Lava explosion smashes into Hawaiian tour boat

Molten rock hits cool water off coast of Hawaii

HONOLULU • Hawaii tour boat operators will stay farther away from flowing lava after an explosion caused molten rock to barrel through the roof of a vessel, injuring 23 people.

A woman in her 20s was transported to Honolulu in serious condition with a broken thigh bone on Monday. The other 22 people injured were treated for minor burns and scrapes, including 12 who were treated at a hospital in Hilo.

The coast guard prohibits vessels from getting closer than 300 metres from where Kilauea volcano’s lava oozes into the sea. The agency had been allowing experienced boat operators to apply for a special licence to get as close as 50 metres, but it stopped allowing those exceptions Monday.

Shane Turpin, the owner and captain of the vessel that was hit, said he never saw the explosion.

He and his tour group had been in the area for about 20 minutes making passes of the ocean entry about 500 yards offshore, he said.

He didn’t observe “any major explosions,” so he navigated his vessel closer, to about 225 metres away from the lava.

“As we were exiting the zone, all of a sudden everything around us exploded,” he said. “It was everywhere.”

The U.S. Geological Survey says explosions of varying sizes occur whenever 1,000 C lava enters much colder seawater.

Monday’s large blast may have been amplified by the relatively shallow water at the point where the lava entered the sea. That’s because explosions occur much closer to the surface in such spots.

The volcano has also been pumping more lava into the water now compared to past years, said Janet Babb, a geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey.

Kilauea is sending to the sea as much as 26 times the amount of lava per second than it did during the 201617 eruption.

Officials have warned of the danger of getting close to lava entering the ocean, saying the interaction can create clouds of acid and fine glass. Despite the hazards, several companies operate such tours. The coast guard said tour vessels have operated in the area going back at least 20 years.

The Kilauea volcano has been erupting continuously for the past 35 years.

In May, its eruption entered a new phase when it began spurting lava through newly formed fissures in a residential neighbourhood. It has destroyed more than 700 homes since then.

But the only serious injury over the past two months was to a man who was hit by flying lava that broke his leg.