The situation around Kilauea is deteriorating as a giant eruption took place over the weekend at the Kilauea volcano on the big island of Hawaii. The area also saw its first serious injury when a man suffered serious injuries from lava falling from the sky. From EarthSky.org:
USGS/DailyMail Kilauea Volcano has been spewing lava and belching hazardous gases on Hawaii’s Big Island since early May, and the BBC reported on Sunday, May 20, 2018, that the situation for residents is “steadily worsening.” At the summit, a large explosion happened at around midnight on Friday night (May 18) into Saturday, sending a plume of volcanic gas some 10,000 feet (two miles, or 3 km) into the air. Early in the day on May 20, media outlets were reporting the first serious injury from Kilauea. HawaiiNewsNow reported:
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USGS/DailyMail The injured man was sitting on a balcony at his home when “lava spatter” – projectile molten rock – landed on him. “It hit him on the shin and shattered everything there down on his leg,” a spokeswoman for the county mayor said. Lava spatters can weigh “as much a refrigerator,” she told Reuters. The man has reportedly been hospitalized with serious injuries. The Daily Mail has more about the active fissures and the situation on the ground near Kilauea:
USGS/DailyMail Fissures 15, 17, 18, 20 and the newly opened 21st and 22nd crack were spewing lava on Friday, and two more homes have been claimed with officials saying the amount of destruction caused would only increase. In the hardest-hit areas of Leilani Estates and Lanipuna Gardens, at least 325 acres of land has been covered by lava. While initial eruptions were sending lava from 1955 into the community, scientists have now established there is new lava flowing into Puna. USGS geologist Janet Babb told Hawaii News Now fresher lava could reach areas further away.
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USGS/DailyMail ‘With fresher, hotter magma, there’s the potential that the lava flows can move with greater ease and therefore cover more area,’ she said. A ‘red level’ of sulphur dioxide was recorded by Pahoa fire station, which means the gas coming from Kilauea could cause choking and an inability to breathe. Responders and residents still on the island are wearing gas masks to protect themselves from the toxic fumes. Scientists are so far unable to predict when the volcano will quiet, but a similar event in 1955 lasted 88 days.
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NPS ‘We have no way of knowing whether this is really the beginning or toward the end of this eruption,’ said Tom Shea, a volcanologist at the University of Hawaii told Associated Press. ‘We’re kind of all right now in this world of uncertainty.’ Local resident Ikaika Marzo, 34, earlier told DailyMail.com he found the first fissure before ‘all hell broke loose’. ‘There were earthquakes and cracks and we were checking things out when I saw the first fissure,’ he said. ‘It just popped and steam and sulphur came up and then it started to spatter. ‘Then all hell broke loose. It was like a warzone, like being in Baghdad, loud bangs like bombs going off, you could hear it 20 miles away. ‘It was pretty scary, a lot of people haven’t been able to sleep all week, they are so traumatized by what has happened.’ Our heart goes out to the people on Hawaii, and we hope for the best for the scientists, first responders, and National Guard troops who are on the ground there assessing the situation. Let’s hope things calm down there soon.