A Brief Update

I have a morning of no rain, so I'm busy catching up on tasks. So here's a very brief update in what's happening with the eruption. 

The summit has dramatically scaled back on the plume production and ash emissions. In fact, I've seen almost no ash in the farm since at dawn yesterday morning. The earthquakes at the summit continue. 

Mean while down in Puna, things are still aggressively erupting. Fissure 8 is sending sustained fountains 200' into the air. 

That lava is following a downward grade, heading for Kapoho. Presently it's about 1/2 mile from cutting the access road. If the flow keeps going, by tomorrow anyone who hasn't evacuated will be trapped. 

Summit Change

I don't know the significance of it, but the summit has stopped emitting a giant steam plume this morning.  It's eerie. 

Could this mean that the throat is becoming clogged? 

Could this mean that lava has risen above the ground water level? 

Brief Morning Update

The lava flow heading to Kapoho has thankfully slowed down in advancing. Instead of marching onward, it is spreading out. This gives the residents of Vacationland and Kapoho more time. The flow front is now advancing at only 50 yards per hour, far slower than yesterday. But fissure 8 is still maintaining fountains 200'-250' high, so there's lots of lava still erupting from below ground. 

With this volcano, I never knows from day to day what will happen. 

Eruption Update

This disaster continues in Puna. More structures are destroyed. More lava flows are traveling a distance. Route 132 is effectively blocked. One flow is heading for Beach Road where, if it crosses the road, will trap anything not evacuated from Pohoiki area. Another flow is heading for Kopoho, where if it continues, will isolate Vacationland subdivision and Kapoho Beach Lots. People are being warned to evacuate NOW. 

Geologists report the fissure 8 is erupting sustained fountains 200' in height, with a significant volume of very hot, fluid lava feeding a rapidly moving flow. The flow front is currently moving 600 yards per hour, heading down that blue line in the map above, leading to Kapoho. Once it reaches Kapoho and crosses the road, lower Puna is effectively isolated.....cut off. Evacuating via vehicle will be impossible. 

Meanwhile up at the summit, the volcano isn't taking a rest. Since I got up this morning there have been close to 200 earthquakes of around 2.0 magnitude or greater. A 5.3 quake happened recently that must have scared the bejeezus out of Volcano Village residents. Perhaps that got their attention enough to think about evacuating. Steam plumes are constantly coming from the Halema'uma'u vent, often laden with ash to some degree or other. Repetitive rockfalls have enlarged the vent considerably, plus the caldera floor has dropped several feet. ......... We are waiting for the second shoe to drop. 

I'm attending an informational meeting tonight in Pahala. I'm hoping the summit doesn't blow it's top tonight. I feel like I'm playing Russian roulette. How many times can I drive by or close before it blows? Unless I have to go the Pahala to pick up a prescription from the drugstore, I think this may be my last drive that direction. 

Lava Q & A

Here's some of the questions I'm getting about the lava eruption........

... Why aren't people doing something to protect their homes? 

           In reality, there is nothing they can do. 

... Would spraying the house with fire retardants or foams save them? 

          No. The lava presses right up against the house structure, igniting it. It would have little difficulty pressing right past a barrier. Also, it's intense heat alone has caused fire to start before the lava actually touched the structure. Fire aside, the lava is essentially an unyielding force. Even without burning the structure, the weight and force of the lava field could destroy it or cover it. 

... Why don't people bulldozer a dike or moat around their homes to channel the lava around them? 

           It's been tried but it doesn't work in the long run. A dike would need to be solid enough and high enough plus be built at a 45° angle to the flow. That's just about impossible. Making it solid enough would require lots of material which is not readily available. Plus it would takes days of bulldoze work to construct and compact such a dike. Plus, you don't know in advance from what angle the lava will be approaching your property, so getting the 45° angle would just be sheer luck. The chance of it being made high enough is practically nil. 

          Building a moat has its own challenges. Most areas have solid, though fractured, lava under the top layer of ground. It's our own substitute for bedrock. So a bulldozer can only scrape away so much before it hits solid lava. Thus only a shallow moat could be bulldozed in most cases. 

          Lava does not flow like water. While it generally flows downhill, it is capable of actually climbing uphill. This happens because of the way the surface of lava cools and solidifies, plus fresh lava pushing on from behind. The fresh lava often moves and lifts the cooled crust, thus causing the lava front to rise dramatically in elevation and "climb" obstacles. On top of that, while some lava flows may only be a couple feet thick, others can easily be 20' thick! So you'd have to have an incredibly high dike or deep moat for it to have any hope of being effective. In experiments that the government here has done in the past, lava flows easily crossed fairly high dikes, especially those built perpendicular to the flow. 

... Why aren't people evacuating the area? 

          Most people close to the eruption have indeed evacuated. Some have chosen to stay because they fear losing everything to looters. Historically, Hawaii officials have done an abysmal job when it comes to controlling looting. Homeowners have returned to empty houses where even the sinks, toilets, and copper pipes were taken! Even with this eruption situation, where supposedly the police and National Guard are protecting the area, looters have been ransacking some of the houses where there are no neighbor's keeping guard. A couple of them have been arrested, but most are evading the police. 

... What happens when the lava cuts off the escape road? 

          Simple -- people and animals get trapped. Some people will chose to ride it out until the lava gets real close rather than safely evacuating. There have already been cases where people have called for evacuation. In some cases, people can walk out via routes that cars cannot get across. In other cases, the Marines are on standby to conduct heliocopter evacuations, but lack of landing sites plus ashy smoke might interfere. I am guessing that small animals may be evacuated along with their owners, but that will not be possible for large animals who will have to be left behind to a horrifying fate. 

... How long will this go on? 

          Nobody knows. It could last a few more days, weeks, months. Or years. Pu'u O'o erupted lava for 25 years, with just a few breaks in the action here and there. This could become the new replacement for Pu'u O'o. 

... Why don't they just bulldoze the lava away? 

           First of all, the lava is too hot to get near. It's over 2000°. I've personally been within 10 feet of a shallow, small pahoehoe flow.....very small slow flow.....and it was bearable only for less than a half a minute. All the hair got singed in my arms and legs even with that very brief exposure. 

           This lava that's erupting is hotter than what I experienced. Plus it is a far greater volume. My lava flow was about a foot or two in height. The lava in Puna is many, many feet thick. The sheer volume of molten rock is staggering. 

           A bulldozer could not possibly push molten lava aside. The metal of the dozer would become red hot, plus the paint, hydraulic fluid, lubricants, and fuel would burn along with any non-metal parts. The operator would be overcome by the fumes and heat. So there is zero chance of bulldozing flowing lava. 

... Why don't they dynamite the front of a lava flow to stop it? 

          It won't help. In the past they tried dropping bombs in a flow to stop it or change its route. Didn't work. 

... Why don't they pump ocean water onto the flow like they did in Iceland? 

          First of all, it's not close enough to the ocean. Secondly, the coastline is too dangerousness to bring a firefighting boat in close enough to shoot water inland. Third, the lava field is immense. There is more than one flowing front. It would take a fleet of boats, which are not available. Plus the lava fields are mostly inland. Four, the fumes coming off the lava eruption could overcome those on the boats, depending upon how the wind shifts.  Right now it's blowing right out to the coast. Five, there's nothing in the lava's path along the coastline that is valuable enough to justify the expense and jeopardize the lives of those on the boats. And six, it won't do anything to stop more lava from coming out of the ground. 

...Wouldn't  the a good rainstorm stop the lava? 

           Simple answer, no. Raining on this lava is like spitting into the ocean. It won't make a bit of difference. Rain just results in more steam driven clouds of noxious gas. The lava is erupting out of the ground from the massive pressure behind it. Cooling the surface with a bit of rain (or ocean water) won't do anything to combat the incredible underground pressure that's driving the flows. 

Cleaning Ash From Our Solar Panels

Ash is accumulating on the solar panels. This ash from the volcano tends to be sticky once it is moistened. So removing it requires more than just a hose. Aside from the growing things on the farm (both plants and animals), the ash also is causing problems with our solar electric generation. Laying atop the panels, the fine layer of ash is interfering with generating electricity by blocking the sunlght and thus we're not getting our batteries properly charged. Being totally off grid and not wishing to run the generator all the time with the price of gasoline being $3.80 a gallon, getting those solar panels cleaned is a high priority.!!!

Initially we were hosing them off twice a day. This removed some of the ash, but we noticed it gradually building up. Soon it became obvious there was a problem. If I used a rag and I could reach a 3 foot wide area around the border of the solar panel set up, but couldn't reach further. A better solution was needed. Someone suggested a pressure washer. Good idea but we can't run one without buying a bigger water pump. Our water system uses a dc marine pump, too small to supply the necessary water volume for a pressure washer. So I was looking around for a different solution. I rag on a stick might not be a good idea, because if the stick poked through the rag it would damage the solar panels. 

I thought of a car washing brush, the kind that runs water through it. Might do the job nicely and quickly. A good friend of ours lent me theirs. So far, so good. If it works well, I plan to order one. I already tried our two local hardware stores and auto store, but no luck. So I'll need to look further afield.

Setting things up was easy. Attach hose, turn in water. Watering the panels down and rinsing off what ash I could, I then sloshed on a couple buckets of soapy water, just for good measure. Now it's time for the hose/brush. 

Quickly I learned that I needed a step stool. The brush with hose attached was heavy and awkward to use from the ground. I retrieved the stepstool from the kitchen. Too short. Replaced that with a step-ladder. Ok, I'm in business now I thought. 

Using the hose/brush, I quickly learned a few things....

...It's heavy. The brush and pole are light but add water and the weight piles on. 

...It's very awkward to use while balanced atop a ladder. It's a bear when reaching the center of the panel bank.....no leverage, really difficult to steer. 

...Once the panels are wet it's impossible to see where I've brushed them already. The brush seemed to work, but it was very difficult to make sure it's got the entire panel effectively. The brush needs to be at the right angle or it doesn't remove the ash. General swishing about doesn't do work. Once the panels dried, I saw that I missed about 50% of the surface. 50% removal of ash isn't good enough, especially since some parts were fairly clean and other areas still heavily coated. 

...The plastic pole isn't strong enough. This tool might be perfect for washing a car at ground level. But holding it higher above the ground appears to put more pressure on the plastic pole than it can deal with. The water on/off piece broke almost instantly, necessitating a trip to the hardware store to buy a replacement. The weight of the hose filled with water was too heavy. 

So I'm back to looking for an easy yet efficient way to clean the solar panels each day that we have ashfall. I might be looking closer to that rag-on-a-stick idea. Perhaps I just need to modify it a bit. 

Eruption Update

Hubby & I took a couple days off for the holiday, which was a nice excuse for getting a break from the vog and ash. Home again, yup we're back to dealing with the volcano. Things have escalated, as expected. 

Down in Puna, lava is still erupting from the various fissures. More lava has flowed over the ground. One flow has overrun two of the geothermal wells there. There has been much anxiety about what would happen if that occurred, but apparently nothing of out of the ordinary happened. No explosions, no gas eruptions, nothing. Just more land covered by lava. More lava is flowing in other areas, destroying more homes, at least 10 but probably more. At least one fissure has fountained very high into the air, creating Pele's hair, fine golden strands of volcanic glass. The advancing lava is forcing more residents out of their homes. 

Here's some maps that we reference in order to keep an idea of what's going on.....

Meanwhile up at the summit, things are also escalating. More earthquakes, some now in the 4 magnitude category. More frequent ash plumes. In fact, on our way out past the volcano Sunday morning, we witnessed an ash eruption. Very, very impressive. Just a small one, but still amazing. We also noticed that there are a lot more cracks in the roadway up there. 

On our approach to the volcano we passed by ash laden rain clouds hanging over Kapapala Ranch.