HONOLULU - A lava flow from Hawaii's erupting Kilauea volcano that damaged a geothermal power station has stalled, as have lava fountains gushing 100 feet (30 meters) into the air, offering momentary relief to an area under siege for 25 days, officials said on Monday.
Even so, new blasts from the crater sent ash plumes billowing as high as 13,000 feet (4,000 meters) into the sky, and a new fissure was pumping out lava at a rate of three feet (1 meter) per second, geologists said.
The new fissure sent more lava into the to evacuated Leilani Estates district in the eastern corner of Hawaii's Big Island.
Because the lava was spread out over a wide area, the frontier of the flow was only moving at about three feet per second, Carolyn Parcheta, a geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, said in a video message posted online.
Lava engulfed the heads of two wells that tap into steam and gas deep in the Earth's core at the 38-megawatt Puna Geothermal Venture on Saturday. Its operator, Israeli-controlled Ormat Technologies Inc, said it had not been able to assess the damage.
Residents fear the wells may be explosive. Officials have said the power plant is safe but lava has never engulfed a geothermal plant anywhere in the world, leaving a measure of uncertainty.
The lava flow at PGV stalled on Monday, Hawaii County spokeswoman Janet Snyder said.
Ormat said the plant represented about 4.5 percent of its total generating capacity and that major damage or a shutdown could have an "adverse impact" on the company's business.
Authorities have shut down the plant, removed 60,000 gallons (230,000 liters) of flammable liquid, and deactivated the wells.
At least 82 homes have been destroyed in the southeast corner of Big Island and about 2,000 people have been ordered evacuated since Kilauea began erupting on May 3.
About 2,200 acres (890 hectares) have been scorched and the eruptions are expected to cut tourism revenues.
The sole reported serious injury from the eruption so far came when a man was hit by flying lava.
An eruption from the summit's Halemaumau crater on Monday sent ash almost 15,000 feet (4,600 m) into the air, a National Weather Service meteorologist said. Hawaii County officials later cut the estimated height to 13,000 feet.
Magma has drained from Kilauea's summit lava lake and flowed around 25 miles (40 km) east underground, bursting out of about two dozen giant cracks or fissures.
(Reporting by Joyln Rosa in Honolulu; Additional reporting by Ian Simpson; Editing by Daniel Trotta and Tom Brown)
source: news.abs-cbn.com
PAHOA, Hawaii - A rising tide of lava turned a Hawaii street into a smoking volcanic wasteland on Friday, destroying at least eight homes as residents stood on the road and watched their houses burn.
The destructive fury of the erupting Kilauea volcano has been unleashed on the Big Island's Leilani Estates housing development, with the number of homes and other structures destroyed jumping to 82 from a previous count of 50 only a few days ago, according to David Mace, a spokesman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Some 15,000 acres (6,070 hectares) of land - about half the size of Florida's Disney World resort - have been torched by lava since May 3, in what is likely to be the most destructive eruption of Kilauea in over a century, according to the County of Hawaii.
"There were eight houses taken on this road in 12 hours," said Ikaika Marzo in a Facebook video as he stood on Kaupuli Street and showed a black, glass-like lava field where his cousin's house previously stood.
Where there were once houses and tropical back gardens in Leilani Estates, magma spews from 100-foot-high (30-meter-high) cinder cones and forms elevated ponds of molten rock that cascade over their banks to engulf the next street.
"It's this tide of lava that rises up and overflows itself on the edges and keeps rising and progressing forward," said U.S. Geological Survey geologist Wendy Stovall told journalists on a conference call.
Around 37 structures are "lava locked," meaning homes are inaccessible, and people who do not evacuate them may be hemmed in by 30-foot-high (9-meter-high) walls of lava.
Magma is draining underground from a sinking lava lake at Kilauea's 4,091-foot (1,247-meter) summit before flowing around 25 miles (40 km) east and bursting from giant cracks, with two flows reaching the ocean just over three miles (4.83 km) distant.
Stovall declined to comment on lava volume being emitted. Marzo said he was told by a USGS geologist there was much more to come from Kilauea.
"What has been coming out is just a small fraction of what was in the volcano," he said he was told.
Though lava destruction from the volcano is confined to a roughly 10-square-mile (26-sq-km) area, the eruption is hurting the island's tourist-driven economy as potential visitors fear ashfall or volcanic smog belching from Kilauea's summit.
A 4.4 magnitude earthquake at the volcano's summit on Friday prompted County of Hawaii Civil Defense to reassure the island's 200,000 residents that there was no risk of a tsunami.
Year-to date 2018 visitor numbers to the Connecticut-sized island are "trending a little bit lower" than 2017, with the cancellation of some port visits by cruise ships expected to have a $3 million impact, said Ross Birch, head of the island's tourism board on a conference call.
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PAHOA, Hawaii - A massive new fissure opened on Hawaii's Kilauea volcano, hurling bursts of rock and magma with an ear-piercing screech on Sunday as it threatened nearby homes and prompted authorities to order new evacuations.
The fissure, a vivid gouge of magma with smoke pouring out both ends, was the 17th to open on the volcano since it began erupting on May 3. Some 37 buildings have been destroyed and nearly 2,000 people ordered to evacuate in the past 10 days.
Seen from a helicopter, the crack appeared to be about 1,000 feet (300 meters) long and among the largest of those fracturing the side of Kilauea, a 4,000-foot-high (1,200-meters) volcano with a lake of lava at its summit.
"It is a near-constant roar akin to a full-throttle 747 interspersed with deafening, earth-shattering explosions that hurtle 100-pound (45-kg) lava bombs 100 feet (30 meters) into the air," said Mark Clawson, 64, who lives uphill from the latest fissure and so far is defying an evacuation order.
Closer to the summit, in the evacuated Leilani Estates neighborhood of about 1,500 people, explosions could be heard in the distance as steam rose from cracks in the roads. The bulging rim of one fissure wrecked a building, leaving behind torn metal.
In areas where sulfur dioxide emissions were strong, the vegetation turned brown and leafless trees withered.
The U.S. Geological Survey warned that fissures could erupt throughout the area, and Civil Defense officials on Sunday ordered people living on Halekamahina Road to evacuate and be on the alert for gas emissions and lava spatter.
Meanwhile, other fissures continued to billow smoke over homes on the eastern point of the Big Island of Hawaii, the largest of the Hawaiian islands.
Even so, some people such as Clawson remained in their homes, confident they would be spared.
"We are keeping track of lava bombs. One went through the lanai (porch) roof of a neighbor's house," Clawson said. About eight to 10 neighbors had yet to evacuate, he said.
The Hawaii National Guard is warning people in the coastal Lower Puna area to prepare to leave, saying anyone who chooses to stay behind cannot count on being rescued. An evacuation has not been ordered there but might be if a local highway is cut off.
"We've been telling them, 'Evacuate if you can, because if we have to come in and get you we'll be putting first responders at risk'," Major Jeff Hickman told reporters. "There's a point where we'll tell our first responders, 'Nope, you can't go'."
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PAHOA, Hawaii - More destructive lava flows could soon hit Hawaii’s Big Island as the Kilauea volcano erupts, posing a greater threat than oozing magma that has so far destroyed dozens of homes and forced thousands to evacuate, scientists said on Friday.
As a lava lake at Kilauea's summit drains inside the volcano, magma is running underground. It could burst to the surface as large, fast-moving and intensely hot lava flows and produce higher levels of toxic gases, Hawaiian Volcano Observatory scientist-in-charge Tina Neal said.
"What will take a turn for the worse in terms of hazard is if hotter, fresher magma makes it to the surface, and that could be what is coming," Neal told a conference call. "Once a new batch of hotter, gassier magma makes it to the surface we might see larger, higher eruption rates."
Fifteen large cracks or fissures have opened on the eastern flank of Kilauea since the volcano erupted eight days ago. The volcanic vents have oozed relatively cool, sluggish magma left over from a similar event in 1955. Fresher magma could now emerge behind it.
In addition, Kilauea, one of the world's most active volcanoes, threatens to begin a series of explosive eruptions within days or weeks that could form huge clouds of volcanic smog, or vog, and hurl boulders as big as small cars.
Geologists expect new lava outbreaks in or around the hard-hit Leilani Estates area in the southeastern Puna district, about 20 miles (32 km) south of Hilo, where 27 homes have been destroyed and all 1,900 residents have been evacuated.
Local residents got a text message alert at 11 a.m. warning them they could have little or no time to evacuate in the event of future eruptions.
"I GOTTA GET OUT OF HERE"
Ron Peters, 59, knew it was time to leave his home in the Opihikao community, 2.6 miles from Leilani Estates, when fruit trees and other vegetation began to die in the rotten-egg-smelling clouds of sulfur-dioxide gas.
"When you start seeing ferns go brown overnight, it's like, 'Wow, I gotta get out of here,'" said Peters, sitting at a Red Cross evacuation center at a sports center in nearby Pahoa.
His wife refused to leave and stayed to care for their dogs and chickens.
He went back for her on Thursday, fearing she and the animals would be dead. One of the dogs was having trouble moving but his wife was still alive. He set his chickens free.
"The gas fumes were just too much," he said, sitting at a baseball diamond with his dogs tied beside him.
While locals contend with lava and gas on the ground, explosions at Kilauea's summit some 25 miles (40 km) to the west were dusting communities with ash that irritated eyes and breathing.
Volcanic smog may be blowing hundreds of miles from Kilauea, with people on the streets of state capital Honolulu, around 210 miles (340 km) northwest on the island of Oahu, complaining it was "very voggy" on Friday.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
LEILANI ESTATES, US - The Kilauea volcano, the most active in Hawaii, was highly unstable Sunday as lava spouted into the air and fissures emitted deadly gases -- hazards that have forced thousands of people to evacuate.
Eight fissures have opened so far, the most recent one late Saturday, the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory reported at 9:40 GMT on Sunday.
All are in or near Leilani Estates and Lanipuna Gardens areas, where over 1,500 residents were ordered to evacuate.
The observatory, part of the US Geological Survey (USGS), said new crevices were spotted on Sunday morning but "no heat or escaping steam" was detected.
While lava continued to erupt intermittently in the Leilani Estates area -- with red-hot lava fountains sometimes spouting 230 feet (70 meters) into the air -- other eruptions have ceased.
But highly toxic sulfur dioxide gas pouring from some fissures continued to contribute to "extremely dangerous" conditions.
"The high levels of sulfur dioxide are a threat to all who become exposed," the Hawaii County Civil Defense office said in an alert.
That office reported Saturday that five houses have been destroyed. It said in a Facebook posting that "eruptive activity is increasing and is expected to continue."
The office cautioned Hawaiians to be patient. "Please understand the unpredictability of these hazards," it said.
Officials at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, scene of a mandatory evacuation order Friday, were assessing roads and trails on Sunday as they weighed whether to reopen.
Civil defense administrator Talmadge Magno told the Honolulu Star Advertiser that some residents of the evacuated subdivisions might be allowed to return briefly to their homes to tend to animals and collect important papers. But, he cautioned, "We are pretty sure we are not done."
The area has suffered several severe shocks since Thursday, when a magnitude 5 earthquake under Kilauea's south flank set off an initial eruption. A quake Friday was measured at magnitude 6.9, the most powerful to hit the islands since 1975.
In a 48-hour period, experts detected 152 quakes of magnitude 2 to 3 and 22 of magnitude 3 within three miles (five kilometers) of the volcano's crater.
The observatory said satellites had detected a gradual sinking of ground around the volcano summit in the two weeks before the first quake.
It said the surface of a lava lake in the Overlook crater had dropped 518 feet (128 meters) below the crater rim since April 30.
Kilauea, which rises to 4,091 feet (1,247 meters), began erupting Thursday afternoon local time.
Kilauea -- which according to Hawaiian folklore is home to Pele, the volcano goddess -- saw nearly continuous activity during the 19th century. It is one of five currently active volcanoes on Hawaii Island, sometimes known as the archipelago's Big Island.
"Kilauea ranks among the world's most active volcanoes," according to the USGS, "and may even top the list."
source: news.abs-cbn.com
