Posted on: Saturday, July 2, 2005
Visitors barred from lava flow
By Timothy Hurley
Advertiser Staff Writer
Visitors hoping for a close look at Kilauea lava flowing into the ocean at Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park will have to wait.
Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park James Kauahikaua, head of the U.S. Geological Survey's Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, warned park administrators Thursday that a 25-acre bench at the East Lae'apuki ocean entry has developed numerous cracks and that a large collapse is imminent.
The greatest threat from such events comes when huge boulders and scalding steam are blasted inland. Park officials said bench collapses also can produce small, local tsunamis that can wash large rocks and overheated water back onto the land and knock spectators into the ocean.
With predictions of a new major collapse, visitors have been pushed back from the previous viewing boundary, park officials said. Visitors still will be able to see the ocean entry's steam plume from a distant, safer viewing area at the end of Chain of Craters Road, but they won't get a close-up look at the red-orange lava as it hits the water. They also can hike about 2 miles to an area where there small surface flows were spotted.
Beyond that point, the eruption site is closed. Park rangers warned hikers not to go past ropes or warning signs.
Hawaiian Volcano Observatory: http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov
Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park: www.nps.gov/havo Swanson reported yesterday that both the East Lae'apuki and East Kamoamoa ocean entries were active. Aerial observers said the delta at East Lae'apuki had grown larger than it was last week, despite the partial collapse Monday. The scar from the collapse has healed, officials said, obscuring any evidence of the event.
However, a number of large cracks extend along the delta parallel to the shoreline.
Kilauea has been erupting since 1983, but it is the spectacular ocean entries that have attracted thousands of visitors each day. Park staff said yesterday that in the past week, an average of 1,000 to 1,500 lava-watchers were visiting daily. The numbers are double and triple that when flows are close to the end of Chain of Craters Road, making viewing easier for most.
Before going to the site, visitors are advised to check with park rangers for current conditions.
Reach Timothy Hurley at thurley@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 244-4880.
Access to the area has been temporarily suspended because there is a greater chance that a major "lava bench" will collapse. Lava benches form when lava flows into the sea, creating new, unstable land. They can collapse without warning.
A large collapse is imminent at this newly formed 25-acre "lava bench" on the East Lae'apuki ocean entry of Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park, warned James Kauahikaua, scientist-in-charge of the U.S. Geological Survey's Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.
Hawaiian Volcano Observatory research scientist Don Swanson said that when the East Lae'apuki lava delta collapsed on Monday, lava gushed out onto the surface of the delta and then into the water. Fountains of lava about 80 feet high were reported spurting from the central part of the delta from 7:30 to 7:50 p.m.
Learn more:
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| Collapses can maim or kill
Some lava bench collapses along the coast in Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park: 1993: A Kona photographer entered a closed area and disappeared when a half-acre lava bench he was standing on dropped into the sea. More than a dozen people standing nearby were injured by flying debris. 1994: Two people standing near the water's edge at an ocean entry site were severely scalded by a sudden wave and required hospitalization. 1999: At the same section of coast where the current bench is expanding, a 25-acre chunk of shoreline collapsed without warning, taking the old sea cliff with it. Also: In 1996, a 27-acre bench dropped away, and a 13-acre bench collapsed in 2002. |
