Rocks fell into the Kilauea Volcano lava lake on two consecutive days this week, triggering spatter.
Rocks fell into the Kilauea Volcano lava lake on two consecutive days this week, triggering spatter.
“A section of the rim of the vent, the rock rim, rocks fell in. And when that happens, there’s a gas release — and when that happens, that propels fragments of molten lava,” said Hawaiian Volcano Observatory geologist Janet Babb.
The first rockfall happened about 7:30 a.m. Wednesday and the second about 12:30 p.m. Thursday.
HVO said Friday that “there were two small explosions from the lake in the past two days, one on Wednesday morning and a slightly larger one on Thursday afternoon. Wednesday’s was triggered by a rockfall into the lake, and Thursday’s by the collapse of a slice of the crater rim.”
Pele’s hair(http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/volcanowatch/view.php?id=460), thin strands of volcanic glass, likely occurred. But that’s not unusual.
“It’s very fine and looks like human hair,” Babb said. “That’s some of the normal part of spattering on the lava-lake surface.” Explosions from falling rock caused spatter, small pieces of rock fragments, to land on a closed section of Crater Rim Drive.
The lava lake was measured at just 20 feet below the floor of Halema‘uma‘u Crater, the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory reported. But it was dropping Friday morning.
“The biggest concern during these explosive events are these larger fragments,” Babb said.
This week, a fragment reached the area where the old Crater Rim Drive parking lot is located. Visitors used to park there and hike into the crater until sulfur dioxide gas emissions required closure of the parking area for safety reasons.
“Now we have these other hazards, including these explosive events,” Babb said.
Email Jeff Hansel at jhansel@HawaiiTribune-Herald.com.