Fiery rupture
Roaring like jet engines, new crack opens at Hawaii volcano.
PAHOA: A new fissure roaring like jet engines and spewing magma opened on Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano, piling lava as high as a fourstorey building, as the area torn by the US volcano’s eruption spreads.
The crack in pasture land on Kilauea’s east flank was the 16th recorded since the volcano, one of the world’s most active, erupted eight days ago.
Thousands of people have fled their homes on Hawaii’s Big Island because of lava and toxic gases, and dozens of homes have been destroyed.
The new fissure opened up on Saturday about 1.6km east of the existing vent system that has devastated the island’s Leilani Estates neighbourhood, with a few homes on the edge of the field where the vent opened.
The US Geological Survey (USGS) warned more outbreaks remained likely.
“It’s right by my house, which is kind of scary,” said Haley Clinton, 17, who walked to see the new crack with her father Darryl and sister Jolon, 15.
“It’s really cool,” she added. From afar, the fissure gave off dull, thumping roars that sharp
ened on approach to a scream like a chorus of jet engines from venting steam and gas, mixed with the slapping sounds of liquid lava.
Within hours of opening, the fissure had piled reddishblack lava about 12m high and at least 45m in length. Chunks of lava were spewed 30m in the air.
The intense heat left onlookers drenched with sweat and the air was filled with an acrid, burned scent.
With billowing gas and smoke blowing in the opposite direction, there was no pungent smell of toxic sulfur dioxide in the air.
Shortly after the fissure opened, the USGS’s Hawaii Volcano Observatory said seismic activity remained “elevated” at Kilauea’s 1,200m summit. The USGS also reported a shallow but small earthquake with a magnitude of 3.5 hit the island on Saturday.
Geologists warned on Friday that a steamdriven eruption from the summit’s Halemaumau crater could spew ash plumes as high as 6,100m and spread ash and debris up to 12m.
Kilauea’s vents have been oozing relatively cool, sluggish lava left over from a similar event in 1955.
Fresher lava could now emerge behind it and the volcano is threatening to start a series of explosive eruptions, scientists have said.