The United States Geological Survey ( USGS ) has been doing an absolutely stellar job keep on an heart on the ongoing , ever - evolving eruptionat Kilauea , involving both explosive pinnacle events and the continual effusion of lava along its flanks in the Lower East Rift Zone ( LERZ ) . From drone footage of the last crevice standing – number 8 – to geologists move up andpoking the lavaitself with a shovel , they ’ve got you covered .
Lately , they ’ve been summarise issue . As a late infographic expose back on June 5 , 30 days after this particular eruption began , about 20 straightforward kilometers ( 7.7 straight miles ) of Big Island had been cover in lava , emitted at different time from 24 fissure venthole .
This sounds like a lot , but it ’s deserving remembering the blast is only pass off in one corner of the island . The “ Big ” in Big Island is n’t an understatement : it ’s about 10,430 square kilometers ( 4,027 square miles ) in size , which means that the said lava has only covered 0.2 pct of it .
Saying that , the USGS take note that in the retiring millennium , 90 per centum of the island ’s Kilauea vent has been covered by lava flows . It ca n’t be understated that this is , without a shadow of a doubt , the world ’s most active volcano , with the current eruption period start up back in 1983 , sport a ( now - drain ) lava lake and the occasional overflow and lava outbreak .
The most interesting factoid , however , have just been release .
On the USGS ’s Twitter provender , they ’ve kindly shared with us the most up - to - appointment ( as of June 7 ) stats . unco , since May 3 , there ’s been enough lava effused to fill up 45,400 Olympian - sized swim puddle , that old classic volcanological comparison unit .
That , as they also notice , is enough to address the whole of Manhattan Island nearly 2 meters ( about 6.5 foot ) bass . Just before you think that ’s impressive , though , the USGS also explain that this is just half the amount unleashed during the1984 Mauna Loa outbreak .
The eruption set about in heartfelt on March 25 in the middle of the nighttime . The volcano began to shine , and fissures appear , move quickly down the southwesterly falling out zone . Lava fountainsmade an appearance as quite a little of tight - actuate lava began to flow in multiple instruction , including toward the townspeople of Hilo . Methane explosionscaused by the thermal decomposition of buried vegetation also took place .
Fortunately , Hilo was keep when natural occlusion to the lava , as well as changing eruptive conditions , spared it . plentitude of lessons were see back then , and the same clearly applies to the effect of 2018 .
