Geology In

World's Tallest Active Geyser Awakens in Yellowstone

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It was the talk of the boardwalk. Everyone had heard that there was an unusually active geyser at Yellowstone National Park in the Norris Geyser Basin, near the centre of the park. A sign close to the parking lot showed the way, and a quarter-mile later visitors hit the platform above Steamboat Geyser, wondering aloud whether it was the one.<br />
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Yes, it was, and although it was a little more than a day removed from its most recent major eruption, the world’s tallest active geyser was still something to see. Steam billowed out, soaring high above the trees. Water shot up intermittently, and the vents roared. Mist drenched one part of the boardwalk below, forming puddles. People pulled on hoods as they walked by.<br />
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John and Corri Kamphof, of British Columbia, reached the geyser fairly early that day. They’d never heard of it before coming to the park this year, but a ranger told them they had to go. When they arrived, they found it in the midst of what some consider a “big minor” eruption, one that shoots water as high as 100 feet.<br />
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“There was a lot of water,” John said. “It was really quite awesome.”<br />
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And it can get even bigger. Steamboat’s major eruptions are known to reach heights between 300 and 400 feet, sending gravel flying and soaking cars in the parking lot. The park has recorded 171 major eruptions of Steamboat since 1878, the year of its first known eruptions. But the big blasts are completely unpredictable.<br />
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One evening this past March, park employees reported seeing the first major eruption in nearly four years. Since then, the action hasn’t stopped. As of May 18, there had been five recorded major eruptions in 2018, already making it the busiest year for Steamboat since 1984. None of the five were as strong as the last two major eruptions, in 2013 and 2014, but the activity has people excited about the enormous feature.<br />
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Its awakening doesn’t portend the end of the world. However, scientists also don’t know why it suddenly woke up. That’s not so unusual either. Mystery isn’t unique to Steamboat. It’s the most normal thing about it.</div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">WEIRD IS NORMAL</span></h3>
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All of Yellowstone’s hydrothermal features begin with rain and snow soaking into the ground. At a certain point, heat from the volcano’s magma reservoir forces the water to rise back toward the surface. The makeup of the underground plumbing system determines how the water expresses itself — whether it turns into a hot spring pool, a mud pot or a geyser.<br />
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Constrictions in the system create geysers. Water and steam get stuck in a tight spot, circling and searching for a way out, a vent to blow through. When the pair finds a path, it rockets into the sky.<br />
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About half of the world’s geysers are in Yellowstone, according to the park, and each one has a unique underground system.<br />
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“Each geyser kind of has their own personality,” said Jeff Hungerford, Yellowstone National Park’s lead geologist. “And it has to do with the plumbing and how the heat is expressing itself through the system until it comes to the surface.”<br />
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Old Faithful, the most famous geyser, is an anomaly. It draws enormous crowds each day in large part because of its consistency. Predictive systems are incredibly accurate, often within 10 minutes of an eruption. Signs posted in the area tell people when to grab a seat on the boardwalk. If a visitor misses one, they can probably see another in an hour or so.<br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">That sort of consistency is rare.</span></b><br />
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“The vast majority of geysers do not erupt regularly,” said Jamie Farrell, a University of Utah professor and chief seismologist at the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory. “They are very irregular.”<br />
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Farrell said one of the reasons Old Faithful is so predictable is that it’s far away from other features in its basin, meaning it doesn’t share its water. Steamboat, meanwhile, has shown connections to nearby hot spring pools. For example, Cistern Spring, just two boardwalk switchbacks away, empties after Steamboat’s major blasts.<br />
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“Steamboat is kind of constantly fighting for heat and water,” Farrell said.<br />
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Minor eruptions that reach between 10 and 40 feet are common at Steamboat. Majors go far higher. At its best, Steamboat’s blasts are known to go roughly three times Old Faithful’s average height.<br />
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According to a park document, only two other now-dead park geysers have surpassed it: Excelsior, in the Midway basin, and Sapphire Pool, in Biscuit Basin. Another inactive geyser in New Zealand has also recorded eruptions higher than Steamboat’s, but it’s been dormant for more than a century.<br />
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Steamboat’s major eruptions come in two phases — water and steam. Farrell said the steam phase can last for weeks after a major eruption. The water phase, however, only lasts an hour or so.<br />
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“Very few people have witnessed or documented the water phase of a major Steamboat eruption,” Farrell said.<br />
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Geologists track eruptions both by observation and by checking seismic records for major activity. Their records go back more than a century, and they show that Steamboat has had busy years, dull years and plenty of years where nothing much happens at all.<br />
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It once went 50 years without a major eruption, from 1911 to 1961. After that, it had some of its busiest years — more than 20 major eruptions each year from 1963 to 1965, peaking at 29 in 1964. At least one was recorded each year until 1969, after which there was a nine-year break. It awoke again in 1978 with two blasts, followed by another in 1979.<br />
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After that, it went quiet for three years, just before another stretch of busy years — 23 in 1982, 12 in 1983 and five in 1984.<br />
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Major eruptions became far rarer after that stretch. Park officials recorded at least one in 9 of the next 33 years. The annual total didn’t surpass three again until this year.<br />
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Jake Young, the founder of GeyserTimes.org, a website that tracks geyser activity, said he knows a handful of people who have seen a major eruption of Steamboat in the 1980s. If you spent enough time trying back then, he said, you had a decent chance of seeing an eruption.<br />
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“That’s what we all hope Steamboat is going to go back to,” Young said.</div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A CHANCE TO LEARN</span></h3>
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Park employees reported seeing an eruption the night of March 15, back when interior roads were still being plowed. The second came a little more than a month later, the third a little more than a week after that.<br />
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The fourth eruption came late on the night of May 5. Farrell was there about 12 hours later.<br />
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“At that time, it was in constant eruption,” he said. “It was erupting a lot of water.”<br />
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He was there to deploy 28 seismometers, devices that track ground-rattling activity. He’ll go back and pick them up later this year. They hope the seismometers can help them learn about how Steamboat’s acts both before and after big eruptions.<br />
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Fortunately for them, a week later, the fifth major eruption came.<br />
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“The geyser gods are smiling upon us,” Hungerford said.<br />
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This time of increased activity has given scientists a chance to try to learn something more about the geyser. Hungerford said they’re studying Steamboat’s connection to other features in the area besides Cistern Spring. Some have overflowed following the big eruptions, and they want to know more.<br />
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They’ve also put out a camera to try to capture eruptions on video. It’s hard to see because of the enormous amount of steam that the geyser emits, but that’s a problem Hungerford is happy to have.<br />
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“We are so thankful that it’s still erupting,” he said.</div>
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<u><i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Associated Press</span></i></u></div>
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World's Tallest Active Geyser Awakens in Yellowstone

It was the talk of the boardwalk. Everyone had heard that there was an unusually active geyser at Yellowstone National Park in the Nor...

Earth's Magnetic Field Is Drifting Westward, and Nobody Knows Why

earth, Earth's magnetic field 4:14 AM

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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PWguzNY2Lrc/WwNupX3pTNI/AAAAAAAAP6Y/CbbbNifEwNkXBDn52G9rXdQ9rMubrroAwCLcBGAs/s1600/Earth%2527s%2BMagnetic%2BField%2BIs%2BDrifting%2BWestward%252C%2Band%2BNobody%2BKnows%2BWhy%2B%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Earth's Magnetic Field Is Drifting Westward, and Nobody Knows Why" border="0" data-original-height="678" data-original-width="1214" height="356" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PWguzNY2Lrc/WwNupX3pTNI/AAAAAAAAP6Y/CbbbNifEwNkXBDn52G9rXdQ9rMubrroAwCLcBGAs/s640/Earth%2527s%2BMagnetic%2BField%2BIs%2BDrifting%2BWestward%252C%2Band%2BNobody%2BKnows%2BWhy%2B%25281%2529.jpg" title="" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Earth’s magnetic field protects us from the solar wind by deflecting the charged particles. And for some reason, the field has been drifting westward.<br /></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Over the 400 years or so that humans have been measuring Earth's magnetic field, it has drifted inexorably to the west. Now, a new hypothesis suggests that weird waves in Earth's outer core may cause this drift.</span><br />
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The slow waves, called Rossby waves, arise in rotating fluids. They're also known as "planetary waves," and they're found in many large, rotating bodies, including on Earth in the oceans and atmosphere and on Jupiter and the sun. <br />
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Earth's outer core is also a rotating fluid, meaning Rossby waves circulate in the core, too. Whereas oceanic and atmospheric Rossby waves have crests that move westward against Earth's eastward rotation, Rossby waves in the core are "a bit like turning atmospheric Rossby waves inside out," said O.P. Bardsley, a doctoral student at the University of Cambridge in England, and the author of a new study on the Rossby wave hypothesis. Their crests always move east.<br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Rotational forces</span></h3>
The rotation of magnetic iron in Earth's core gives rise to the planet's geomagnetic field. The geomagnetic field, in turn, protects the planet from solar radiation, making it important for life on Earth. Without it, the planet's surface would be bombarded by charged particles streaming from the sun that would ultimately rip away Earth's atmosphere.<br />
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While trying to understand the waves that propagate throughout Earth's core, Bardsley realized that some of these waves might explain one of the mysteries of the planet's magnetic field. Over the past four centuries, scientists have made measurements of magnetic declination — the difference between true north and the point where a compass needle points. (Because the magnetic field is chock-full of little local anomalies, the compass needle moves around a little compared to true north depending on where you're standing.)<br />
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Throughout those four centuries, the anomalies revealed by these declination measurements have shown a tendency to move westward, Bardsley reported in the new research, which was published today in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society A. <br />
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"The westward drift manifests itself primarily as a series of blobs over the Atlantic near the equator," Bardsley told Live Science, and they drift at around 10.5 miles (17 kilometers) per year. <br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">East and west</span></h3>
Theories to explain the drift have typically focused on the dynamics of the outer core. The most popular hypothesis, Bardsley said, is that the outer core contains a gyre similar to the atmosphere's jet stream, which happens to be moving westward and is dragging Earth's magnetic field along with it. The problem, Bardsley said, is that there's no particular reason why this gyre should exist. It might very well exist, he said, but given that there is no direct evidence, other explanations are still possible.<br />
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One possibility, Bardsley said, is that Rossby waves explain the weirdness of the magnetic field on Earth's surface. This is a little odd, Bardsley said, because Rossby waves in the core have eastward-moving crests, quite opposite the westward-moving drift. But crests of waves don't always represent their total energy movement.<br />
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"It is entirely possible to have a group of waves where the crests themselves are going east but the [bulk of the] energy is going westward," Bardsley said.<br />
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Something similar can even happen with water waves. Their crests typically travel in the same direction of the bulk of their energy, Bardsley said, but not necessarily at the same speed.<br />
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Surface measurements of the geomagnetic field capture the bulk of energy movement, Bardsley said, but not all the wiggly little details. So Rossby waves with a large-scale tendency to move energy westward could explain the westward drift measured over the Atlantic Ocean. The small-scale details, like those eastward-moving crests, would be impossible to detect.<br />
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The westward drift and the Rossby wave hypothesis are largely unrelated to a more famous question regarding the magnetic field: Is it going to flip? Periodically throughout Earth's history, magnetic north and magnetic south have swapped places. This isn't particularly problematic, except that it takes about 10,000 years, Bardsley said, and the process causes an uptick in anomalies and a weakening of the magnetic field in between the poles.<br />
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A weakened field can let more solar particles through, which can disrupt electric grids and cause problems with navigational systems. However, scientists aren't certain whether the weakening of the magnetic field over the past century or two is a sign of an impending flip-flop or merely a recoverable wobble.<br />
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<i><u><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The above story is based on <a href="http://rspa.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/474/2213/20180119" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">materials </a>provided by<a href="http://royalsocietypublishing.org/licence" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Proceedings of the Royal Society A.</a></span></u></i></div>
</div>

Earth's Magnetic Field Is Drifting Westward, and Nobody Knows Why

Earth’s magnetic field protects us from the solar wind by deflecting the charged particles. And for some reason, the field has been drif...

Hawaii Lava Finally Reaches the Pacific - Only to Create Another Deadly Danger

Hawaii, News, volcano 7:28 AM

Hawaii Lava Finally Reaches the Pacific - Only to Create Another Deadly Danger

Ocean entry photograph from Civil Air Patrol (CAP) overflight taken at about 12:50PM. First it was catastrophic lava. Then it was su...

A Mineral Is Stealing Iron From Earth's Crust

earth, Geochemistry 2:56 PM

A Mineral Is Stealing Iron From Earth's Crust

Spessartine Garnet Mars is called as the red planet because of the rich iron content which when exposed to meager oxygen availabl...

Hawaii Volcano Shoots Up Smoke and Ash as a New Crack Opens

Hawaii, volcano 9:56 PM

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Activity in the lower East Rift Zone ramped up overnight and this morning. During an overflight, HVO scientists observed a very active fissure 20.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">More falling ash could impact some Big Island residents early Saturday morning after another steam explosion at the summit of Kilauea.</span><br />
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Civil Defense officials reported the explosion happened around midnight. They say the wind may carry the ash plume Southwest toward Volcano Village, Wood Valley, Pahala, Naalehu, and Ocean View.<br />
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Weather forecasters say light bashful is possible for the southern end of Hawaii Island until 2:00 p.m. Saturday.<br />
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The severity of the explosion is not yet clear. Residents in those areas are urged to stay indoors and stay tuned to officials for further instructions. <br />
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Earlier Friday, a fast-moving lava flow threatened an isolated area with at least 40 homes in lower Puna, and officials say they conducted rescues via helicopter. <br />
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At 7:30 p.m., Civil Defense officials said four people were safely evacuated by county and National Guard helicopters after Pohoiki Road was closed. <br />
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Civil Defense also says the lava is spewing from fissure 20. The flow has crossed Pohoiki Road near Malama Ki Place. <br />
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Officials urge everyone to avoid the area. Those living from Isaac Hale Beach Park to Kalapana are also advised to prepare for voluntary evacuation should Highway 137 become threatened.<br />
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So far, Highway 130 and 137 remain open into the weekend. Officials may closed the highway if needed. <br />
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Earlier in the day, officials noticed the threat for the fast-moving flow and first responders were sent into the area to stop entry on both sides of Pohoiki Road. <br />
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Hotter lava from Kilauea's summit started to violently spew from new fissures and older ones in the lower east rift zone, sending lava fountains as high as 200 feet into the air and spitting out lava bombs the size of refrigerators.<br />
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On Friday, at least two additional homes were claimed by lava and officials say the scope of destruction is only likely to grow.<br />
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"With fresher, hotter magma, there's the potential that the lava flows can move with greater ease and therefore cover more area," said Janet Babb, USGS geologist. <br />
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At least five separate fissures were active Friday, creating several separate flows and prompting new safety warnings to residents still in affected communities or those trying to access their homes.<br />
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At least 325 acres of land and 41 structures have now been covered with lava in the Leilani Estates and Lanipuna Gardens subdivisions, where mandatory evacuation orders have been in place for more than two weeks.<br />
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Hawaii Volcano Observatory scientists said the newest fissure in the area — no. 22 — opened on Friday morning between fissures 19 and 20. Meanwhile, four older fissures remain active and at least three are producing lava flows. <br />
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The incredible eruptive activity, which has been ramping up in recent days, comes as geologists say it remains unclear how long the eruptions will last.<br />
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Scientists have confirmed, though, that lava now spewing into lower Puna is new — from the quickly-emptying lava lake at Kilauea's summit crater some 20 miles away. The first eruptions into lower Puna were sending older lava from a 1955 flow into the community. <br />
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Residents, meanwhile, say the volcanic activity is taking a huge toll — day by day.<br />
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"It's been like hell," said resident Ikaika Marzo, who has been helping get much-needed information to those in lower Puna. <br />
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He described the sounds of lava in the area as 10 or 20 jets taking off at once and right in your backyard. "It's like huge grenades going off," he said. "It shakes the whole community."<br />
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The ongoing volcanic activity prompted civil defense authorities to urge extreme caution for anyone still in lava-ravaged areas.<br />
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"Leilani Estates evacuees must be alert to possible decreased availability of access," civil defense authorities said. "No access is allowed at his time for residents of Lanipuna Gardens due to high levels of dangerous volcanic gases."<br />
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Meanwhile, authorities continue to closely monitor activity at Kilauea's summit crater, where an explosive eruption Thursday spewed ash five miles into the air.<br />
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They're urging residents across the Ka'u District and Puna to be prepared for rapid changes in air quality because of the potential for ashfall or higher concentrations of sulfur dioxide.<br />
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On Thursday, heavy vog across lower Puna forced school closures. But the return of winds Friday meant volcanic emissions weren't leading to high concentrations of sulfur dioxide. <br />
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Jim Kauahikaua, USGS geophysicist, said the amount of gas spewing from outbreaks in Leilani Estates and nearby Lanipuna Gardens is about the same as the amount that comes out of Halemaumau Crater. The difference? The crater isn't in the middle of residential communities.<br />
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"The thing to remember is this is putting out as much sulfur dioxide as Halemaumau does normally," he said. <br />
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Geologists are also monitoring widening cracks in a number of roadways in Leilani Estates, ground zero for the ongoing eruptions.<br />
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Steve Brantley, of the USGS, said the large cracks, which have torn roads apart in some places or created gaps of 1 yard or wider, are an indication that magma is continuing to enter the rift zone.<br />
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"The rift zone is being forced apart," he said. "I think clearly it points to the potential for additional eruptive activity" in lower Puna. <br />
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Marzo said he saw a crack on Nohea Street widen from about 3 feet on Thursday morning to about 10 feet wide later in the day. He also said that about 40 yards of the road sank. <br />
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"These cracks are definitely taking a toll on people getting to their homes," he said.<br />
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The developments underscore the scope of the disaster in the area, which has upended lives, destroyed homes and shows no signs of stopping. <br />
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In lower Puna, residents say the eruptions have turned their community into a "war zone." <br />
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"Everything is so uncertain. It's really nerve-wracking," said Debbie Kalaluhi, who can see the ongoing eruption of fissure no. 17 from her backyard. "You're very on edge. You have to really see it to believe it."<br />
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Mandatory evacuations remain in place for the Leilani Estates and Lanipuna Gardens subdivisions, home to about 2,000 people. About 250 people are staying at three American Red Cross emergency shelters, while hundreds more residents are staying with friends and family.<br />
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Talmadge Magno, Hawaii County Civil Defense administrator, said Thursday that about 20 homes remain occupied in Leilani Estates — a fact that he expects will change as volcanic activity continues to cut off roads, gobble up utility lines and send toxic fumes into the air.<br />
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"Lava has a way of moving people," he said. <br />
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Meanwhile, authorities continue to urge thousands living elsewhere in Kilauea's east rift zone to be prepared to evacuate quickly.<br />
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A presidential disaster declaration has been issued for the ongoing Kilauea eruptions, which have changed the landscape of a Big Island community, destroying dozens of homes, covering roads and gobbling up utility lines.<br />
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Tina Neal, USGS scientist-in-charge at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, has said there's no's telling how long the eruptions will continue.<br />
</div>

Hawaii Volcano Shoots Up Smoke and Ash as a New Crack Opens

Activity in the lower East Rift Zone ramped up overnight and this morning. During an overflight, HVO scientists observed a very activ...

Hawaii's Kilauea Is One of the World's Most Active Volcanoes but Less Deadly Than Others

Hawaii, Tectonic, volcano 2:45 PM

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<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">It's a so-called shield volcano, which is typically broader in shape and has lava that is relatively fluid.</span></span></h3>
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Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano spewed ash 30,000 feet above the island on Thursday, but while it remains one of the most active volcanoes in the world, experts say the type of eruptions that are occurring in Hawaii now are inherently less deadly than some of the biggest in history.<br />
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“What we’re seeing at Kilauea is interaction between groundwater and hot rock,” said Michael Poland, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Vancouver, Washington. “These can be quite impressive, and you certainly don’t want to be in the vicinity of these explosions, but they don’t have the force to sustain huge eruptions.”<br />
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Historically, Kilauea’s rumblings have not been as deadly as other volcanoes around the world, said Steve Malone, an emeritus research professor of volcanology at the University of Washington in Seattle.<br />
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“With the Hawaiian volcanoes, you get that nice, red runny stuff, but they’re generally not nearly as explosive,” Malone said.<br />
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This is because Kilauea is a so-called shield volcano, which is typically broader in shape and has lava that is relatively fluid. On the other hand, stratovolcanoes — which include Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines and Mount St. Helens in Washington State — are usually taller and have more viscous lava flows with trapped gas that can generate volatile explosions.<br />
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“With stratovolcanoes, when that lava reaches the surface, you get a very sudden expansion of that gas, and this generates a much more violent explosion,” Malone said.<br />
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Mount Pinatubo last erupted in 1991, killing more than 350 people in what became the second-largest eruption of the 20th century. Mount St. Helens last rumbled to life in 2004, but a massive eruption in 1980 killed 57 people and blew ash over a dozen states.<br />
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Volcanologists aren’t expecting Kilauea’s eruptions to be nearly as dangerous, but they could still pose a threat. As the volcano continues to erupt, the lava lake at Kilauea’s summit is draining below the water table, allowing groundwater to seep into the system.<br />
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“When that happens, the groundwater gets superheated, flashes to steam and can generate big explosions,” Malone said. Last week, scientists said that if Kilauea’s lava lake drains too fast, it could trigger explosions that hurl refrigerator-size boulders into the air.<br />
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Thursday's eruption, which occurred before dawn, produced an impressive ash plume, but otherwise caused minimal damage to surrounding areas. Authorities issued an ash advisory that lasted until noon, but did not report any other immediate risks.<br />
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Kilauea has been erupting continuously since 1983 and an uptick in volcanic activity that began two weeks ago has already destroyed at least 26 homes and caused thousands of residents to evacuate. Eruptions are expected to continue over the coming days.<br />
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 <u><i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">NBC UNIVERSAL</span></i></u></div>

Hawaii's Kilauea Is One of the World's Most Active Volcanoes but Less Deadly Than Others

It's a so-called shield volcano, which is typically broader in shape and has lava that is relatively fluid. Hawaii’s Kilau...

1,000-foot-long Fissure Opens on Hawaii’s Kilauea Volcano Amid Fears of an Explosive Eruption

Hawaii, Lava, News 8:59 PM

1,000-foot-long Fissure Opens on Hawaii’s Kilauea Volcano Amid Fears of an Explosive Eruption

Photo: Terray Sylvester/reuters Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano might be “getting ready for an explosion that could scatter ash and debris f...

Hawaii's Kilauea Volcano Just Exploded

Hawaii, News, volcano 2:06 PM

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">PAHOA, Hawaii, May 17 (Reuters) - Hawaii's Kilauea volcano spewed ash nearly six miles (9 km) into the sky</td></tr>
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An explosive eruption at Hawaii's Kilauea volcano early Thursday created an enormous ash plume that prompted the closure of schools and forced residents to remain indoors as a light ash rained over the surrounding area on the eastern edge of the island.<br />
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The ash plume rose as high as 30,000 feet and drifted northeast over the Big Island of Hawaii, Hawaii County officials and the U.S. Geological Survey said. "You should shelter in place if you are in the path of the ash plume," county officials said.<br />
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The explosion lasted only a few minutes, meaning the volume of ash produced was relatively small, USGS volcano scientist Michelle Coombs told reporters at a televised news conference. Rain has helped contain the ash, keeping it close to the volcano's summit area.<br />
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"If it's a short event, it's just going to have less time to put stuff into the clouds," Coombs said. "This is the kind of event we have been expecting might happen."<br />
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A webcam at the Hawaii Volcano Observatory caught the aftermath of the short-lived eruption: an onslaught of wet, dusty ash raining on a darkened landscape.<br />
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From the summit of Mauna Loa volcano, 20 miles (32 km) away, cameras photographed an anvil-shaped plume billowing on the horizon.<br />
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In a news conference, scientist Michelle Coombs of the US Geological Survey said the activity could become explosive again.<br />
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"It's a real dynamic situation up there," she said of the summit.<br />
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Scientists had warned for days about a major eruption as the lava lake that once filled the crater at Kīlauea's summit began draining back into the ground.<br />
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Their concern was that the sinking molten rock would create steam as it interacted with the water table and that the steam would then jet upward, hurling heavy rocks and ash into the sky in a phenomenon known as a phreatic eruption.<br />
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"This is the sort of explosive activity that was anticipated," said USGS geophysicist Mike Poland, who was based at Kīlauea from 2005 to 2015. "It's not going to be the only one. Very likely there will be additional events."<br />
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Hawaii Volcanoes National Park officials said the caldera - the depression at the center of the volcano - dropped more than three feet (900 cm) overnight, triggering frequent earthquakes that have cracked highways in the area.<br />
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As the caldera sinks further, it may set off additional steam-driven explosions, they said.<br />
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Though dramatic, Thursday's eruption at 4:15 am local time did not pose an immediate threat to people in the vicinity, Poland said.<br />
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Observatory staff had left their Kīlauea station Wednesday, for a facility at the University of Hawaii at Hilo, after concluding that wind could carry ashfall their way.<br />
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According to Poland, the greatest impact was to an area within a few hundred yards of the summit's eruptive vent.<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
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USGS scientists use Ash3D computer simulations to show how far ash might travel and how much ash might fall to the ground. This graphic shows today's simulation (May 17) for the explosive eruption at Kīlauea’s summit. <a href="https://t.co/Ds1pWnFRVw">https://t.co/Ds1pWnFRVw</a> <a href="https://t.co/hGCoTBon1X">pic.twitter.com/hGCoTBon1X</a></div>
— USGS Volcanoes🌋 (@USGSVolcanoes) <a href="https://twitter.com/USGSVolcanoes/status/997160054586466304?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 17, 2018</a></blockquote>
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That's where the explosion would have sent hot gas and 1,000-pound (450 kg) rocks soaring. For this reason, the national park has been closed since last week.<br />
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Wind is already carrying the plume from the eruption northeast, raining ash into nearby communities. Broadcasting on local radio stations, Hawaii Civil Defense officials warned that ash poses the main health threat from the eruption.<br />
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Residents were instructed to shelter in place if they found themselves in the path of the plume.<br />
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Depending on weather conditions, the USGS said, ash might fall as far as Hilo, 30 miles (50 km) to the northeast.<br />
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The observatory also warned that vog - a noxious smog formed when sulfur dioxide from eruptive vents interacts with water vapor and oxygen in the air - has been reported in the community of Pahala, southwest of the volcano.<br />
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Meanwhile, stormy weather caused the ash to mix with rain, creating a dark paste that coated rooftops and car windshields.<br />
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In the village of Volcano, barely three miles from the summit, lifelong resident Lance Benevides went through the familiar protocol to cope with an eruption, including detaching his roof gutters from his water tank to keep ash out of the catchment system that serves as his water supply.<br />
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Then he headed to the Volcano Store, a local gathering spot, where he sat with friends and sipped coffee Thursday morning - a ritual not even Kīlauea could disturb. "We all live in a circle around this volcano," said Benevides, 55. "So we know what to do."<br />
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Though disruptive, even painful for people living near Kīlauea - especially those who have already lost their homes - the eruption will not significantly affect life on the rest of the Big Island, Poland said.<br />
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"And it is not likely to turn into some catastrophic event," he added. <br />
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Kīlauea, a massive shield volcano on Hawaii's Big Island, is the site of the world's longest ongoing eruption, one that has oozed lava since 1983.<br />
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But in recent weeks the volcano has become particularly restless. About 20 fissures opened in communities along the volcano's eastern slopes, prompting evacuations of nearly 2,000 residents and engulfing dozens of homes in lava.<br />
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In another news conference Thursday, the deputy scientist in charge of the Hawaii Volcano Observatory, Steve Brantley, said the lava flows in the east rift zone have slowed in recent days.<br />
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But observatory instruments have recorded "extreme deformation" of the ground in that area. One GPS instrument moved half a foot in 24 hours, a sign of the turmoil in the earth below.<br />
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"It's an indication the rift zone is being forced apart," Brantley said. <br />
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All that activity along the east rift zone caused a dramatic depressurization of the magma column below Kīlauea's summit, slowly draining the lava lake in the summit crater. In recent days, smaller eruptions there sent ash surging into the sky.<br />
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But those events were "not the big one" caused by interactions between hot rock and ground water, Coombs said Tuesday.<br />
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Thursday's event was, if not the big one, then certainly a big one, researchers said.<br />
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As the molten rock dropped below the level of the water table, it's likely that water in the surrounding rock began pouring into the vacated chamber - much the way water rushes to fill a recently dug well, said Charlotte Rowe, a geophysicist at Los Alamos National Laboratory.<br />
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The water would then flash into steam, "and steam as we know is a very powerful source of energy, a very powerful propellant," Rowe said. <br />
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Kīlauea has erupted in this manner before. In May 1924, the Hawaii Volcano Observatory reported more than 50 explosive events over the course of two-and-a-half weeks at the volcano's summit.<br />
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The lava lake had drained from the summit crater several months earlier - the scenario now being repeated. The eventual eruptions generated ash clouds more than five miles (8 km) high and threw blocks weighing as much as 28,000 pounds (12,700 kg) out of the crater.<br />
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One person was killed by falling debris from the largest eruption.<br />
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Coincidentally, Thursday's explosive event comes one day before the 94th anniversary of that death and on the 38th anniversary of the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens in Washington state.<br />
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What is happening at Kīlauea is fundamentally different from that 1980 eruption, experts said. Shield volcanoes like Kīlauea produce a runny, basaltic lava that does not tend to erupt as dramatically as steep stratovolcanos like Mount St. Helens.<br />
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Whereas St. Helens sits along the geologically active boundary of the Pacific Plate, Kīlauea and the other Hawaiian volcanoes are powered by a hot spot deep within Earth's mantle.<br />
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But phreatic eruptions can still pose a deadly threat to anyone near the eruptive vent - and they are extremely difficult to forecast, Poland said.<br />
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Eruptions involving magma offer warning signs for a potential evacuation, including inflation of the surrounding ground, seismic activity caused as rocks break and changes in the gases being vented.<br />
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Phreatic eruptions are "much more random," Poland said. More than 30 people were killed when a 2014 phreatic eruption at Japan's Mount Ontake caught them unaware near the summit.<br />
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In addition to monitoring the volcano's current activity, researchers are scouring data from Kīlauea's extensive monitoring network - of tiltmeters, seismometers, and ground and aerial gas detectors - in search of any changes that preceded Thursday's event.<br />
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Their hope is to pinpoint warning signs that could be used to predict phreatic eruptions in Hawaii and elsewhere.</div>

Hawaii's Kilauea Volcano Just Exploded

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Hawaii's Volcano Is Now Shooting 'Ballistic Blocks' And Causing Earthquakes

Hawaii, USA, volcano 8:49 PM

Hawaii's Volcano Is Now Shooting 'Ballistic Blocks' And Causing Earthquakes

People play golf the Kilauea volcano ash plume rises in the distance on Hawaii's Big Island. The Kilauea volcano in Hawaii has bee...