The Kilauea volcano has entered its second week of the current eruptive activity. A lava lake has developed on the floor of the crater and is evolving rapidly. This 3:45 video from Big Island Video News and the USGS has fantastic footage of crustal rafting, doming, and other processes that are common in these type of eruptions. There are also thermal images included. Watch the video here.
Great video - thanks Wayne! This new eruption is so cool! (And -- I have written a blog post about it to be published on 1/7 -- hard to resist enthusing about a new eruption, especially when such great images are available!)
ReplyDeleteWhat can we lay-folks learn from this? Would an eruption of the Yellowstone hot-spot look like this? What are the behavioral differences between oceanic plate hot-spots and continental plate hot-spots? Would a plate stretching flow look like this? Did the Arizona House Mountain and I17 ramp flows look like this?
ReplyDeleteChris - I think my main purpose in sharing this video was merely to generate excitement for what active basaltic volcanism looks like. What I learned from it is not so much how eruptions mature and evolve, but rather the beauty in such eruptions. It is relatively rare to get such good, extended video since eruptions tend to be dangerous in some instances. A typical Yellowstone eruption (super volcano) would be much more explosive, since those lavas are more viscous and the gas must escape more violently. I'm not knowledgable enough to comment on hot-spot volcanism vs, continental volcanic,. But certainly, the eruptions at House Mt. and the I-17 ramp in northern Arizona may have taken on very similar characteristics to what is seen in this video. Thanks for your interest!
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