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Hawaii residents shaken by quakes, brace for new lava outbreaks

May 12, 2018 10:35·
The Turrialba volcano spews smoke and ash in May 2016 in Cartago Costa Rica. Experts say it is the strongest eruption from the volcano in the past six years

The Turrialba volcano spews smoke and ash in May 2016 in Cartago Costa Rica. Experts say it is the strongest eruption from the volcano in the past six years

"If it goes up, it will come down", said Charles Mandeville, volcano hazards coordinator for the U.S. Geological Survey.

Scientists say active eruption of lava within the Leilani Estates remains paused.

The steady lowering of the lava lake within Halemaumau at the summit of Kilauea Volcano has increased the potential for explosive eruptions in the coming weeks.

No one lives in the immediate area of the summit crater, the crater and surrounding region are a part of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, which planned to close Friday.

It's uncertain how big the explosions could be but scientists have said that Hawaii's Kilauea volcano appears to be mimicking behavior last seen in 1924.

High levels of acidic particles in vog "can induce asthma attacks, especially in adolescents, and can also impede the ability of the upper respiratory tract to remove other potentially harmful particles", the USGS says.

"We know what people are going through in Leilani Estates".

But the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park will be closed Friday until further notice, because officials are anxious one of those steam-driven explosions could happen.

The volcano has already been oozing lava, which has gobbled up roads and homes and emitted unsafe gases. Those types of big blowouts usually take place in stratovolcanoes, steep-sided, cone-shaped volcanoes where pressure builds up in a central vent until the mountain pops in a dramatic explosion.

Kilauea, the longest-erupting volcano on the planet, has displaced some 1,700 people and destroyed 36 structures since a shifting flow of underground magma last week burst through the surface in a residential neighborhood about 40 miles from the top of the volcano, unleashing torrents of molten rock and toxic gases. Fifteen of the vents are now spread through the Leilani Estates and neighboring Lanipuna Gardens neighborhoods.

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"I'm grateful for the quick approval of my request for a presidential disaster declaration", Gov. David Ige said, in a news release.

He says it would be "very hazardous" if a volcanic vent were to open under the facility where the fuel is stored.

The problem lies at the summit of Kilauea, where a lava lake has been draining quickly at a rate of about 6.5 feet per hour, dropping 970 feet below the surface over the past week.

About 2,000 people have been evacuated from the neighborhoods were lava has oozed from the ground.

Don Swanson, a geologist with the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, said the magma is likely to drop below the water table around the middle of the month.

The explosions would "provide very little warning", officials say, and could send "ballistic projectiles" - from the size of small pebbles to giant rocks - into the sky. "I've been in many of them in Alaska and what I recall being the most hard part is keeping it out of your eyes, so wearing goggles if you have to go out, and be particularly careful if you wear contacts, because if ash gets behind the contacts, it can actually scratch your eye".

That explosion killed one person and sent rocks, ash and dust into the air for 17 days.

Once the lava drops, rocks that had been superheated could fall into the lava tube. If the lava column drops to groundwater level, water could rush into the void and create large, steam-driven explosions.

Other dangers persist, not only in the form of lava but also earthquakes and newly formed cracks.

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