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Volcano Acting Up #5: Pulsing Incandescence
#1
E Huli Makou! Let’s all turn around, and face the towering plume with its ruddy --and now pulsing-- incandescence! Best to see it at night when the wind circles around you and the sky is criss-crossed with leis of stars! Guide us Hokulea!

Went up for a concert of ukulele, steel guitar, bass and hula at the military camp on the volcano last weekend. The event was notable for the quality and quantity of the hula presented . The ladies and gentlemen were all extraordinary and illustrated, once again, that it is the spirit that animates the body and that the hula is the best dance to illuminate the spirit. It was so fun and eerie to go to a theatre set down in such close proximity to a field of steaming vents. They were doing the hula while all around them the island appeared to be burning.

After the concert, we went over to the Jagger museum to gaze down at the Halema’uma’u vent in the enormous Kilauea Caldera. There were few souls there. We used a flickering flashlight (pulsing incandescence?) to make our way to the overlook. A chill and erratic wind was blowing, swirling. You could easily imagine being blown into the giant maw of the Caldera. Thankfully, the giant plume was bent over toward the Southwest and away from me (so sorry, Pahala). The base of the plume glowed very red. It was fascinating and horrific. The night was nearly cloudless and the stars were very bright. You could see very far down into the crater, and very high up in the sky. It made me want to do a vamp.

HVO reports today that Kilauea and Pu’u’ O’o are both inflating. This inflation is accompanied by “increased ash production, increased amplitude of seismic tremor bursts, and increased intensity of vent incandescence at the summit.” The previously steady incandescence of the base of the plume at Halema’uma’u is now a “pulsing incandescence.” Seismic tremor levels, HVO reports, are at moderate levels with “episodic bursts increasing in intensity and reaching elevated values.” Some tremors now last for a very long period (VLP tremors), with a low frequency (i.e., “deep”) component. As Debbie Harry once sang, "Fade away and radiate." The amplitude of the tremor bursts has increased by 50% since last Friday. I hear a low and distant drum beat.

Just a little change. Small to say the least. Both a little scared. Neither one prepared! Beauty and the Beast! In Hawaii Island, the beauty and the beast are one!
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#2
Glen, the Hale painting of Pele at the Jagger entrance has always captivated me... those eyes! And now that one eye, piercing the night at Halema'uma'u, beckoning us to come, to see into the depths of her... she is calling us to this unique time, this awesome place of creation.

Glad you got to see her!

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#3
Yes! Isn't that puka in Halemaumau something! It isn't like anything else. Without the fountaining, or the massive rivers of lava flowing down the pali, or even the explosive activity as lava pours into the sea, that new vent at the summit speaks volumes of the power within Kilauea! It's awesome. And anyone that hasn't taken the opportunity to go up and sit with it for a spell, really should! It's fantastic at dawn.

The one thing that gets me (I have been a photographer documenting Kilauea since Puu Oo started eruption in 1983) is how I can not get the feeling of that vent into a regular photograph. Try as I might, shooting all times of the day and night, with every conceivable lens, it just doesn't come out conveying the feeling I get standing on the edge of the caldera looking at it. The picture needs the whole thing, the summit caldera, AND Mauna Loa too, and needs it BIG, you need to be able to see the Nene, every nuance of every texture.. color.. in order to begin to give the viewer even a fraction of the sense of power I feel while sitting on that craters edge.
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#4
The first week of the new blow out, we were up at VNP for the "after dark in the park".
We went to the crater rim by Jagger after the presentation. The moon was out, but partially veiled & there were nene flying in formation over the crater rim.... goose bumps to the max!

Since then we have been up a few times, each time has been totally different... sometimes there are birds riding the thermals from the vent (they don't seem to be affected... something the rangers are watching...) sometimes there is a steady plume, overtimes it is puffing like a steam engine.... Every time a difference...
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#5
Yes, I saw the lava at the ocean entry, but the vent and plume at Halema'uma'u was more impressive to me. It is gigantic, and when you consider the power it took to carve out the puka it is in, well, it's overwhelming. Thanks for the tip on seeing it at night. We drove by it during the day on the way to Kau (and Honaunau). That was impressive. But the incandescence at night is worth seeing. And, I agree, difficult to photograph, although HVO has done a pretty good job of it. But the photographs do not reveal the scale. You can only get that on site. There were hundreds watching the lava at the ocean entry point. Just a few flashlights make there way to and from the Jagger overlook. The vent is the more memorable sight.
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#6
There's a new surface flow in Royal gardens visable from the lava viewing area. Nice.
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#7
Scientists at HVO are noticing a connection between the Halema'uma'u blow out glow activities & the eruptive & seismic activity at the flow crater, and there have been columnar explosions down by the ocean entry... maybe she is getting ready... we are left to guess for what...

Some of the Volcano links:
Volcano thread #4: http://www.punaweb.org/Forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=5645&SearchTerms=volcano,#4
thread #3 go to: http://www.punaweb.org/Forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=5196
sites for tracking SO2:
http://www.nature.nps.gov/air/webcams/pa...oalert.cfm
ftp://gp16.ssd.nesdis.noaa.gov/pub/OMI/O...index.html
Kilauea Volcano staus link:
http://volcano.wr.usgs.gov/kilaueastatus.php

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#8

There has always been a connection between the summit magma storage system and the east rift activity. The lava, or magma as it is called before it reaches the surface of the volcano, comes up from deep within the earth into the summit magma chamber, and from there, flows through the mountain down the rift to be erupted in the Puu Oo area. The new summit vent at Halemaumau is connected to the same summit magma chamber. It is all hydraulics i.e., a fluid system in which pressures are transfered through a liquid body. With the array of sensitive instrumentation that HVO has in place, both seismic equipment that measures the vibrations (noise) made as lava moves through the earth, and deformation equipment that measures the mountains surface changes in response to the pressure changes within, they are able to 'see' changes as they occur and plot the movement of forces through the volcano's internal plumbing system. There is much more concern for what might be happening within, and what that might mean for potential changes in eruptive activity, when there is no connection observed between the summit's behavior and the activity down on the east rift. That was the case for a while preceding the changes that occurred with the eruption last summer.

The explosive activity at the coast where the lava enters the ocean is only related to the way that lava is entering the ocean. If a situation develops in which water can enter a confined space that is otherwise occupied by lava, the water is rapidly heated, expands to steam, and will explode. This is what we are currently seeing at the coast. But, it has no relationship to the internal plumbing system of the volcano as a whole.
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#9
We have fountaining just east of Pu'u O'o, KITV reports (video on their website at www.kitv.com). Not talking steam here. Not talking a sizzle and a plop in the ocean. We are talking fountaining. Just one fountain so far.....no curtain of fire just yet.
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#10
Aloha

As you all probably know if you on this site the volcano has been quite exciting for those who are looking for regular ocean entry updates we have been updating video clips from our trips on youtube at

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=lavaocean&search_type=&aq=f

The ocean entry tube was interupted this morning but lava continues to flow into the sea at a lowered volume.


Shane Turpin
Lava Ocean Adventures
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