Trouble in Paradise: Eruptions from Kīlauea Volcano( continued)
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Trouble in Paradise: Eruptions from Kīlauea Volcano( continued)
Volcanic hazards at Kīlauea and the‘ ash problem’
Hazards from violent explosive activity at Kīlauea’ s summit are substantial. Magma and water interactions are highly intense and violent – think hot oil in a frying pan mixing with cold water.
Eruptions are likely to have very little or no warning, and the“ how big” and“ how long” are impossible to predict.
Bumper to bumper trsffic on the way to see the eruption in 1959.
Reading the rock record
Kīlauea is not a gentle giant of a volcano. It has a long-lived and violent explosive history as determined from detailed geological investigations of volcanic rocks and ash layers in the rock record.
Civil Air Patrol flight CAP20 reported seeing plume tops at about 2.9km with the dispersed plume rising as high as 35 km.
Residents on the fringe of the national park are not in lifethreatening hazardous conditions. But they are susceptible to the annoying“ ash problem” where ash accumulation on electricity infrastructure interrupts supply, contaminates water, causes health hazards such as throat and lung irritation, and damages crops.
This will have complex social, health and economic impacts, further devastating communities if the summit activity does begin and is long-lived.
Society’ s fascination of volcanic phenomena and the curiositydriven need of people to know more, see more and experience more will make the safe management of the millions of tourists each year in the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park a significant challenge.
Nearly 50km of bumper-to-bumper traffic to view the 1959 eruption of Kilauea testifies to the impending management issues.
Exclusion and access will be an important and potentially longlived management issue as the geological rock record at the summit tells a story of violent, centuries-long explosive activity.
The last period of violent explosive activity was between the years 1500 and 1800, when magma frequently interacted with the groundwater table deep within the volcano.
During those three centuries of activity, Kīlauea’ s summit produced around 10km high columns and umbrella clouds of volcanic ash, short-lived violent explosions and ballistic ejecta, and ground-hugging high-velocity currents called pyroclastic density currents, which destroyed everything in their path.
This period is not without observation. Native Hawaiians were within the summit area and in 1790 at least 80 Hawaiian warriors were killed in a devastating hot, high velocity explosion that seared their lungs.
Back to basics: the geological rock record as a prediction tool
Kīlauea is one of Earth’ s most well studied volcanoes. It has been the site of an active volcano observatory since 1912, and current monitoring technologies are state-of-the-art.
Volcanic behaviour is by its nature complex. Prediction of the exact when, duration and how big is riddled with uncertainty despite sophisticated monitoring technologies.
As such, disaster management challenges are numerous, but observational records in 1924 and the geological rock record
41 SCIENCE EDUCATIONAL NEWS VOL 67 NO 2