The Ocean Entry has been nice the last few days

[Greg]

Nice view of the ocean entry and a large A'a flow on the Pali that must be several hundred yards across.

punatoons

[PaulW]

Thanks Greg, I was thinking of visiting and wondered how it was doing down there.

[PaulW]

We went tonight, it was the best I've seen so far.

[Kelena]

Is the glow visible on the pali, coming down through Royal Gardens?

[csgray]

We went last night too, it was awesome in the true meaning of the word. Watching the lines of people with their lights walking in and out of the viewing area reminded me of a candlelight pilgrimage I saw in Portugal or Spain when I was a child. Must of the crowd was silent while walking in and out, all you heard was the sound of feet shuffling, until some random people would start to chatter. The flow down the pali on the right side of Royal Gardens is huge and looks like a'a, not pahoehoe. The HVO folks just updated the map on their website and the flow area has grown a lot in just one week. http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/kilauea/update/maps.html

The ocean entry is clearly visible from the viewing area and you can actually see streams of lava entering the ocean. There is a lot of black sand building up between the flow and the viewing area, I think the Kalapana area is going to end up with a really nice black sand beach again in a few hundred years.

Carol

[PaulW]

After dark, the hills look like there's a city up there, hundreds of houses using red lights.
Is that where Royal Gardens is? I also noticed the lights procession of the spectators.

I don't know much about cameras, but aren't all those blinding camera flashes from 3/4 of a mile away a bit useless if you want to photograph the ocean entry at night?

[Carey]

Using flash on most cameras, at that distance, will usually end up with an image that has a "haze" from the illuminated particles in the air & with most auto cameras, an under-exposed image of the glow (of course if you a taking a photo of someone or something nearby, with the flow in the background, then you would need a flash - same thing with anyone using flash for any distance shot, you either need a killer flash unit - neither of these is what you normally see...)

Many of these are people trying to document what they are seeing, with no clue on the capabilities of the equipment they are using...

[Kelena]

This is getting interesting. Although the lava coming down the pali is catching the most interest, there has been some activity that I think is interesting. There is lava in the hole in the caldera that keeps going up and down. Lately it appears to be trying to come up. HVO introduced a new term in the last few days: "stoping". No, they didn't spell "stopping" wrong. Stoping appears to be a process in which molten magma rises through the Earth’s crust and shatters the surrounding rocks. The rocks then sink, making room for the magma to rise. Great word for Scrabble if you only have one "P"!

So, it has been stoping through the walls of the vent, it sounds like. I would imagine it takes a lot of pressure for magma to shatter rocks.

Could lava rise through the vent and begin filling the caldera floor? It sounds like it is trying hard to make its way up the vent. Coupled with the action at the pali, things are getting interesting. Not Thansgiving Eve Breakout interesting.....yet. But interesting.

[dakine]

quote:

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Originally posted by Glen

So, it has been stoping through the walls of the vent, it sounds like. I would imagine it takes a lot of pressure for magma to shatter rocks.

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I do not think a lot of pressure is involved. the lava pond is at a low level in the vent, the vent fills up with rock from a series of collapses and the stoping is caused mostly by thermal erosion. i.e., the heat and gases that are rising from the magma below serve to weaken the rock and thus melt and fracture it until it is free to fall into the magma below