Kīlauea Eruption Update: Weekly Volcano Summary & Stories From 2018

Philip will be unable to join us live this week, so Dane takes over the channel… but Philip was able to record an quick update for us. Kīlauea's summit eruption continues to provide great views from multiple overlooks at Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park. Only slight changes over the last week persistent lava lake, but a new lava arc emerged over the cascading ponds. No change to the volcanic threat, the primary hazard remains to be vog, which continues to affect the island despite the favorable summer weather pattern, especially south Hawaiʻi and the Kona side. First, we review the past week's webcams, images and video illustrating the ongoing changes, as well as monitoring data and reports courtesy of the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, highlighting the graphics and discussing live viewer questions as we go. We touch on background earthquake activity and the still-quiet Maunaloa volcano. This week's USGS Volcano Watch article discusses the historic ‘Ailā‘au eruption on Kilauea, known as the largest subaerial Kīlauea lava flow. In the early-1400s, lava erupted from a vent on the eastern-most shield, near the eastern end of Kīlauea Iki crater—commencing the ‘Ailā‘au eruption. The eruption is estimated to have lasted about 60 years during which time about 430 square kilometers (166 square miles) of land was covered by pāhoehoe lava flows. For comparison, the 2018 lava flow covered less than one tenth of this area and the longer-lived Puʻuʻōʻō flows covered about one third. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-l-lE5WsboM