Monday, February 13, 2017

Unique lava, unforgettable pictures


For a brief time a few days ago, Hawaii's Kilauea volcano created an amazing geological event.

You see, Kilauea has been pumping out lava for quite awhile, and one of these lava flows recently entered the ocean.  Lots of fun things happen when lava meets the ocean;  explosions, steam, acidic water vapor, shards of lava, Pele's Hair, and notably, the formation of cooled lava that builds up as the lava pours in can suddenly collapse and fall into the ocean waters, which is Not Safe (and people have died when it happened).

Well, it did happen, and fortunately this time nobody died.  But after the fume cleared, there was a single massive flow of lava pouring powerfully into the ocean -- a "firehose flow".  It was a remarkable and short-lived phase of an eruption that has been going on for decades.  Well, that's what these kind of volcanoes do, they keep erupting fast-flowing basaltic lava.  That's why the Hawaiian islands look like they do.

So, below is a link to the Daily Mail article about it, which has videos, too, and I borrowed a picture. I don't think the photographer was in a save place when he took these shots, but they are great.

Now that's one brave photographer! Stunning new images taken just METRES away show a firehose of lava pouring from Hawaii's Kilauea volcano




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