Kilauea Eruption Adding Area to Hawaii’s Big Island

Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano continues to erupt, spreading a layer of lava which has added about 700 acres of fresh land to the Big Island. Kilauea has been erupting continuously since May 3, spraying lava through several vents along the flanks of the main cone. These lava flows have destroyed more than 700 homes and one charter school, so far, according to Hawaii News Now. Hundreds more homes are either damaged or inaccessible because of the six-mile chain of lava vents along the slope of the cone. About 1,500 people have been evacuated. The largest and most active fissure is identified by USGS as Fissure 8. It has formed a cone of cooled lava and cinders 180 feet tall—a new mini–volcano on the slopes of Kilauea, which is itself a volcanic protrusion on the side of Mauna Loa. Lava had covered more than 6,100 acres of the island, USGS reports, and continues to flow out of Fissure 8 at a rate of approximately 100 cubic meters per second. Lava has been flowing into the ocean along a 3.7-mile front, creating huge toxic clouds of steaming “laze” or lava haze, a cloud of water and hydrochloric acid filled with tiny particles of volcanic glass. The ongoing lave flows have created 700 acres of new land in Kapoho Bay, CBS reported.  Hawaii News Now reports that a new island has formed as well. No one will be selling the new territory as prime real estate any time soon. The twisted black landscape of cooling lava, swept by clouds of caustic steam, could be a vision of Hades. To decrease the appeal even further, the area is subject to lava explosions, when balls of lava hit the sea and steam pressure sets them off like bombs. The latest such explosion, on July 16, injured 23 passengers on a tour boat sight-seeing too near the lava flow. Meanwhile, the actual cone of the volcano is shrinking. As magma—molten rock—flows out of the several vents on the volcano’s flank, the pocket under the peak shrink. The cone also explodes regularly. Civil Defense officials say the last explosion, at 11:45 a.m. on July 16, released the amount of energy of a magnitude 6.5 earthquake, Hawaii News Now reported.