Kīlauea Eruption Update: Changes, Milestones & Volumes, November 4, 2021
3:03 AM · Nov 5, 2021As the eruption continues feeding the rising lava lake, it lifts the hardened crust, oozes out around the crater edges, and has now started to slowly flow onto the lowest down-dropped block. The spatter cone around the West Vent continues to evolve, lifted by the lake, growing outward into it, and tubing over its entry channel into the lake. The fountaining observed in past weeks has been replaced with low roiling and higher bursts of spatter, as the vent becomes further submerged. Epic views from the public overlook within Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park document the changes, with every visitor experiencing a unique moment in its evolution. We share a series of time-lapse videos produced from our own footage as well as USGS webcam imagery, as well as reviewing the most recent offerings, updates and data courtesy of the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. Based on their most recent release of statistics, we calculate rough eruption rates and offer comparisons to the 2020 and 2018 eruptions, while discussing live viewer questions as we go as usual. The eruption still poses no direct threat to people apart from its gas and particulates, shifting our focus to the observed processes and their context in volcano science. https://youtu.be/5Ou9cVeK_og