Hawaii's Volcano Observatory says the creeping lava flow from Hawaii's Kilauea Volcano is a slow motion disaster and it has been advancing up to 150 metres per day over the past week.
Transcript
Hawaii's Volcano Observatory says the creeping lava flow from Hawaii's Kilauea Volcano is a slow motion disaster and it has been advancing up to 150 metres per day over the past week.
Geophysicist, Mike Poland, told Jenny Meyer the volcano has been active since 1983 but a change in direction of the flow and the downhill slope is now threatening access to a more populated part of Hawaii's Big Island.
MIKE POLAND: The flow right now is headed for a small town, the village of Pahoa. And the forecast paths would take it through that town and then through another subdivision, if the flow were to continue in the downslope direction it's headed now. So it would have a huge impact on anyone living in that area. And then it would eventually cut this highway that serves nine or ten thousand people that live in this one district of the island. And unfortunately that's the only paved highway in and out of that district. And so if it cuts that highway then the people that live there will have to rely upon some unpaved roads that have been prepared sort of in an emergency situation like this. And those roads are also in the flow pathway so eventually those roads may also be covered. It's certainly going to impact the people that are in the path of the flow but it has the potential to impact so many more people just by cutting off the whole access to the whole part of the island.
JENNY MEYER: So this is really like a slow moving disaster in some respects, with this kind of slow creep of lava, is that what you're saying?
MP: Yeah, I think that's a good way of putting it. This is a slow motion disaster. You can see it unfolding, you can see it happening. And it's not like a tsunami or an earthquake, where over just a few moments, or even a catastrophic eruption, where in seconds to minutes, even hours, the disaster comes and does what it's going to do. This is all happening in slow motion. And you know this eruption has been going on for 31 years. With the new direction of the flows, who knows how long that will remain active. It may be that this sort of activity goes on, not just for days, weeks or months, maybe it goes on for years. So there's a lot of uncertainty in how long the flows will be impacting this part of the island. And how far they will go, whether or not they will impact some of this critical infrastructure.
JM: And what is the likelihood of the volcano actually erupting with a lot more force and suddenly changing it's behaviour?
MP: That's a very good question. Because the advance rate of this flow seems to depend on just how vigorous the eruption is maybe as you might expect. And for the last few weeks the vigour has been down relative to when this flow first started really pumping out of the volcano. That started on June 27th. And for the last week or two the vigour has been down quite a bit but the flow is still creeping along. There's always the possibility that the eruption rate will increase and the flow vigour will increase accordingly. And that's not something that's easy to forecast. All we can do is measure what's coming out of the volcano right now. And it's difficult to ascertain whether or not that rate of lava eruption may change, either increasing or decreasing, over a course of days to weeks.
JM: And how are people reacting to the situation? Are some businesses starting to close and are people moving to other parts of the island or even off island? What's happening there with the community reaction?
MP: Well the reaction I think is varied. There are those people that have actually moved their homes, physically had a moving company come and put their home on a truck and drive it out of the immediate danger zone. There are other folks that have started making plans for possibly living in another part of the island. And there are those that are just going to stay put, and even if the flow cuts off access via the highway, that's their home.
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