Lower Puna residents warned as volcano rumbles and roads crack

Still image from a time-lapse video of lava overflowing onto Halema‘uma‘u crater floor at Kīlauea volcano on Hawai‘i Island. Image courtesy of the United States Geological Survey (USGS) via the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.

At least a couple of cracks formed in the roadways near Leilani Estates in Puna on Hawai‘i Island on Wednesday 02 May 2018, offering up the latest sign that Kīlauea Volcano may be drawing closer to a new eruption.

Hawai‘i Volcano Observatory (HVO) scientists said the area along the east rift zone from Highway 130 eastward toward Kapoho continued to experience lots of small earthquakes as magma migrates into lower Puna. The activity, they said, makes a lava outbreak there a real possibility.

Ken Rubin, professor and chair of the Department of Geology and Geophysics (G&G) said it’s been fascinating to watch the earthquake activity migrate to the Lower Puna area over the last couple of days. “It would be pretty remarkable if the vent opened up there,” he said.

Rubin said that while the area has seen its own eruptions in the historical record, it hasn’t experienced a vent opening that would appear to be linked to the Pu‘u Ō‘ō vent on the mountain. But that doesn’t mean it won’t happen, he said, because the volcano has shown itself to be quite unpredictable.

“Anything is possible,” Rubin said. “The volcano has done all kinds of different things.”

Read more about it and watch the time-lapse video of Halema‘uma‘u Crater at the Honolulu Star-Advertiser (subscription required); read more about it at The New York Times, CNN, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, and ABC.au.

Update: Watch the interview with G&G specialist Scott Rowland at Hawaii News Now and KHON.