Experts unsure when Kilauea eruption will ease
HONOLULU Experts remain flummoxed about when Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano will calm down, after the volcano exploded at its summit, sending ash and rocks hundreds of metres into the sky.
Scientists said the eruption on Friday was the most powerful in recent days, though it probably lasted only a few minutes. It came two weeks after the volcano began sending lava flows into neighbourhoods 40km to the east of the summit, destroying 26 homes.
A new lava vent – the 22nd such fissure – was reported yesterday by county civil defence officials.
Several open fissure vents are still producing lava splatter and flow in evacuated areas. Gas is also pouring from the vents, cloaking homes and trees in smoke.
The fresher, hotter magma would allow faster lava flows that could potentially cover a larger area, said Janet Babb, a geologist with the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.
Much of the lava that has emerged so far may have been underground for decades, perhaps since a 1955 eruption. Meanwhile, more explosive eruptions from the summit are anticipated.
‘‘We have no way of knowing whether this is really the beginning or toward the end of this eruption,’’ said Tom Shea, a volcanologist at the University of Hawaii. ‘‘We’re kind of all right now in this world of uncertainty.’’
It was nearly impossible to determine when a volcano would stop erupting, ‘‘because the processes driving that fall below the surface and we can’t see them’’, said volcanologist Janine Krippner of Concord University in West Virginia.
US government scientists, however, were trying to pin down those signals ‘‘so we have a little better warning’’, said Wendy Stovall, a volcanologist with the observatory.
So far, Krippner noted, AP authorities had been able to forecast volcanic activity early enough to be able to usher people to safety.
The US Federal Aviation Administration still has flight restrictions in place, but for a smaller area – up to 5000 feet (1520m) above sea level, and a 5km radius around the crater.
The greatest ongoing hazard stemmed from the lava flows and the hot, toxic gases spewing from open fissure vents close to homes and critical infrastructure, said Charles Mandeville of the US Geological Survey’s volcano hazards programme.
Authorities have been measuring gases, including sulphur dioxide, rising in little puffs from open vents.
For now, the ash seems to be more of a nuisance than a severe threat. Hawaii residents are covering their faces to prevent them breathing small particles, and some have found thin coatings of ash as winds blow the plume away from populated areas.
Lindsey Magnani said she and her family had picked up some of the 2000 face masks being distributed by county officials. She had also closed all the windows at home to block the air, which smelled heavily of sulphur.
Dr Josh Green, a state senator who represents part of the Big Island, said the immediate health risk came from ash particles in the air. Anyone with respiratory difficulties, such as asthma or emphysema, should limit their exposure to the ash, he said. AP