COURTESY HAWAIIAN VOLCANO OBSERVATORY
Geologists visited Kilauea Volcano’s ocean entry point and lava delta at Kamokuna on Friday. The delta remains unstable, with a large crack, noted earlier this week, which spans the entire width of the delta.
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The lava shelf at Kilauea Volcano’s ocean entry point
continues to grow but has developed several cracks, hinting at its eventual demise.
The cracks “have developed in the lava delta, running parallel to the coastline and spanning the width of the delta,” the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory said on its
website Saturday. “These cracks increase the likelihood
of a large delta collapse.”
The ocean entry at Kamokuna is fed by the so-called
61g flow from the Puu Oo vent on the east rift zone.
The volcano is also erupting at its summit, where a
lava lake has risen to within 98 feet of the overlook crater rim inside Halemaumau. The lava lake is spattering and
sulfur dioxide emission rates remain high, the observatory said.
Seismic activity remains low. A magnitude-2.6 quake struck at 10:58 p.m. Friday, with an epicenter half a mile deep and 4.4 miles south-southeast of Volcano Village,
inside Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.