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Glowing red lava spews from fissures

Saturday, 19 May 2018 1:45 AM [ Last Update: Saturday, 19 May 2018 1:55 AM ]

Lava erupts and flows from a Kilauea volcano fissure on Hawaii's Big Island on May 18, 2018 in Kapoho, Hawaii. (AFP)

Two weeks after fountains of lava and poisonous gas from Hawaii's Kilauea volcano forced hundreds of people to flee their homes in the middle of the night, things were only getting worse for residents on Friday following one of its largest eruptions and worst sulfur emissions.

As Kilauea simmered on Friday, oozing lava from 22 fissures on its eastern flank, residents of Pahoa on the Big Island exchanged their natural pasttime of whale watching for observing the lava bombs erupt in their back yards. The first evacuations came before dawn on May 3, when the volcano began its current cycle of eruptions and earthquakes.

Kilauea spewed ash nearly six miles (9 km) into the sky on Thursday in what scientists warned could be the first in a string of even more violent explosive eruptions.

Geologists say it remains unlikely Kilauea will have a massive eruption like that of 1790, which killed dozens of people in the deadliest such event to occur in what is now the United States.

Lava erupts from a Kilauea volcano fissure near a home at dawn on Hawaii's Big Island on May 18, 2018 in Kapoho, Hawaii. (AFP)

Kilauea's falling lava lake has likely descended to a level at or below the water table, allowing water to run on to the top of its lava column and create steam-driven blasts, they said.

A spike in toxic sulfur dioxide gas levels has closed schools around the town of Pahoa, 25 miles (40 km) east of the volcano, where lava from giant cracks has destroyed 40 homes and other structures, and forced about 2,000 residents to flee.

Source: Reuters

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