Kilauea: what’s next?

[Space Karen]

Every year the hotspot should inch its way further southeast.

The direction of the last flow was a statistical anomaly.

Which should make a shift in the opposite direction more likely.

The whole island is made up of lava flows. That means they went east, west, north, south, and everywhere in between. You can't have an island that only has a north shore for example.

How on earth was the last flow a statistical anomaly?

Kauai, oahu and all of the other islands were created by the same hot spot under kilauea now.

The pacific plate moves north west over time. But the hot spot of eruptions stays in the same place. This is why Big Island is the newest and youngest island. Kauai, furthest north west, is the oldest. Kauai used to be over the place kilauea is now. The massive plate of rock under the islands is moving slowly north west.

Making the trend of eruptions south east. 

If I remember right, the 2018 eruption was a bit northward. Making it an anomaly.

If you remember, right?

Kilauea has been erupting for hundreds and thousands of years and is one of, if not, the most active volcano on the planet. How was the last flow an anomaly? How was the last eruption a bit northward? North from where?

Please, just do your best to make sense in your response. We all know the Pacific plate is moving NW and so the hot spot appears to move to the SE, but that has no relevance to the direction of the last lava flow. The lava flows downhill from wherever it erupts, it doesn't care where the hotspot is.

If you look at a map of oahu mountain ranges, you can see they all mirror the southeast motion of the hotspot.

All of the islands stretch diagonally northwest to southeastern in shape.

Looking at the shape of things.

It makes observational sense to say most eruptions occur in that direction.