04-28-2018, 05:33 AM
Considering the continuing and rapidly increasing ground deformation at Puu Oo, as seen on HVO’s GPS - Puu Oo Cone graph, one has to wonder just how much longer we will wait for the onset of the next phase of surface activity out on the East Rift Zone.
For reference the HVO Deformation page is here:
https://volcanoes.usgs.gov/volcanoes/kil...ation.html
and the specific plot I am referencing, besides being shown as the fifth plot on the page linked above, can be seen by itself (and larger) here:
https://volcanoes.usgs.gov/vsc/captures/...s_year.png
Looking at that plot one notes that the distance being measured across Puu Oo has lengthened by almost 5 inches in the last 6 weeks. This is a phenomenal amount of extension. Greater than either of the two events of this nature we have had in the last five years. Far greater than the last event that recorded only 1/3 of what has now been recorded.
Most recently, in the last week, the data shows a rapid acceleration of extension. So much so that the current rate is well over a quarter of an inch a day. Considering that, and the amount of pressure it takes to do that, and that the backed up pressure has, at least in part, contributed to the remarkable increase in magma stored in the summit chamber (as seen with the current heightened state of the Halemaumau Lava Lake and its repeated overflows on to Halemaumau’s floor) one can imagine that the eruption that is most likely only a few days away, will be spectacular at its onset, when all that pent up magma is released.
For reference the HVO Deformation page is here:
https://volcanoes.usgs.gov/volcanoes/kil...ation.html
and the specific plot I am referencing, besides being shown as the fifth plot on the page linked above, can be seen by itself (and larger) here:
https://volcanoes.usgs.gov/vsc/captures/...s_year.png
Looking at that plot one notes that the distance being measured across Puu Oo has lengthened by almost 5 inches in the last 6 weeks. This is a phenomenal amount of extension. Greater than either of the two events of this nature we have had in the last five years. Far greater than the last event that recorded only 1/3 of what has now been recorded.
Most recently, in the last week, the data shows a rapid acceleration of extension. So much so that the current rate is well over a quarter of an inch a day. Considering that, and the amount of pressure it takes to do that, and that the backed up pressure has, at least in part, contributed to the remarkable increase in magma stored in the summit chamber (as seen with the current heightened state of the Halemaumau Lava Lake and its repeated overflows on to Halemaumau’s floor) one can imagine that the eruption that is most likely only a few days away, will be spectacular at its onset, when all that pent up magma is released.