The exciting volcanic activity continues to evolve on Kilauea Volcano in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. several miles downslope from the summit, a new fissure erupted with a curtain of fire that rose up to eighty feet high. This eruptive phase cannot be accessed by the public, however the rangers at the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park visitors center are sharing the latest videos and photographs from this site and others around the park.
Meanwhile, a short drive from the park visitors center, the glow at the summit crater, Halemaumau continues to grow and send up voluptuous clouds of steam. Many are awaiting to see if a subterranean pond of lava will soon spill out onto the crater floor.
Dramatic steam and gas has been pluming from a vent in the crater wall since March 11, 2008, representing the first eruption in Halemaumau since 1982. In its early stages, there were three small explosions – the first ones at the summit since 1924 – and the plume changed from fluffy white to dusky brown, indicating that ash had sifted into the plume. Then it returned to a snowy white, rising up to a mile above the crater.
But beginning in early September 2008, there were more small explosions and increased tremors and the vent grew from about 90 feet across to three times that size by May 2009, spreading onto the crater floor. As the levels of ash in the plume have changed, its color shifted a number of times from cottony white to various shades of grey, brown and even pink. At night, the dramatic glow from the vent kept visitors mesmerized. (The park is open 24 hours.) One night in early September 2008, lucky visitors saw blue flames shooting from the vent, though no molten lava spilled onto the crater floor.
Intrepid HVO geologists who regularly venture to the crater rim just above the vent are finding lava rocks thrown onto the crater floor and over the top of the rim. At the crater’s lip just above the vent, geologists have also found “Pele’s hair” (thin strands of solidified lava), and “Pele’s tears” (droplets of lava rock) above the crater rim.
The first March explosions damaged the crater rim viewing platform, but that area had already been closed to visitors because of this danger, and the plume’s heavy content of sulfur dioxide. Prolonged exposure to high levels of SO2 can be dangerous, especially to anyone with respiratory conditions. But as long as the customary trade winds are blowing, visitors to the rest of the park are safe. If conditions should change, park rangers will alert visitors.
Excellent viewing is still possible most days from the Thomas A. Jaggar Museum overlook. The small museum has informative volcanology exhibits and an excellent bookstore with DVDs, posters, maps, t-shirts and more — all of it contributing to our understanding of volcanoes in this extraordinary national park.