09-07-2007, 02:14 PM
glen - you said "...the vent would have to pick up the pace, and pump up the volume." and this is not the case. the amount of lava being erupted is actually pretty high by the standards set by the last 25 years. what is keeping the flows from leaving the immediate area is the lack of a tube system. and I believe that it is only a matter of time before one develops. during kupaianaha the same sequence played out, and if that was any indicator I suspect that in the next month or two we will see the beginning of one take shape. but until that happens we can hope that it doesn't.
robguz - your observation that during the 83 - 86 period the lava did not venture any further from the vent than it is now misses one fundamental point, which is that during that time we had 47 different eruptions that on average happened once every three weeks and only lasted less than a day each. these eruptions put out more than 10 million cubic meters of lava in one day, but the lava was all aa flows and because the eruptions were so short they were not able to get very far.
robguz - your observation that during the 83 - 86 period the lava did not venture any further from the vent than it is now misses one fundamental point, which is that during that time we had 47 different eruptions that on average happened once every three weeks and only lasted less than a day each. these eruptions put out more than 10 million cubic meters of lava in one day, but the lava was all aa flows and because the eruptions were so short they were not able to get very far.