Hawaii lava flows ramp up

LAVA oozing out of cracks for two weeks in rural Hawaii neighbourhoods took on new characteristics as fresher magma mixed with decades-old magma, sending a flow toward the ocean.

Since a first fissure opened in a community on May 3, lava was mostly spattering up and collecting at the edges of the cracks in the ground. Two neighbourhoods with nearly 2000 people were forced to evacuate as lava claimed 40 structures.

At the weekend, the lava changed dramatically with one fissure ramping up and sending a flow across a road, destroying four more homes and isolating residents, some of whom had to be flown to safety.

The change is attributed to new magma mixing with 1955-era magma in the ground, creating hotter and more fluid flows, scientists said.

“There’s much more stuff coming out of the ground and it’s going to produce flows that move further away,” said Wendy Stovall, a US Geological Survey volcanologist.

By Saturday, two of 22 fissures had merged, creating a wide flow advancing at rates of up to 275 meters an hour. Aerial footage, from the USGS, showed fastmoving lava advancing to the south-east. In the background, the footage showed lava fountaining 100 meters high at one of the fissures.

The fountains are created by vents closing, forcing magma to burst through a single outpoint, Ms Stovall said.