05-02-2018, 07:39 AM
For those playing armchair volcanology…
The most interesting thing I see this morning is that the GPS line across Puu Oo that was the one data source pointing to the changes we are now witnessing long before they began, is still extending at a very rapid pace. Where, if the ongoing event were to be limited to what we’ve already seen, the collapse of the lava lake and subsequent relatively small and slow intrusion into the eastern extension of the rift, I would have thought that the area around Puu Oo would be deflating, and as such the line being measured getting shorter. In fact I had expected this line to contract substantial. But no, according to this information, as seen here:
https://volcanoes.usgs.gov/vsc/captures/...s_year.png
the line continues to lengthen. And, if anything, is actually still extending faster over time. This, along with the continuing over inflated summit and heightened level of the Halemaumau lava lake, suggests the ongoing intrusion into lower Puna may only be a harbinger of more to come.
On another, more focused on what is happening currently in Lower Puna note…
As I did yesterday when I suggested comparing the STCD station out at Puu Oo
https://volcanoes.usgs.gov/vsc/captures/...CD-48h.png
with the KLUD station on the South of Leilani
https://volcanoes.usgs.gov/vsc/captures/...UD-48h.png
to see the migration of the intrusion from one to the other in the hours proceeding my post.
Today I would add the PHOD station
https://volcanoes.usgs.gov/vsc/captures/...OD-48h.png
which is at the geothermal plant, as a third part of the evolving story.
Looking at that station one can see that the intrusion is now most pronounced there rather than how it was earlier in Leilani and earlier still at Puu Oo.
Though, even the activity at PHOD looks to be waning. The humbug is there are no other seismic stations available online further east. So the question remains unanswerable as to whether this is because the intrusion has moved further to the east or it is dying out? The one thing that might suggest an answer is the earthquakes themselves, and at the time of this writing they continue but have not migrated any further east than the PHOD station.
The odd thing about the earthquakes, as seen on HVO’s website here
https://volcanoes.usgs.gov/observatories...uakes.html
is that several of them are now being reported as having depths in the negative numbers. Such as this event that happened at the very eastern end of Leilani just before 11am this morning:
Coordinates:-154.894165, 19.4666672
Depth: -0.5 km (-0.3 mi)
Magnitude: 1.83
Date:2018-05-02 10:59:41 local
2018-05-02 20:59:41 UTC
That’s awfully close to the surface!
The most interesting thing I see this morning is that the GPS line across Puu Oo that was the one data source pointing to the changes we are now witnessing long before they began, is still extending at a very rapid pace. Where, if the ongoing event were to be limited to what we’ve already seen, the collapse of the lava lake and subsequent relatively small and slow intrusion into the eastern extension of the rift, I would have thought that the area around Puu Oo would be deflating, and as such the line being measured getting shorter. In fact I had expected this line to contract substantial. But no, according to this information, as seen here:
https://volcanoes.usgs.gov/vsc/captures/...s_year.png
the line continues to lengthen. And, if anything, is actually still extending faster over time. This, along with the continuing over inflated summit and heightened level of the Halemaumau lava lake, suggests the ongoing intrusion into lower Puna may only be a harbinger of more to come.
On another, more focused on what is happening currently in Lower Puna note…
As I did yesterday when I suggested comparing the STCD station out at Puu Oo
https://volcanoes.usgs.gov/vsc/captures/...CD-48h.png
with the KLUD station on the South of Leilani
https://volcanoes.usgs.gov/vsc/captures/...UD-48h.png
to see the migration of the intrusion from one to the other in the hours proceeding my post.
Today I would add the PHOD station
https://volcanoes.usgs.gov/vsc/captures/...OD-48h.png
which is at the geothermal plant, as a third part of the evolving story.
Looking at that station one can see that the intrusion is now most pronounced there rather than how it was earlier in Leilani and earlier still at Puu Oo.
Though, even the activity at PHOD looks to be waning. The humbug is there are no other seismic stations available online further east. So the question remains unanswerable as to whether this is because the intrusion has moved further to the east or it is dying out? The one thing that might suggest an answer is the earthquakes themselves, and at the time of this writing they continue but have not migrated any further east than the PHOD station.
The odd thing about the earthquakes, as seen on HVO’s website here
https://volcanoes.usgs.gov/observatories...uakes.html
is that several of them are now being reported as having depths in the negative numbers. Such as this event that happened at the very eastern end of Leilani just before 11am this morning:
Coordinates:-154.894165, 19.4666672
Depth: -0.5 km (-0.3 mi)
Magnitude: 1.83
Date:2018-05-02 10:59:41 local
2018-05-02 20:59:41 UTC
That’s awfully close to the surface!