12-21-2020, 04:22 PM
“Until we have a better understanding of where the water is coming from, it’s difficult to forecast what could happen next,” Janet Babb, a geologist with the Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, wrote in an email.
Babb does not believe that anything unusual will happen in the next weeks or months, but she says it’s likely that lava will return to Halema’uma’u. Lava could enter the crater to form another lava lake, or it could react violently with the water and create explosions if the lava rapidly rises through the water.
“Water plus heat (from magma/lava) makes steam, and steam can expand tremendously, which can break up lava into small bits and hurl them into the air,” Babb wrote.”
https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/06/us/hawaii...index.html
Babb does not believe that anything unusual will happen in the next weeks or months, but she says it’s likely that lava will return to Halema’uma’u. Lava could enter the crater to form another lava lake, or it could react violently with the water and create explosions if the lava rapidly rises through the water.
“Water plus heat (from magma/lava) makes steam, and steam can expand tremendously, which can break up lava into small bits and hurl them into the air,” Babb wrote.”
https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/06/us/hawaii...index.html