Lava From Kilauea Boils Away Freshwater Lake In Hawaii

Enlarge this image toggle caption U.S. Geological Survey via AP U.S. Geological Survey via AP

Green Lake was gone in hours.

Lava from Kilauea volcano spilled across highways and into Hawaii's Green Lake — a major source of freshwater on Hawaii's Big Island — and evaporated all the water, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The flow created a huge plume of steam as it hit the lake Saturday on its way toward the ocean, according to Hawaii County Civil Defense agency.

"The lava is quite hot, so it boiled away the water," Sally Sennert, a USGS volcanologist embedded at the Smithsonian's Global Volcanism Program, tells NPR.

"The lava flows, like a stream of water, are going to take the path of least resistance as they flow downhill," Sennert says, adding that she doubts the lake will return. "All I've heard is reports that lava has filled it up," she says.

The lava entered Green Lake at 10 a.m. local time and had evaporated all the water by 3 p.m., according to the USGS.

Rivers of lava from Kilauea have claimed hundreds of homes and displaced thousands of people since a major eruption more than a month ago. A total of 22 fissures have opened up, according to Hawaii Public Radio.

The lava has advanced at 656 yards per hour, the fastest lava flow rate on record, according to the USGS.

The agency warns that there are still "vigorous lava eruptions" in the lower East Rift Zone, making the Pacific Ocean dangerous to enter in that area. Lava flowing into the ocean can cause explosions, propel rocks and create plumes of "laze," which Hawaii County officials describe as hydrochloric acid and steam with fine glass particles.

Laze can damage the lungs and irritate skin and eyes.

On Wednesday, Talmadge Magno, Hawaii County's civil defense administrator, said 410 people were living in shelters and that a residential area had been destroyed.

"Vacationland is totally gone," he said. "It's covered by lava."

Magno said a flight restriction has been placed to prevent drones from interfering with rescue efforts.

"We've had some pretty serious encounters with our county helicopter," he said. "One of those drones in the tail rotor or your main rotor could take that helicopter down." </s> (PAHOA, Hawaii) — A volcano that is oozing, spewing and exploding on Hawaii’s Big Island has gotten more hazardous, sending rivers of molten rock pouring into the ocean Sunday and launching lava skyward that caused the first major injury.

Kilauea volcano began erupting more than two weeks ago and has burned dozens of homes, forced thousands of people to flee and shot up ash clouds from its summit that led officials to distribute face masks.

Lava flows have picked up speed in recent days, spattering molten rock that hit a man in the leg.

He was outside his home Saturday in the remote, rural region affected by the volcano when the lava “hit him on the shin and shattered everything from there down on his leg,” Janet Snyder, Hawaii County mayor’s spokeswoman, told the Hawaii News Now TV station.

Lava that’s flying through the air from cracks in the Earth can weigh as much as a refrigerator and even small pieces can be deadly, officials said.

The injury came the same day that lava began streaming across a highway and flowing into the ocean.

The interaction of lava and seawater has created a cloud of steam laced with hydrochloric acid and fine glass particles that can irritate the skin and eyes and cause breathing problems.

The lava haze, or “laze,” extended as far as 15 miles (24 kilometers) west of where the lava gushed into the ocean on the Big Island’s southern coast. It was just offshore and running parallel to the coast, said U.S. Geological Survey scientist Wendy Stovall.

Authorities warn that the plume could shift direction if the winds change. The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory says sulfur dioxide emissions also have tripled.

Residents in the area have been evacuated, and the highway that the lava crossed has shut down in places.

Joseph Kekedi, an orchid grower who lives and works about 3 miles (5 kilometers) from where lava is pouring into the sea, said luckily the flow didn’t head his way. At one point, it was about a mile upslope from his property in the coastal community of Kapoho.

He said residents can’t do much but stay informed and be ready to get out of the way.

“Here’s nature reminding us again who’s boss,” Kekedi said.

He is hosting a 90-year-old who evacuated from the Leilani Estates neighborhood, where lava started spewing May 3. He also was storing belongings for other friends who had to leave their homes.

Kekedi said most of his neighbors are optimistic. He has friends who lost houses when lava smothered the town of Kalapana in the 1990s but they built again, found a good life and “life went on.”

Scientists say they don’t know how long the eruption will last. The volcano has opened more than 20 vents, including four that have merged into one large crack. It has been gushing lava high into the sky and sending a river of molten rock toward the ocean at about 300 yards (274 meters) per hour.

The flows accelerated after newer lava began emerging from the ground late last week. The fresher lava is hotter and tends to move faster than the older lava that was unleashed earlier.

Scientists say the older lava is likely from magma that Kilauea has been storing underground since the volcano last erupted in 1955.

The area affected by lava and ash is small compared with the Big Island, which is about 4,000 square miles (10,360 square kilometers). The volcano has spared most of the island and the rest of the Hawaiian chain.

Officials reminded tourists that flights have not been affected, even on the Big Island. There, travelers are free to do most of the usual sightseeing activities that aren’t associated with the erupting volcano.

McAvoy reported from Honolulu. Associated Press journalists Jae C. Hong and Marco Garcia in Pahoa contributed to this report. </s> Trouble for the residents of Hawaii's Big Island seems far from getting over after Kilauea volcano erupted early this month. The lava from the volcano, after destroying acres of land, has reached the Pacific Ocean, sending hydrochloric acid and volcanic glass particles into the air called 'laze'.

US Geological Survey (USGS) has confirmed that two lava flows reached the ocean along the southeast Puna coast on May 20.

Laze, which is a mixture of "lava" and "haze", can cause lung, eye and skin irritation.

For the navigable waters around the Kilauea Volcano, the US Coast Guard has enforced a Lava Entry Safety Zone.

"All waterway users should be aware of the hazardous conditions associated with such an event. Getting too close to the lava can result in serious injury or death," said Lt. Cmdr. John Bannon, waterways management lead for the Coast Guard's Honolulu sector, according to CNN.

Eight years ago this laze proved deadly. "This hot, corrosive gas mixture caused two deaths immediately adjacent to the coastal entry point in 2000, when seawater washed across recent and active lava flows," the HVO said, according to the website.

Thousands of people were evacuated after toxic sulfur dioxide gas shrouded the area. People were warned of volcanic smog or vog and acid rain, which can be as corrosive as diluted battery acid.

More than 600 earthquakes shook Hawaii's Big Island since April 30 triggering Kilauea, which is one of the world's most active volcanoes, to erupt. </s> Lava from a Kilauea volcano fissure erupts on Hawaii's Big Island on May 19, 2018 in Kapoho, Hawaii.

After destroying dozens of houses, lava from the Kilauea volcano has now reached the ocean, presenting a new health threat to Hawaiians.

Civil defense authorities on Hawaii posted a warning to stay clear of any lava stream that is flowing into the ocean. When the super hot lava hits the cooler sea water, it produces what is called "laze," hydrochloric acid steam that pours into the air along with fine particles of glass.

"Health hazards of laze include lung, eye and skin irritation," the agency said in a message to residents. "Be aware that the laze plume travels with the wind and can change direction without warning."

The latest dispatch from Civil Defense says a lava flow crossed Highway 137 at the 13-mile marker and has entered the ocean. Another flow is 1,300 feet from the same highway, resulting in closure of the highway between Kamaili Road and Pohoiki Road.

The threat comes as one of the first injuries as a direct result of lava flows was reported, a man who suffered a "serious" injury from lava splatter while sitting on the porch of his home, according to the Honolulu Star Advertiser. "I heard the injury was quite bad, serious to his leg," the newspaper quoted Civil Defense Administrator Talmadge Magno as saying.

More than 20 fissures have opened since the volcano's latest activity began May 3 and are being tracked.

Lava from a Kilauea volcano fissure erupts and burns near a home on Hawaii's Big Island on May 19, 2018 in Kapoho, Hawaii.

Yet, with more than 2,000 residents under evacuation, life largely goes on as normal on much of the Big Island. The tourism industry is still in full swing and the island's airports remain open. </s> Hawaii's Kilauea volcano claimed its latest victim, the picturesque Kapoho Bay as it filled the bay with molten lava flows. Overnight, hundreds of homes were destroyed as rivers of lava poured into oceanfront communities.

Just a few days ago Kapoho Bay was a beautiful vacation destination, filled with vacation homes, beautiful beaches and clear water. Today, the bay is filled with a lava field that extends 0.8 miles from the old bay, completely reshaping the coastline of Hawaii.

The recent lava flows are the most destructive since Kilauea volcano began to profusely erupt over a month ago. Early on in the eruption, Leilani Estates and the Lanipuna Gardens subdivisions were destroyed by lava flows and volcanic bombs of rock and ash.

With the recent lava flows in Kapoho Bay, Vacationland and Kapoho Beach Lots are now largely destroyed. Officials with the Hawaii County Civil Defense said that likely most of the homes have been destroyed of the nearly 500 in the two communities. Of the destroyed homes in Mayor Harry Kim's second vacation home in Vacationland.

Aerial videos show the lava flow hitting the Pacific Ocean as it turns into plumes of toxic hydrochloric acid steam and glass fragments, called laze. As waves enter the bay, they are cracking and jostling the lava, which lithifies on contact with the relatively cold ocean water.

The lava running into Kapoho Bay is being fed by channelized flow from fissure 8 according to the USGS. The rivers of lava accompany 150 to 180 feet high lava fountains fed by fissure 8.

A 5.6-magnitude earthquake struck the island on Tuesday morning, the latest jolt associated with the eruptions. According to the USGS, the big island of Hawaii has been hit by 9,900 earthquakes since May 4th. In addition, the lava completely evaporated and filled Green Lake, the largest freshwater lake on the island in a matter of hours.

As hundreds of homes are destroyed by lava flows and families are displaced, Hawaii is forced to manage a difficult situation. Where will the people live whose homes were destroyed and now lies a barren lava field? Do they still own the fee simple lease on the land? Can they ever move back?

There aren't clear answers to these questions yet, but likely many of the families will have to resettle either elsewhere on the island or move off the island. In addition, the government of Hawaii must now decide what to do with newly created land, something no other state has to manage.

The latest string of lava flows, destroyed homes, and reshaped coastline reminds us that Hawaii is one of the most active volcanoes in the world. Those that live on the island are merely Pele's tenants and eviction requires no forewarning. </s> PAHOA, Hawaii: National Guard troops, police and firefighters ushered the last group of evacuees from homes on the eastern tip of Hawaii's Big Island early on Saturday (Jun 2), hours before lava from the Kilauea volcano cut off road access to the area, officials said.

A stream of lava as wide as three football fields flowed over a highway near a junction at Kapoho, a seaside community of rebuilt after a destructive eruption of Kilauea in 1960.

The lava flow left Kapoho and the adjacent development of Vacationland cut off from the rest of the island by road, according to the Hawaii County Civil Defense agency.

Also, lava destroyed a freshwater lake, boiling away all of the water in it, the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory reported late Saturday, local time.

"Lava entered Green Lake within Kapoho Crater, producing a large steam plume ... A Hawaiian County Fire Department overflight reported that the lava filled the lake and apparently evaporated all the water," the report said.

Authorities since Wednesday had been urging residents of the area to leave before lava spewing from a volcanic fissure at the eastern foot of Kilauea reached the area.

The final phase of the evacuation was carried out late on Friday and early Saturday by fire and police department personnel, with help from the Hawaii National Guard and public works teams, county civil defence spokeswoman Janet Snyder told Reuters by email.

An estimated 500 people live in the Kapoho area, but Snyder said it was not immediately clear how many residents, if any, chose to stay behind.

Another 2,000 people have already been evacuated from Leilani Estates, an area further west where dozens of homes have been devoured or cut off by rivers of lava streaming over the landscape since May 3.

For those whose homes have been unscathed, the prolonged strain of uncertainty has grown increasingly difficult.

"We're waiting for Pele to make the decision," said Steve Kirkpatrick, a retired mailman and 14-year resident of Leilani Estates, referring to the volcano goddess of Hawaiian myth.

His home was still intact but in harm's way.

"You go for three weeks and you think everything is fine, and then you can still lose your house," Kirkpatrick told Reuters as he and his wife, Kathy, ventured back to their community to help friends move out.

"As the lava expands, so has the anxiety," she said, the low, jet-like sound of lava spouting from the ground audible in the distance.

Lava was not the only challenge posed by the eruption.

Toxic sulphur dioxide gas emissions have created an additional hazard. So too have airborne volcanic glass fibres, called "Pele's hair," wispy strands produced by lava fountains and carried aloft by the wind.

One resident, Nancy Avery, said the glass strands hurt like paper cuts, slicing into her fingers and feet, toes exposed because she wore only sandals. She tried to pick up a strand but, "It just kind of melted into my skin and cut me. It's so sharp, it feels like the glass is still in there."

The lava itself, extruded from about two dozen fissures that opened on the slope of Kilauea's "eastern rift zone" earlier this month, has also knocked out telephone and power lines and forced the shutdown of a geothermal energy plant.

Lava burnt two buildings at the plant, a substation and a warehouse that stored a drilling rig, officials said.

The latest upheaval of Kilauea, one of the world's most active volcanoes, comes on the heels of an eruption cycle that began in 1983 and continued almost nonstop for 35 years, destroying more than 200 dwellings and other structures.

The current activity has been accompanied for weeks by daily explosions of gas and volcanic rock from Kilauea's summit crater as well as earthquakes.

But the summit has quieted down over the past few days, as tons of rubble shaken loose from the interior walls of the crater have fallen into the void and plugged up the bottom of the vent.

Scientists are unsure whether the blockage will eventually end eruptions at the summit or lead to a buildup of pressure that could cause a much bigger explosion. </s> LEILANI ESTATES, Hawaii — There is a new health threat tonight on Hawaii’s Big Island. Flowing lava from the Kilauea volcano has now reached the Pacific Ocean, creating a toxic stew.

In a tower of lava, the Big Island’s volcanic beginnings burst again into view. All the molten rock is hotter than a house fire and needs some place to go. From fissure 20, we tracked its flow two miles to where the hot river pours into the Pacific Ocean.

When the lava hits the ocean, it produces a hazard called “laze,” releasing hot steam and hydrochloric acid, which is poisonous and burns on contact. The wind could shift at any time.

Experts warn the laze cloud could travel 15 miles, another worry for emergency officials along with flying “lava bombs” that can weigh as much as refrigerators. One hit a man over the weekend, shattering his shin.

“It’s a worry that people will be injured or killed, sure,” said geologist Dr. Carolyn Parcheta.

Parcheta said Kilauea’s eruption has now evolved beyond what she calls its “throat-clearing phase.”

“I think we’re moving into phase two and that’s where we’re going to see increased activity, potentially higher fountains, more lava flows,” Parcheta said, adding that the lava is spreading the length of two to four football fields an hour.

Over the last month, the Big Island has recorded 3,000 volcano-related earthquakes. Fortunately, most of the active flows keep marching south, away from where more islanders live.

But lava overwhelmed Leilani Estates, the hardest-hit neighborhood, burning and burying more than a dozen homes. About 1,700 people fled, but John Artymovich is a holdout.

“As long as the wind is blowing in the direction it has in the last two weeks, except for one or two days, it’s taking the gas all that way,” Artymovich said. </s> The eruption of Hawaii's Kilauea volcano has sent so much lava flowing into nearby Kapoho Bay that the area is now completely filled.The United States Geological Survey announced Tuesday morning that an aerial survey of the shallow bay on the Big Island's east coast confirmed it was completely filled. To date, the coastline has been extended 0.7 miles, and lava continues to fountain from fissure 8, the source of the flow.Helicopter footage showed dangerous laze (lava haze) pluming from the new coastline. Miles of charred, blackened landscape are visible behind the ocean-entry point, showing the lava flow's path of destruction from the inland fissure.There's no guarantee that the extended coastline won't be further altered; the USGS warned that the newly formed lava delta is unstable and easily eroded by the surf. In some instances, collapsing deltas can bring parts of the older sea cliff crashing into the water, too.The USGS reported that lava had inundated most of the nearby Kapoho Beach Lots and Vacationland subdivisions. Emergency management officials estimated that hundreds of homes in those subdivisions were destroyed by lava in addition to the dozens of homes destroyed in the Leilani Estates neighborhood in nearby Puna. </s> PAHOA, Hawaii — The Latest on an erupting volcano on Hawaii’s Big Island (all times local):

A Hawaii orchid grower who lives about 3 miles (5 kilometres) down the road from where lava is entering the ocean says nature is reminding everyone who is boss.

Joseph Kekedi says the lava from Kilauea volcano was about a mile upslope from him at one point but luckily the flow didn’t head his way in the Big Island coastal community of Kapoho (Kah-POH-hoh).

He said Sunday that lava is flowing into the sea in a sparsely inhabited area of larger properties.

Hawaii County says residents in the area have evacuated.

Kilauea volcano began spewing lava into the air in a residential neighbourhood about two weeks ago. On Saturday, it gushed faster-moving lava that began flowing downhill like a river.

Officials on Hawaii’s Big Island say lava from an erupting volcano has crossed a highway and flowed into the ocean.

Hawaii County Civil Defence said late Saturday that another lava flow is getting close to the highway in the remote, rural area. The highway has shut down in some spots, and residents in the area have been evacuated.

Lava entering the sea produces hazards that can lead to lung, eye and skin irritation. County officials say the phenomenon sends “hydrochloric acid and steam with fine glass particles into the air.”

The Kilauea volcano has sent oozing lava and noxious gas into neighbourhoods for more than two weeks, burning homes, driving out residents and producing explosive eruptions at the summit.

The saga of a Hawaii volcano’s impact on rural communities is heading into its third week.

Dozens of homes have burned, lava has crossed a road and explosions at the summit bring worries about ash fallout.

As lava flows have grown more vigorous, there’s concern more homes may burn and more evacuations will be ordered.

Officials want residents in the remote and rural area of the Big Island to heed evacuation warnings. A few people were temporarily trapped when a flow crossed a road. Some had to be airlifted to safety.

The area affected by lava and ash is small compared to the Big Island, which is about 4,000 square miles (10,360 square kilometres). Most of the island and the rest of the state is unaffected by Kilauea’s volcanic activity.
Lava from Kīlauea boils Hawaii's Green Lake and spills across numerous highways.