June 4, 2018 Lava Hits Kapoho Bay
Kilauea Volcano’s Fissure #8 continues blasting hundreds of feet into the air, sending hot liquid rock downslope some six miles to Kapoho Bay. She entered the water last night and is tearing through the beach community of Kapoho Beach Lots on the Big Island of Hawaii. Home after home is being consumed in the exclusive gated community, as Pele continues her relentless march over the lower Puna area. This is the distal tip of the Leilani Estates lava flow, which began with an eruption in that subdivision just over a month ago. She has now destroyed hundreds of structures, covered miles of roads and blanketed thousands of acres of property. The fissure continues to issue huge volumes of hot rock into a lava river, running across the subdivision and collecting in a gigantic perched pond (storage area), which feeds lava downslope to Kapoho. The flow front has now cut off several roads here, leaving many residents stranded. Road crews are working feverishly to open new routes. Additionally, several fingers of lava are now stretching to the northeast, toward an area known as Waa Waa. She entered Green Lake last Saturday, evaporated the water with her fiery flow, sending a plume skyward, then destroyed houses and other structures in the agricultural area across the street. She continued to Kapoho Beach Lots… Vacationland to the south may be next. Back upslope, earlier flows headed East-Northeast of concern to residents of Nanawale and Hawaiian Beaches/Shores continue to be stalled out… nearly all the activity is now in the channelized river, or oozing out here and there from small breaches in the walls of the pond. That perched pond however, holds a vast amount of lava… and should a major breach occur, could send volumes of red hot lava streaming in almost any direction. As I’ve said many times, I’m a volcanographer, NOT a volcanologist… so these are merely my personal observations… please take them for what they are worth.
Mahalo to Paradise Helicopters and Bruce Omori at Extreme Exposure