Kilauea

With the new computer on-line it is time to start putting together a few video projects I have had sitting around. The first out of the que is Flowing Rock, a compilation of recent video taken at the front of the active flows at Kalapana.

The flowing lava is endlessly fascinating to watch. While is was impressive standing there, it is almost more so in the video. Often some of the motion was hard to notice when seen first hand, but in the sped-up video all sorts of movement becomes visible. This is particularly true of the inflation of the pillows seen behind the moving front. Putting together this piece I watched parts of the video over and over, It is still fascinating to watch.

The video in the various sequences is accelerated anywhere from 2-5x in order to show the fascinating motion of the lava. Some of the frames look pretty scary when I realize that I was standing just a few feet in front of flowing lava. Reality was not as scary, the lava was moving quite slowly compared to what is shown in the video.

Enjoy...

Flowing Rock from Andrew Cooper on Vimeo.

At 3am on a Sunday morning Saddle Road is a lonely place, no traffic. A full Moon lights the saddle and the looming peaks of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa, a sublimely beautiful sight with the stars and bright Jupiter overhead. A 2am alarm clock led to an early departure half an hour later. But why? To see the lava of course, not much else would disturb an otherwise quiet Sunday morning. With a house guest in from off island and reports of a very active flow at the end of highway 130, the plan seemed like a good idea until the alarm clock went off.

Reaching the lava was easy, we simply walked out the highway 130 right-of-way to what was left of the Kalapana highway 137 intersection. To get there we crossed lava that was only a few days old, hot underfoot with bright red to be seen in the deeper cracks. The parking area we used on previous visits was still there, but now cutoff by the advancing flows. Just a few feet off the road there were multiple breakouts amongst the burning brush. Our way was lit by the full Moonlight and the glow of a small tree going up in a sheet of flame.

I scouted ahead, checking the route across the flow to the visible breakout, a couple times deciding that one way or another was a bit iffy. The smell of sulfur permeated the air along with the smell of woodsmoke from the burning brush. The gals were very nervous crossing the hot flows, expressing their concerns. All of that disappeared when we came face to face with the flowing lava. It became worth the risks and the 2am wake-up as wonder overcame the fear.

The lava was on a small rise, filling a good sized depression in the week old flow we stood atop. As it crested the edge we watched it spill over a small slope creating small rivers of gold and orange. Fifty meters to the west another tongue burned through light brush outlined with small flames. For two hours we moved back and forth along the face of the breakouts, shooting stills and video. As memory filled we handed cards back and forth to keep the cameras going. The brightening dawn created constantly changing light conditions, while the lava activity stopped and started at the breakout, offering new things to photograph every few moments.

The flow is advancing towards the east. Talking to Bryan Lowry of Lavapix.com we learned that a house burned just a few hours earlier as the lava finally reached it. The smoke of burning trees and brush could be seen all along. Behind the group of homes in Kalapana Gardens as tongues of pahoehoe moved closer to other structures.

In the bright morning light we headed back to the vehicle, sticky and sweaty despite a cool, brisk sea breeze. Curiosity satisfied and memory cards full, a short drive to Hilo and a hearty breakfast was now a more pressing plan.

It is everyone's dream encounter with a volcano... To stand in front of an advancing lava flow, seeing the red rock coming at you, close enough to feel the furnace-like heat and appreciate the mesmerizing flow. This was also on my to-do list, one of the things I wanted to see or do in my lifetime. Was on the list, in the past tense.

I had been near lava several times, but no closer than 20-25 meters, amazing to see, but disappointingly short of the experience that could have been. I love visiting the volcano, the volcanic terrain is endlessly fascinating. Pele is never predictable, the volcano is constantly changing. You never know what you will encounter in a visit. Living on the island has given me the opportunity to try several times, it was just a matter of timing and planning to make it happen.

The public viewing site at Kalapana opens each afternoon at 2pm and stays open until 10pm. Workers try to keep visitors safe and well clear of the dangerous conditions that an active flow field can easily create. But they also keep you quite a ways from the flow fronts and breakouts, often degrading the experience. The balance between safety and experience is difficult, understandably the county policy is to err on the side of safety.

For those prepared to take the risks, and those who have more experience with the behavior of lava flows, it is possible to get much closer to the lava.

The Big Island appears to be a favorite target for the folks who operate our Earth observing satellites. NASA Earth Observatory has released another great shot, this time Kilauea is featured.

In this case the camera was the Advanced Land Imager (ALI) on NASA’s Earth Observing-1 satellite. This camera operates at a wide range of wavelengths ranging from violet well into the near infrared with resolutions down to ten meters.

The image was taken just a few days ago, on Aug 19th, while the trades were blowing the plume to the southwest over the Ka'u Desert. The section here is just a small part of the whole image, go over to the Earth observatory website and download the full resolution frame. Readily apparent is the dramatic change in vegetation from the lush east side of the summit to the desert conditions on the west. The more recent lava flows exhibit less weathering and are much darker.

One moment the air was pleasantly cool, a fine mist blowing from the east, the next moment a hot blast of steam fills the air around you, the smell of sulfur thick. Easy to understand the old descriptions of hell, a place of fire and brimstone.

This is the atmosphere I found walking to Sulfur Banks in Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park. This is a place where water from the heavy tropical rains seep through the ground encountering the heat of magma below.

The result is an extensive system of steaming cracks in the ground, vents where the steam escapes and brings with it dissolved minerals. The vents are crusted with colorful deposits, the most obvious of which is sulfur. Brilliant yellow rimes every active vent, crystals coating the ground and draping the openings.

The ground itself is warm, a stark contrast to a cool rainy day, the steam rising in lazy clouds wherever the ground opens up. A rich fern forest surrounds the vents, but areas near the vents are devoid of plant life, the conditions just to harsh with heat and minerals.

It is a short hike from either the Visitor Center or from Steaming Bluff to Sulfur Banks, about half a mile on a nice trail, part of which is boardwalks over marshy areas. Worth the visit, take the time to stop as you choose among the many possible experiences in the park.

The crowd began gathering well before sunset, many clearly meaning to stay after dark to witness the spectacle. I sat down beside a couple who were already setup, tripod and DSLR camera on the wall of the overlook. We talked cameras and volcanoes while enjoying the sunset over Kilauea.

Unusual events had placed me in Hilo for the afternoon to attend a meeting. Afterwords I had decided to head out to Kilauea to see the show. The USGS reports had talked about a bright glow reliably visible each night. This evening would be moonless and dark, an opportunity to photograph the glowing vent with stars overhead.

The glow from Halema'uma'u crater is dramatically bright, an indication of hot magma just out of sight below the rim of the vent. Vulcanologists with HVO have filmed churning lava within the vent with a level that rises and falls with pressure in the magma chamber beneath the caldera.

A river of lava flowing across the landscape cools from the outside in, remaining flowing at the center after the outside has solidified into rock. When the eruption stops or shifts the lava may flow away leaving an empty tube of rock. This is a lava tube, and the island of Hawai'i is riddled with them.

One of most accessible is Thurston Lava tube in Hawai'i Volcano National Park. A short path through a rich fern forest brings the visitor to a moss draped opening in the rock. The tube takes the visitor on a path just below the forest, a large tunnel left behind when the lava flowed away. The walls and floors of the tube bearing traces of the molten river that once ran through. The heat of the lava causing the roof to drip liquid rock, in some places little lavacicles remain, a testament to the volcanic heat.

The upper half of the tube has been made more accessible by leveling the floor and bringing in electric light. This is a regular stop for the tour buses and the tube is host to a steady flow of visitors exploring this fascinating volcanic feature. The lights and path may make it easier, but the natural environment of the tube remains, dripping with water from the tropical fern forest above.

A skylight, a collapsed section, allows most visitors to climb back to daylight. But the tube does not end here. The lower half of the lava tube has been left in a more natural state. For another 330 m (360yds) this section of tube goes further down the slope. No lights, uncertain footing, piles of boulders where the roof has fallen in and more make this a more interesting section for the adventurous. Bring you own flashlights and enjoy.

Back in 2005 drillers boring a well for the geothermal operation of Puna Geothermal Ventures drilled into magma. This news was released at the American Geophysical Union's Fall Meeting this year.

Apparently the magma flowed back up the hole for 5-10m (15-30ft) before it solidified, partly due to the viscous nature of the magma and the cooling fluid of the drilling operation. The body of magma encountered was possibly emplaced during activity in the eastern rift zone of Kilauea during the 1920's or 1950's and has been slowly cooling since. The bore was at a depth of about 2.5km (1.5miles) when the magma was encountered.

"It was easily controlled in the well bore because of the magma's highly viscous nature. It flowed up the well bore 5-10m but then the cool drilling fluid caused it to solidify and stop flowing," said Mr Bill Teplow, a consulting geologist with US Geothermal Inc, who oversaw the drilling. "At no time were we in danger of losing control of the well."

Read the full article on the BBC website.

Another explosive eruption at Halema'ma'u at 7:28 in the morning yesterday. There is a great video of the event you can view below, or go to the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory images page for higher quality QuickTime videos. The plume suddenly surges in force and darkens with large quantities of ash. The eruption was significant enough that vulcanologists organized a special mission to the crater to check the ash collection stations setup around the vent. They found a large quantity of ash, tephra and glassy fragments that were produced by this event.



Hat tip to Damon Tucker

The re-emergence of the lava lake at Halema'uma'u after almost a century has me reminded of the previous lake. Time to read again the various descriptions written by visitors to the island that witnessed that spectacle.

One of the best comes from Samuel Clemens' (Mark Twain) book 'Roughing It' describing his visit to the then named Sandwich Islands. Clemens use of language wonderfully describes the pit of lava churning and fountaining in the crater of Halema'uma'u. His descriptions are vivid and accurate, when hiking across the caldera myself I was reminded of his writing and how well he portrayed the reality.

I have yet to see this new lava lake, it is currently only visible from the air or the now restricted, and quite dangerous, crater rim. And then only when the plume of gases thins enough to get a brief look. But the pit at the edge of Halema'uma'u continues to grow. Maybe this will return the lake to it's former extent, making Kilauea Caldera a grand spectacle indeed.

Hat tip to the Vulcanism Blog for the painting

David over at Big Island Video News has posted some beautiful raw video from the ocean entry at Waikupanaha. The littoral explosions, caused by hot lava meeting cold seawater are dramatic and beautiful.

Deb and I went to see the ocean entry back in March when the lava was much closer to the viewpoint, but there were no explosions going on. Have to think about taking another trip down there!

A beautiful natural color shot of the Big Island from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite.

The photo shows the plume emitted from the new vent at Halema'uma'u streaming off to the southwest under the influence of the tradewinds. This pattern has been entirely typical over the last week, with the trades keeping the skies over the north end of the island, and us, free of vog. The rest of the photo shows typical cloud conditions for the island. Clouds piling up against the windward side and trailing off the leeward.

Not really, but it certainly looked like it while driving down the mountain today. An odd cloud over Mauna Loa caught our attention. This is not the first time that clouds over the summit of Mauna Loa have looked like volcanic activity. The summit of this volcano is an excellent place to create odd clouds as warm tropical air rises up the slopes into the dry cold air above the summit.

But this cloud had us all looking, the small plume of cloud, darker than the higher clouds, just right for a large fumarole, just like the plume currently being emitted at Halema'uma'u. It looks like... can't be... no seismic activity reported lately... maybe? Checking the Volcano Observatory website when I got home showed no activity, but it is interesting to think about another Mauna Loa Eruption, it will happen.

The eruption at Halema'uma'u continues. Things have been very stable at the volcano for the last few months. I suspect they will stay that way as long as the gas has such a ready route of escape and pressure is not building in the summit magma chamber. Emission of small quantities of ash continues as well as massive amounts of sulfur dioxide with rates around 1,200 tonnes/day at Halema'uma'u and a further 2,000 tonnes/day at Pu'u O'o. The incandescent red glow is still prominent at night showing magma is not far below the surface. If something occurs to disturb either opening into the magma chamber, either at the summit or in the east rift zone, then things might get interesting again.

The steam and ash plume from Halema'uma'u continues. Over the last week there was a small explosion that widened the opening and showered hot rock across the area. The production of various forms of tephra continues with less ash but a lot of pele's hair found near the site. At least the trade winds are back and blowing the ash and sulfur dioxide out to sea. Vulcanologists with HVO believe that magma is to be found only a few hundred feet below the surface. Reading the volcano reports continues to be a daily occupation of much of the island and the current activity a normal subject of conversation much like talking about the weather would be anywhere else. We just keep watching and wondering what will happen next...