05-01-2018, 12:31 PM
I believe the evidence is mounting to suggest that one should take HVO and CD warnings very seriously. If you live anywhere along the Rift, from Pahoa, Leilani, etc., down to Kapoho I think it is a good time to take stock of your situation. Pack a go bag, make sure you have gas in your car, keep essentials close at hand, prepare to deal with pets and livestock, and be in touch with your ohana. In other words anticipate the possible outcomes and prepare for them. And, keep in mind, with many areas only having one road in and out it could become challenging to get anywhere very fast in the event of the need to evacuate.
Several things conspire to have me say as much. If one were to look at the data from the Puu Oo area itself one could believe things have calmed down. The earthquakes and tremor there have moderated and the tilt is flat. All this indicates no activity. As such one is left to wonder where’d the lava go? Also, when you look at the summit there is no indication of anything dramatic taking place. Even the earthquake swarm in and around Puu Oo appears to have died out, except for a slow but steady series of events all leading further to the east. What is striking, and sort of buried in all the data in that in all these years there has never been any reason to look at the seismicity east of Puu Oo (because there hasn’t been any) now (in the last 24 hours) there is plenty and it's increasing.
To better understand this look at the two links below. The first is to the last 48 hours of seismicity at Puu Oo, and can be seen on the STCD station here:
https://volcanoes.usgs.gov/vsc/captures/...CD-48h.png
The other is the last 48 hours of seismicity at the KLUD station which is located in the back (south side) of Leilani, and can be seen here:
https://volcanoes.usgs.gov/vsc/captures/...UD-48h.png
In the Puu Oo record you see the onset of the event yesterday, a furry of activity during the night and all day today it has been calming down to what is (at the time of this posting) a relatively quiet state. Whereas at the station in Leilani it seems inverted in that it indeed shows the onset of activity at Puu Oo but then increases through the night. And then this morning, rather than calming down as it does at Puu Ooo, as of about 9 this morning things have really picked up. There is by far not enough coverage in the Lower East Rift Zone to say anything definitive, and a myriad of reasons it could be something else, machine malfunction, interpretation errors (mine), a sever case of Chicken Littleism or some other unanticipated reason that this is not what I am describing. But, all told, I believe it is a good idea to ask yourself what you would do if an eruption were to start somewhere close to you.
Several things conspire to have me say as much. If one were to look at the data from the Puu Oo area itself one could believe things have calmed down. The earthquakes and tremor there have moderated and the tilt is flat. All this indicates no activity. As such one is left to wonder where’d the lava go? Also, when you look at the summit there is no indication of anything dramatic taking place. Even the earthquake swarm in and around Puu Oo appears to have died out, except for a slow but steady series of events all leading further to the east. What is striking, and sort of buried in all the data in that in all these years there has never been any reason to look at the seismicity east of Puu Oo (because there hasn’t been any) now (in the last 24 hours) there is plenty and it's increasing.
To better understand this look at the two links below. The first is to the last 48 hours of seismicity at Puu Oo, and can be seen on the STCD station here:
https://volcanoes.usgs.gov/vsc/captures/...CD-48h.png
The other is the last 48 hours of seismicity at the KLUD station which is located in the back (south side) of Leilani, and can be seen here:
https://volcanoes.usgs.gov/vsc/captures/...UD-48h.png
In the Puu Oo record you see the onset of the event yesterday, a furry of activity during the night and all day today it has been calming down to what is (at the time of this posting) a relatively quiet state. Whereas at the station in Leilani it seems inverted in that it indeed shows the onset of activity at Puu Oo but then increases through the night. And then this morning, rather than calming down as it does at Puu Ooo, as of about 9 this morning things have really picked up. There is by far not enough coverage in the Lower East Rift Zone to say anything definitive, and a myriad of reasons it could be something else, machine malfunction, interpretation errors (mine), a sever case of Chicken Littleism or some other unanticipated reason that this is not what I am describing. But, all told, I believe it is a good idea to ask yourself what you would do if an eruption were to start somewhere close to you.