Friday, March 29, 2024

How dangerous is Mauna Loa’s eruption in Hawaii?

HONOLULU (AP) — Lava is taking pictures 100 ft to 200 ft (30 to 60 meters) into the air as Hawaii’s Mauna Loa, the world’s largest energetic volcano, erupts for the primary time in practically 40 years.

For now, lava is not threatening any properties or communities and no evacuation orders have been issued. Lava may finally attain neighborhoods because it flows downhill although it may take every week or extra for molten rock to achieve populated areas.

Mauna Loa is spewing sulfur dioxide and different volcanic gases. They kind volcanic smog, or vog, after they combine with vapor, oxygen and dirt in daylight. As a outcome, state well being officers are urging folks to chop again on out of doors train and different actions that trigger heavy respiration.

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Mauna Loa final erupted in 1984. It’s smaller, extra energetic neighbor, Kilauea volcano, has been erupting repeatedly for greater than a yr since September 2021.

WHERE IS MAUNA LOA?

Mauna Loa is one in every of 5 volcanoes that collectively make up the Big Island of Hawaii, which is the southernmost island in the Hawaiian archipelago. It’s not the tallest (that title goes to Mauna Kea) however it’s the most important and makes up about half of the island’s land mass.

It sits instantly north of Kilauea volcano, which is well-known for a 2018 eruption that destroyed 700 properties and despatched rivers of lava spreading throughout farms and into the ocean.

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Mauna Loa final erupted 38 years in the past. The present eruption is its thirty fourth since written historical past started in 1843.

The Big Island is largely rural and hosts cattle ranches and low farms however it is additionally residence to a couple small cities, together with the county seat of Hilo which has a inhabitants of 45,000.

It’s about 200 miles (320 kilometers) south of Hawaii’s most populous island, Oahu, the place the state capital Honolulu and seashore resort Waikiki are each positioned.

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Mauna Loa’s quantity is estimated not less than 18,000 sq. miles (75,000 sq. kilometers), making it the world’s largest volcano when measured from the ocean flooring to its summit.

WHERE IS MAUNA LOA ERUPTING FROM?

The eruption began Sunday night at its summit after a collection of enormous earthquakes. It then unfold to vents that fashioned in a rift zone the place the mountain is splitting aside and it’s simpler for magma to emerge.

These vents are on the mountain’s northeast aspect and lava rising there may head towards Hilo which is on the east aspect of the island.

Ken Hon, scientist-in-charge on the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, stated he doesn’t anticipate extra vents to kind on the volcano’s southwest rift zone throughout this eruption. That means communities to the west can be spared lava flows this time.

Mauna Loa’s additionally erupted from the northeast in 1984. That time, lava headed towards Hilo however stopped a couple of miles wanting the town.

Historically, every Mauna Loa eruption has lasted a couple of weeks. Hon expects the present eruption to observe this sample.

IS MAUNA LOA EXPLODING LIKE MOUNT ST. HELENS?

Mauna Loa is not exploding like Washington state’s Mount St. Helens did in 1980, killing 57 folks. That eruption despatched ash hovering over 80,000 ft (24,384 meters) and raining down so far as 250 miles (400 kilometers) away.

The magma in Mount St. Helens tends to be stickier and traps extra gasoline, making it more likely to blow up when it rises. It’s of a range referred to as composite volcanoes, which kind concave cones.

Mauna Loa’s magma tends to be hotter, drier and extra fluid. That permits the magma’s gasoline to flee and lava to circulate down the aspect the volcano the way in which it is beginning to do now. Mauna Loa is a protect volcano, named as a result of the lengthy, broad flanks constructed by repeated lava flows give it the looks of a warrior’s protect.

In 1989, Alaska’s Redoubt Volcano, one other composite volcano, belched an 8-mile cloud of ash that clogged all 4 engines of a KLM Royal Dutch Airlines jet. The aircraft fell 13,000 ft earlier than all engines restarted and the aircraft landed with out harm to the 245 folks aboard.

Mauna Loa launched some ash this time however on a vastly smaller scale than these examples from composite volcanoes.

WHAT HAZARDS ARE POSED BY MAUNA LOA’S ERUPTION?

-Lava: Molten rock may cowl homes, farms or neighborhoods, relying on the place it flows. But lava from the northeast rift zone will probably take not less than every week to achieve populated areas permitting folks time to evacuate if wanted.

-Volcanic gasoline: Mauna Loa is releasing volcanic gases, largely sulfur dioxide. The gases are current in their highest concentrations in the instant space across the summit crater or vents. But additionally they mix with different particles to kind vog, which might unfold throughout the Big Island and even waft over to the state’s different islands.

Vog may give wholesome folks burning eyes, complications and sore throats. It can ship these with bronchial asthma or different respiratory issues to the hospital.

-Glass particles: When sizzling lava erupts from a fissure and quickly cools, it forms glass particles named “Pele’s hair” and “Pele’s tears” after the Hawaiian goddess of volcanoes.

The particles have a tendency to not journey removed from volcanic vents — perhaps just a few hundred yards or a mile and received’t threaten many individuals, stated Aaron Pietruszka, an affiliate specialist on the University of Hawaii’s Department of Earth Sciences.

“It just literally looks like hair strands. And that’s where the fluid lava is stretched by the wind to make long, thin strands,” stated Pietruszka.

The glass bits — as brief as a couple of millimeters or so long as a couple of inches — will be sharp.

“You wouldn’t want to be digging your hands in it because you could get a cut,” Pietruszka stated.

An N95 or KF94 masks would defend in opposition to these glass particles however not in opposition to volcanic gasoline, stated Dr. Libby Char, the director of the state Department of Health.

“Pele’s hair” specimens from Kilauea volcano’s eruption are seen at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.

HOW SIGNIFICANT ARE MAUNA LOA’S GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS?

Mauna Loa launched about 15,000 tons of carbon dioxide per day throughout its 1984 eruption, in response to USGS knowledge.

That’s equal to the annual emissions from 2,400 sport utility vehicles.

Scientists say all of Earth’s volcanoes mixed emit lower than one % of the carbon dioxide that people produce every year.

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