09-21-2014, 05:23 AM
quote:
freespirit: If Hilo or Kailua Kona are threatened by lava flows, the only effort at diversion might be for protection of essential facilities - Hilo Hospital, for example. Aside from those, lava will be allowed to go where it will - there is a Lava Flow Mitigation Plan, developed some years ago, that has stated that policy.
Ok thank you - the prior flows toward Hilo must have been headed for some essentail facilites in 1935, 1942 and 1981.
Explosives were first suggested as a means to divert lava flows threatening Hilo, Hawaii during the eruption of 1881. They were first used in 1935, without significant success, when the Army Air Force bombed an active pahoehoe channel and tube system on Mauna Loa’s north flank. Channel walls of a Mauna Loa flow were also bombed in 1942, but again there were no significant effects. The locations of the 1935 and 1942 bomb impact areas were determined and are shown for the first time, and the bombing effects are documented. Three days after the 1942 bombing the spatter cone surrounding the principal vent partially collapsed by natural processes, and caused the main flow advancing on Hilo to cease movement. This suggested that spatter cones might be a suitable target for future lava diversion attempts.