As many of you know the volcano, Muana Loa, started erupting again the other day. This may have been buried a bit in the news as the threat for severe weather recently was making all of the headlines.
Here is the latest from the USGS this morning:
The Northeast Rift Zone eruption of Mauna Loa continues, with two active fissures feeding lava flows downslope. Fissure 3 remains the dominant source of the largest lava flow. The fissure 3 lava flows are traveling to the north toward the Daniel K. Inouye Highway (Saddle Road) but have reached relatively flatter ground and have slowed down significantly as expected. Advance of the largest flow slowed over the past 24 hours to a rate of 0.025 miles per hour (40 meters per hour). As of 7 a.m. HST today, the flow front is about 3.4 miles (5.4 km) from the Daniel K. Inouye Highway (Saddle Road). Advance rates may be highly variable over the coming days and weeks due to the way lava is emplaced on flat ground. At the rate observed over the past 24 hours, the earliest the lava flow might be expected to reach the Daniel K. Inouye Highway (Saddle Road) is one week. However, there are many variables at play and both the direction and timing of flow advance are fluid and are expected to change over periods of hours to days.
Fissure 4 is still active with lava flows moving toward the northeast at a rate of 0.04 miles per hour (60 meters per hour). The northeast fissure 4 lava flow crossed the Mauna Loa Weather Observatory road overnight. A small lobe is moving to the east from fissure 4 at a slower rate than the main lobe. Volcanic gas plumes are lofting high and vertically into the atmosphere. Pele’s hair (strands of volcanic glass) is falling in the Humu‘ula Saddle area.
Our seismic monitoring detects tremor (high rates of earthquakes) in the location of the currently active fissures. This indicates that magma is still being supplied, and activity is likely to continue as long as we see this signal.
I’m lucky enough to know someone who lives ‘down the road’ from the volcano and he sneaked down there the other morning and snapped a few photos before sunrise…
And just the other night, he snapped this picture.
This one may even make for a really cool wallpaper on background of my phone!
The USGS notes that no property is currently at risk, which is great news. But the eruption is expected to continue.
