Scientists unlocking volcano secrets
DRESSED in heavy cotton, a helmet and respirator, Jessica Ball worked the night shift monitoring “fissure 8”, which has been spewing fountains of lava as high as a 15-storey building from a slope on Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano.
The lava, oozing towards the Pacific Ocean several kilometres away, cast an eerie, orange nightscape over the abandoned community of Leilani Estates. “We’re reminded what it’s like to deal with the force of nature,” said Ball, a geologist with the US Geological Survey (USGS).
Scientists, who include USGS staff, trained volunteers and University of Hawaii researchers have been measuring the eruptions 24 hours a day. They avoid synthetics because they melt in the intense heat, and wear gloves to protect their hands from sharp volcanic rock and glass. Helmets protect against falling lava stones and respirators ward off sulphur gases. This is not a job for the fainthearted. Geologists have died studying active volcanoes.
Kilauea, which has been erupting almost continuously since 1983, is one of the world’s most closely monitored volcanoes, largely from the now-abandoned Hawaiian Volcano Observatory at the summit. But the latest eruption is one of Kilauea’s biggest and could prove to be a bonanza for scientists.
Ball and the other scientists are studying how the magma – molten rock from the Earth’s crust – tracks through a network of tubes under the volcano in what is known as the “Lower East Rift Zone” before ripping open ground fissures and spouting fountains of lava.
They were trying to discover what warning signs might exist for future eruptions to better protect the Big Island’s communities, she said.
Scientists had thought the constant steam explosions at the summit resulted from lava dropping down the volcano’s throat into groundwater. This was based on Kilauea’s 1924 eruption, to which the current one is most often compared.
But the explosions this time had released lots of sulphur dioxide gas, which meant magma was involved, said volcanologist Michael Poland. He and other scientists have gathered equipment and archives from the abandoned observatory. The archives included photos, seismic records and samples, 100 or more years old, Poland said. “These materials are invaluable to someone who says: ‘I have this new idea and I want to test it, using past data.’”
Now the second longest Kilauea eruption on record, surpassed only by one in 1955, this eruption offered far better research opportunities than previous events, Ball said. “We’ve got much better instruments and we’ve got longer to collect the data.” – Reuters/African News Agency (ANA)