Posted on 10/23/2017 3:09:38 PM PDT by JimSEA
Mauna Loa is showing persistent signs of volcanic unrest. Since 2014, increased seismicity and deformation indicate that Mauna Loa, the volcano that dominates more than half of the island of Hawaiʻi, may be building toward its first eruption since 1984.
Thousands of residents and key infrastructure are potentially at risk from lava flows, so a critical question is whether the volcano will follow patterns of previous eruptions or return to its now historically unprecedented 33-year slumber.
Mauna Loa has erupted 33 times since 1843, an average of one eruption every 5 years [Trusdell, 2012]. Typical of shield-building Hawaiian volcanoes, Mauna Loa hosts a summit caldera and two rift zones, the Northeast Rift Zone (NERZ) and the Southwest Rift Zone (SWRZ; Figure 1, inset).
Since the two most recent eruptions, in 1975 and 1984, monitoring by the U.S. Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory has changed dramatically. Ground-based instruments continuously record signals from global navigation satellite systems (GNSS, of which GPS is one example), measuring the changing shape of the ground surface in near-real time, and interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) provides extensive spatial coverage of deformation. Seismic monitoring has also improved with the addition of more stations, increased data fidelity, and improved data analysis.
(Excerpt) Read more at eos.org ...
Of possible interest.
Earth doing what earth does, eh?
Mother Nature adjusting her girdle. :-)
Readings already contaminated by gases from other volcanic activity on the island, so readings have to be “corrected” (wink, wink) to give an “accurate” reading for global warming purposes.
That’s funny! :^)
There is also a volcano in Indonesia, on Bali, which has been unstable and likely to erupt.
I’ve walked through the lava tubes. Too cool!
If you’re old enough to remember girdles, not these new-fangled Spanx thingies, you’ll really appreciate the metaphor. ;-)
Indeed I am. Your comment was very nicely done!
And don’t forget the Yellowstone formation. Last week I heard an announcement that the supervolcano under the park could blow sometime in this century. If that happens, kiss everything west of the Mississippi River goodbye.
Yes and the Bali volcano is likely to be an explosive one with pyroclastic flows and lava “bombs”. Not a good one to be anywhere close to.
The British tabs were having kittens about La Palma a few days back. That seems to have quieted down now.
Global warming! Trumps fault!
I was there exactly one year ago.
yeah TLC did a few documentaries about La Palma in the early teens. Let’s hope so.
Thanks for posting. That’s an easily readable and understandable article. My daughter lives in Waikiki and they get the VOG from Mauna Loa activity.
The 1975 and 1984 patterns sure do look like the past four years.
The synthetic interferometry technique is interesting. The article says the radar beam was tilted 35 degrees off vertical during the satellite passes. They don’t say how they correct for the slope of the mountain flanks.
Don’t forget Vesuvius, especially if there is a Pliny eruption. Cue in the guy forever immortalized trying to crawl away.
I've had the pleasure, as well. It's where the legend of the Menehune started. The tubes creak (from cooling lava) and echo, just like little creatures walking around.
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