Mauna Loa. The difference is that Hawaii hotspot is constantly erupting, and has produced roughly 6000km^3 of new rock in the past 650 kyears, which is how long it is from a proper Yellowstone supereruption, while the Yellowstone hot spot just builds and builds material and heat, until it finally all goes off at once. This is what's believed to be the difference between supervolcanoes and normal ones. There has been volcanism on a much larger scale in the past (see: large igneous province), but they aren't really volcanoes in the sense we understand them, and are not related to supervolcanoes.
- toddm 4y agoYou are correct. The volcanoes in the Hawaiian chain are so-called mafic volcanoes. In general, volcanoes are classified as silicic or mafic. The silicic ones contain more gas and tend to erupt explosively; the mafic ones, more lava floes. Compare Mauna Loa (mafic) to Mount St. Helens (silicic), the latter of which was far more explosive due to high silica content, which increases magma viscosity and acts as a trap for (superheated) water and other substances. I encourage you and others to use the excellent USGS resources, such as: https://volcanoes.usgs.gov/vsc/glossary/ https://volcanoes.usgs.gov/vsc/glossary/ https://www.usgs.gov/news/volcano-watch-why-are-mount-st-helens-eruptions-generally-more-explosive-those-kilauea https://www.usgs.gov/news/volcano-watch-why-are-mount-st-hel... I hold a M.A. in geology and am a licensed geoscientist-in-training in Texas.
- coryfklein 4y agoWhat exactly is the state of "volcano tourism"? I remember being entranced as a kid by footage of lava flows; the heat, the glowing, and the viscosity of it all just seemed so alien and exciting. Do there exist – in Hawaii or elsewhere – experienced tour guides that can safely bring you to see such sights in person? Obviously I'm not saying I want to see the next Mount Saint Helens up close, but clearly camera men are able to get up close and personal, so there must be times and places where the risk is acceptable enough right?
- jo6gwb 4y agoNot familiar with volcano tourism in general but do recall that there were such excursions available in New Zealand which recently resulted in death. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Whakaari_/_White_Island_eruption https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Whakaari_/_White_Island_e...
- seydor 4y agoYou can take a tour near Etna https://www.visitsicily.info/en/attrazione/mount-etna/ https://www.visitsicily.info/en/attrazione/mount-etna/ Or the ferry to tour the crater of Santorini. https://www.santorini-view.com/attractions/santorini-volcano/ https://www.santorini-view.com/attractions/santorini-volcano... I suppose all volcanos are great attractions. Until the start fuming
- lisper 4y agoUp until the recent Kilauea eruption in 2021 there was a period of about 30 years where you could hike up to molten lava flowing from the pu'u o'o vent on the southeast slope of Kilauea. The length of the hike varied from a few hundred yards to several miles depending on which way the lava was flowing. The 2021 eruption drained the lava from pu'u o'o and it stopped flowing, and the only exposed red lava was in the Kilauea summit caldera, and the only (legal) way to see it was by helicopter. So the TL;DR is: it depends. At the moment it's not looking good for easy access, but stick around, the situation is bound to change. A week from now you might be able to see lava flowing in the streets of Kailua or Hilo.
- njarboe 4y ago
- whynotsadface 4y agoHow come there is no smoke data on https://fire.airnow.gov/ https://fire.airnow.gov/?
- mgiampapa 4y agoThere are AQI sensors all over the island, but maunakea is 4000m tall and the eruption isn't really near anything other than the national guard base. Generally speaking the air on the Big Island is very very clean by most standards. In the typical trade wind pattern (which we are not experiencing at the moment) you will mostly see volcanic gas from kilauea get trapped on the south kona coast.
- mgiampapa 4y agoFIRMS data is frightening, https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/usfs/map/#d:today;@-155.6,19.5,11z https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/usfs/map/#d:today;@-155... but I don't think it's that realistic based on the video I have seen from other folks on the island.