Kilauea Volcano turns off the ocean spigot
COURTESY HAWAIIAN VOLCANO OBSERVATORY
Lava has stopped entering the ocean at the Kamokuna delta, as shown in this photo taken Tuesday. The plume that results when the lava hits the sea has been absent for more than a week, the U.S. Geological Survey said. The so-called 61g flow remains active farther inland.
The “firehose” of lava that poured 70 feet into the sea from Kilauea Volcano on Hawaii island in January continues to be a no-show 10 months later.
In a “What’s going on with the volcano” piece, the National Park Service, which runs Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, said the so-called “61g lava flow” off the Puu Oo Crater is still active on the nearby pali and coastal plain, “however the ocean entry is currently halted.”
For the past few weeks, the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory reported no ocean-entry plume at the Kamokuna delta, where molten lava previously spewed into the ocean.
“Web camera images show surface lava flow activity persisting on the upper portion of the episode 61g flow field, near the Pali, and in scattered areas along the coastal plain,” the observatory said in an update today.
Kilauea has been erupting continuously since 1983. Lava has been entering the ocean at Kamokuna since July of 2016. According to the state, on Dec. 31 almost 23 acres of lava delta and 4 acres of older sea cliff collapsed — leading to the lava tube pouring into the ocean.
