Lava lovers, rejoice. A Hawaiian fire hose of lava that gushed for a whole month, and then seemed to disappear last week, has become visible again as it deposits even more liquefied rock into the ocean.
From an exposed tube in a sea cliff of a volcano near the island of Hawaii, hundreds of millions of gallons of lava have been streaming into the Pacific. The lava continues to cause explosive reactions with a superheated cloud of hydrochloric acid when it reaches the water. And there is still no sign of the formation of a delta that would stop the flow of lava.
The flow has a name — 61g — and from behind a cloud of steam, it continued to stream into the sea after the cliff partly collapsed on Thursday. Two days later, visitors on a tour boat exalted in the return of the show’s fluorescent violence.
“We don’t know for certain that the fire hose flow ever ended,” said Janet Babb, a geologist at the United States Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. The persistence of steam and explosions after the cliff’s collapse indicated that the flow had not halted, even though the view was obscured.
A show this long is extremely rare, drawn out by what geologists think is a sea too deep to allow the formation of a delta. (Picture the delta as an ice cream base of a sundae, with fudge flowing over it.) Without a rocky base to stop it, the lava continues to gush from the cliff.
Just how big the chunk of land was that crumbled into the sea last week is still unknown. But it sent out a huge wave with it.
So will Hawaii Volcanoes National Park adopt the lava fire hose into its daily attractions? That appears unlikely.
“It’s almost certain it will not become a permanent feature,” Ms. Babb said. “Lava tubes form. They’re active for a while, and then they change.”
Lava lovers, rejoice. A Hawaiian fire hose of lava that gushed for a whole month, and then seemed to disappear last week, has become visible again as it deposits even more liquefied rock into the ocean.
From an exposed tube in a sea cliff of a volcano near the island of Hawaii, hundreds of millions of gallons of lava have been streaming into the Pacific. The lava continues to cause explosive reactions with a superheated cloud of hydrochloric acid when it reaches the water. And there is still no sign of the formation of a delta that would stop the flow of lava.
The flow has a name — 61g — and from behind a cloud of steam, it continued to stream into the sea after the cliff partly collapsed on Thursday. Two days later, visitors on a tour boat exalted in the return of the show’s fluorescent violence.
“We don’t know for certain that the fire hose flow ever ended,” said Janet Babb, a geologist at the United States Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. The persistence of steam and explosions after the cliff’s collapse indicated that the flow had not halted, even though the view was obscured.
A show this long is extremely rare, drawn out by what geologists think is a sea too deep to allow the formation of a delta. (Picture the delta as an ice cream base of a sundae, with fudge flowing over it.) Without a rocky base to stop it, the lava continues to gush from the cliff.
Just how big the chunk of land was that crumbled into the sea last week is still unknown. But it sent out a huge wave with it.
So will Hawaii Volcanoes National Park adopt the lava fire hose into its daily attractions? That appears unlikely.
“It’s almost certain it will not become a permanent feature,” Ms. Babb said. “Lava tubes form. They’re active for a while, and then they change.”
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