Today marks the 12th week Kilauea has been erupting and magma started erupting from the ground in Kilauea Volcano’s Lower East Rift Zone (LERZ) on Hawaii’s Big Island.
The volcano began its activity on May 3 and sent channels of flowing lava over entire communities, lakes and even filling in an entire bay.
New pictures have emerged of the lava entering the ocean as several small lobes of lava were pictured oozing out from crusted flows along the southern ocean entry.
Other pictures show dust being stirred up within Halema’uma’u crater and along the caldera walls after a series of earthquakes.
A recent report from the US Geological Survey said the eruption could last months or even years and threaten new communities on the Big Island.
The report said: “If the ongoing eruption maintains its current style of activity at a high eruption rate, then it may take months to a year or two to wind down.
“While this seems to be the most likely outcome, a pause in the eruption, followed by additional activity, cannot be ruled out, nor can an abrupt cessation or a transition to steady, longer-lived activity at a lower effusion rate.”
The report was produced by the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory to help authorities on the Big Island deal with potential risks from the volcano.
The most hyperactive fissure continues to be fissure 8 as a high volume of molten rock continues to flow underground from Kilauea summit lava reservoir.
Lava is surfacing in the same area it did in previous eruptions – about 40km (25 miles) down Kilauea’s eastern side – as it did in 1840, 1955 and 1960, the report said.
However in terms of the lava produced in this eruption, it has already exceeded the combined volume from the eruptions in 1840, 1955 and 1960.
If Kilauea continues at the same rate for a total of two years, it could produce about 5 billion cubic metres of lava – the same amount which gushed out when a dam in Laos collapsed earlier this week.
The ongoing eruption has the potential to become the longest in the volcano’s recorded history.
The report noted the constant flow of lava over the past several weeks and lack of ground deformation indicate there is pent-up magma underground and pressure to keep the eruption going for some time, with or without breaks in the flow.
Geologists have also said as the lava is concentrated around one fissure – Fissure 8 – the lava pressure remains high.
Lava is flowing at an estimated rate of 100 cubic metres per second and shows no signs of waning pressure.
Geologists have said the eruptions may have stopped in previous decades due to multiple fissures opening up in Kilauea’s lower east rift zone, the report said.
Lava is flowing to the ocean from the “source cone” of fissure 8 through a channel about 16 to 22m above the ground.
However a breach in the current channel could divert the lava in a new direction and put other areas at risk.
The report said: “The main hazard form the source cone and the channel system is a failure of the cone or channel walls or blockage of the channel where it divides in narrower braids.
“Either could divert most, if not all, of the lava to a new course depending on where the breach occurs.”
The report said it only considered risks from a change in lava flow direction to communities to the north of the channel as residents there have not been evacuated, whereas residents to the south have already left their homes.