zolac_no_miko: (authentic Hawaiian coconut tree)
[personal profile] zolac_no_miko
I think I may have mentioned that my home is way way way cooler than yours? Like, no offense, I'm sure your home is very nice and I would love to visit it, but ACTIVE VOLCANOES TRUMP EVERYTHING, sorry.

As of March 6th we've got a brand new eruption at a brand new vent on Kilauea, between Pu`u `Ō`ō (where most of the lava's been coming out since this eruption started in 1983) and Nāpau Crater; they're calling it the Kamoamoa eruption. Which I somehow failed to hear about until my mother emailed me a couple of pictures this morning, prompting me to go into a flurry of news-finding and gleeflly gazing at photos and videos and very nearly missing the bus.

Apparently there's been a lot of interesting stuff going on at Kilauea recently; I guess up until recently Halema`uma`u (the summit crater, the other active vent besides Pu`u `Ō`ō, and the home of the volcano goddess Pele) had a pretty sweet lava lake going in it. In recent days bits of the crater wall and rim collapsed into the lake, creating plumes of ash, and the lava lake started retreating into the vent. We had ash plumes at Pu`u `Ō`ō as well as the crater floor started to collapse (all of this magma draining away from under these two vents to feed the new one, presumably). Kamoamoa started up, a fissure opening up in the tephra and spitting out lava. It's a curtain of fire type dealie, with "vigorous spattering" and "low-level fountaining" up to 65 feet high.

I'm really loving the timing on this. AAAAAHHHH, PELE, YOU GORGEOUS, GLORIOUS WOMAN, I MISS YOU TOO!! TT_TT I'LL BE HOME SOON, I PROMISE! You are so freaking badass, okay, you are my very favorite goddess always and forever. PLEASE DON'T BURN DOWN MY HOUSE.

The National Park Service has a pretty excellent video of the new eruption here, and USGS has a really excellent collection of images and videos of the recent activity, updated daily, here. Check it out, yo.

I leave you with my favorite photo from the USGS collection. Under a cut because VOLCANOES ARE HUGE.

Date: 2011-03-10 11:29 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] drownedcities.livejournal.com
You're island may be on fire, but we're still shaking our California booties to the fault lines.

(No, for serious. THAT IS SO COOL. I want to go poke the lava with a stick, nevermind that I would probably die doing so but LAVA. ;A;)

Date: 2011-03-11 12:38 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] zolac-no-miko.livejournal.com
Pfff, we have earthquakes too, you know. XP

Are you kidding? You so wouldn't die. I've totally walked right up to molten lava and shoved a barbecue fork into it and taken some home. We've got two lava forks in our living room. It's just REALLY FUCKING HOT like walking into an oven. You sort of have to hold a hat in front of your face to block the infra red so your eyes don't dry out and you can still see. But it's totally doable, people do it all the time.

Date: 2011-03-11 02:08 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] drownedcities.livejournal.com
THAT IS SO COOL.

Okay, so. I have never been around lava so I always think you have to suit up and go battle lava demons and if you're lucky enough not to melt to death/get eaten, then you get to see shiny molten stuff.

That's what happens when you don't live near this stuff, I suppose.

Date: 2011-03-11 01:13 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cradle-song.livejournal.com
Dude WANT.

Date: 2011-03-11 05:06 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] zolac-no-miko.livejournal.com
We have all the best stuff, it's true. ^_^

Date: 2011-03-11 03:43 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] littlemissgriff.livejournal.com
I admit, I was never as thrilled about volcano eruptions. I just rolled my eyes, bought new car filters, and bitched about having to clean ash off the roof.

Date: 2011-03-11 05:16 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] zolac-no-miko.livejournal.com
Ah, see, that's what's so awesome about Kilauea, it's pretty user-friendly as volcanoes go. We don't do the ash-fall thing very often; I'm thinking last big one was, uh, 1700s? These recent ash plumes were tiny and not bothersome. ...The vog can be vaguely annoying, and I guess when Mauna Loa last erupted in the '80s, the tephra and Pele's Hair falling on Hilo was kind of a pain in the ass. But since 1983 Kilauea has mostly been kind of quietly pumping out a constant stream of lava that you can walk up to and poke with a stick. Best volcano ever! *hugs it... gingerly*

Date: 2011-03-11 09:18 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sirona-gs.livejournal.com
OMG OMG ANGE DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THE EARTHQUAKE IN JAPAN? 8.9 on the Richter scale, and a 10 metre tsunami's hit Sendai and it's bad, really bad. Apparently there's a Tsunami warning for 3am local time in Hawaii. I hope your folks are safe! I'm just now trying to reach my cousin in Japan, and the lines are off the charts, everyone's trying to call everyone else, so it's still not possible. I think he's not on the East coast, but I'll feel a lot better once I know he's okay.

Volcanoes and tsunamis. Your home is definitely exciting!

Date: 2011-03-11 01:26 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] zolac-no-miko.livejournal.com
Just found out twenty minutes ago, have my own post up. This is making it difficult for me to get to work on time. Family should be fine, we're not coastal, and it sounds like they've got evacuations under control anyway. Tsunamis we have lots of practice with. Wish I had more information though.

God, Japan. Not good.

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