Scientists reap data from active Kilauea

Advanced technology can measure more now

HONOLULU — Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano may be disrupting life in paradise with its bursts of ash and bright-orange lava, but it also has scientists wide-eyed, eager to advance what’s known about volcanoes.

The good news is: Volcanoes reveal secrets when they’re rumbling, which means Kilauea is producing a bonanza of information.

While scientists monitored Big Island lava flows in 1955 and 1960, equipment then was far less sophisticated. Given new technology, they can now gather and study an unprecedented volume of data.

“Geophysical monitoring techniques that have come online in the last 20 years have now been deployed at Kilauea,” said George Bergantz, professor of earth and space sciences at the University of Washington. “We have this remarkable opportunity … to see many more scales of behavior both preceding and during this current volcanic crisis.”

Starting May 3, Kilauea has spewed lava and flung ash and rocks from its summit, destroying hundreds of homes, closing key highways and prompting health warnings. Kilauea is one of five volcanoes that form the Big Island, and is a “shield” volcano — built up over time as lava flows layer on top of layer.

Technically speaking, it has been continuously erupting since 1983.

But the recent combination of earthquakes shaking the ground, steam-driven explosions at the top, and lava creeping into a new area some 12 miles from the summit represents a departure from its behavior over the past 35 years, said Erik Klemetti, a volcanologist at Ohio’s Denison University.

What’s happening now is a bit more like the Kilauea of nearly a century ago. In 1924, steam explosions at the summit lasted for more than two weeks.

LE Baskow The Associated Press Most of the Kapoho area including the tide pools is now covered in fresh lava with few properties still intact as the Kilauea volcano lower east rift zone eruption continues in Pahoa, Hawaii.