Tag Archives: lava bombs

Hawaii tours face new limits after ‘lava bomb’ injuries

A hole, punched through the roof of a tourist boat, is seen, after lava from the Mount Kilauea volcano exploded in the sea off Kapoho, Hawaii, U.S. July 16, 2018. Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources/Handout via REUTERS

By Jolyn Rosa

HONOLULU (Reuters) – Hawaii lava tour boats faced tighter restrictions on Tuesday after 23 passengers were injured by a volcanic explosion, as authorities investigated whether a vessel hit by “lava bombs” went too close to molten rock oozing into the Ocean.

The U.S. Coast Guard now requires boat captains to stay at least 300 meters (yards) from lava flowing into the Pacific Ocean from the Kilauea volcano on Hawaii’s Big Island.

Up until Monday’s injuries, the Coast Guard had set a limit of 50 meters, safety permitting, for experienced lava boat operators such as Shane Turpin, captain of the boat caught in Monday’s explosion caused by lava mixing with seawater.

An investigation is under way on whether Turpin was outside the restricted area at the time of the blast, said U.S. Coast Guard spokeswoman Amanda Levasseur.

“Once we get the confirmation on that it will be released,” she said by phone.

Turpin, owner of Lava Ocean Tours, said he was well outside the zone at the time of the blast.

“We were headed east away from the flows,” Turpin said in a text message. “My recollection is we were around 200 meters from the flow.”

A video posted on Facebook by Will Bryan, a passenger aboard Turpin’s boat the “Hot Spot”, shows the blast and the sound of screaming passengers as rocks rain down on the boat.

“We didn’t expect to be that close,” said Bryan in a Facebook message to Reuters, adding that he suffered a burn and his girlfriend got ash in her eye.

The injuries were the first on a tour boat from flying lava in recent times, according to Levasseur.

Lava Ocean Tours was set to take tourists out on the sunrise trip at 4 a.m., as usual, on Tuesday, although the “Hot Spot” was taken out of service after a basketball-size “lava bomb” tore a hole through its roof, a company saleswoman said.

Asked if the company had seen cancellations, she said “not really”.

Kalapana Cultural Tours, which competes with Turpin’s company, reported normal boat services and no cancellations.

Ikaika Marzo, president of Kalapana Cultural Tours, witnessed Monday’s explosion from a nearby tour boat.

“We try to make things safe for people when we take them out,” Marzo said in a Facebook post.

Hawaii’s tourist agency reassured visitors it was safe to see Kilauea and its lava, the Big Island’s top attractions.

“Today’s unfortunate event is a good reminder about the risks involved with observing a natural wonder like this one and the reason officials are continuously monitoring the eruption to ensure the public is kept at safe distances on land, in the air and while at sea,” Ross Birch, executive director of the Island of Hawaii Visitors Bureau, said in a statement.

Salespeople for helicopter lava tour companies Blue Hawaiian Helicopters and Paradise Helicopters said it was business as usual on Tuesday and they had seen no cancellations.

(Additional reporting and writing by Andrew Hay in New Mexico; Editing by Alison Williams)

Lava threatens Hawaii exit routes, could spur more evacuations

A view of Fissure 17, is seen looking southward from Hwy 132, in Hawaii, U.S. May 13, 2018. Picture taken on May 13, 2018. USGS/Handout via REUTERS

By Terray Sylvester

PAHOA, Hawaii (Reuters) – Lava flowing from giant rips in the earth on the flank of Hawaii’s erupting Kilauea volcano threatened highways on Monday, raising the possibility officials may order thousands more people to evacuate before escape routes are cut off.

Lava from a huge new fissure tore through farmland towards a coastal dirt road that is one of the last exit routes for some 2,000 residents in the southeast area of Hawaii’s Big Island.

More lava-belching cracks are expected to open among homes and countryside some 25 miles (40 km) east of Kilauea’s smoking summit, possibly blocking one of the last exit routes, Highway 132.

Fountains of magma spouted “lava bombs” more than 100 feet (30 meters) into the air as the molten rock traveled east-southeast towards the coastal road – Highway 137 – the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory said.

Volcanic gases rise from a fissure near the remains of a structure in the Leilani Estates subdivision during ongoing eruptions of the Kilauea Volcano in Hawaii, U.S., May 13, 2018. REUTERS/Terray Sylvester

Volcanic gases rise from a fissure near the remains of a structure in the Leilani Estates subdivision during ongoing eruptions of the Kilauea Volcano in Hawaii, U.S., May 13, 2018. REUTERS/Terray Sylvester

Mass evacuations would be triggered if either highway is hit by lava, said Hawaii National Guard spokesman Jeff Hickman.

“There’s a lot of worst-case scenarios and roads getting blocked is one of them,” said Hickman, standing on Highway 137, in the potential path of the lava flow, some two miles (3 km) away.

ERUPTIONS COULD LAST WEEKS

Dozens of homes have been destroyed since eruptions began 10 days ago and officials have ordered the evacuations of nearly 2,000 residents in the lower Puna district of the Big Island, home to around 187,000 people.

The American Red Cross said 500 people sought refuge in its shelters on Sunday night because of worsening volcanic activity.

Two more fissures opened in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 19.

“It’s optimistic to think that this is the last fissure we’re going to see,” said Hawaiian Volcano Observatory Deputy Scientist-In-Charge Steve Brantley. A similar seismic event in 1955 lasted 88 days, he said.

Unnerved by near-constant small earthquakes and emissions of toxic sulfur dioxide gas, Rob Guzman and his husband Bob Kirk left their home in Kalapana Seaview Estates while they still could.

“We just need the local government to calm down the panic that some of these 2,000 people are feeling, that today, we’re going to be trapped with no way out,” said Guzman, who left behind a banana farm and rental properties to go stay with friends.

Cracks are visible along a road in the Leilani Estates subdivision during ongoing eruptions of the Kilauea Volcano in Hawaii, U.S., May 13, 2018. REUTERS/Terray Sylvester

Cracks are visible along a road in the Leilani Estates subdivision during ongoing eruptions of the Kilauea Volcano in Hawaii, U.S., May 13, 2018. REUTERS/Terray Sylvester

The Hawaii Fire Department issued a “condition red” alert on Monday because fissures in the southeast area of the Lanipuna Gardens area were issuing high levels of sulfur dioxide.

“Condition RED means immediate danger to health so take action to limit further exposure. Severe conditions may exist such as choking and inability to breathe,” the department said in the alert.

While residents deal with noxious gas and lava on the ground, the U.S. Geological Survey is concerned that pent-up steam could cause a violent explosive eruption at the volcano crater, launching a 20,000-foot (6,100-meter) plume that could spread debris over 12 miles (19 km).

Scientists had expected such explosions by the middle of this month as Kilauea’s lava lake fell below the water table. The possibility exists, however, that water may not be entering the crater, as feared, and gas and steam may be safely venting, scientists said.

“So far those explosions have not occurred and I think the key here is that the vent system is an open one, therefore pressure is not being built or developed down at the top of the lava column,” Brantley told a conference call.

(Graphic – Scorched earth: https://tmsnrt.rs/2jIJ5lG)

(Reporting by Terray Sylvester in Pahoa and Jolyn Rosa in Honolulu; Additional reporting by Rich McKay in Atlanta; Writing by Andrew Hay in Taos, New Mexico; Editing by Bill Tarrant, Sandra Maler and Paul Tait)

Huge fissures open on Hawaiian volcano, some defy evacuation order

Lava erupts from a fissure east of the Leilani Estates subdivision during ongoing eruptions of the Kilauea Volcano in Hawaii, U.S., May 13, 2018. REUTERS/Terray Sylvester

By Terray Sylvester

PAHOA, Hawaii (Reuters) – Two new fissures opened on Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano, hurling bursts of rock and magma with an ear-piercing screech on Sunday, threatening nearby homes and prompting authorities to order new evacuations.

Lava erupts from a fissure east of the Leilani Estates subdivision during ongoing eruptions of the Kilauea Volcano in Hawaii, U.S., May 13, 2018. REUTERS/Terray Sylvester

Lava erupts from a fissure east of the Leilani Estates subdivision during ongoing eruptions of the Kilauea Volcano in Hawaii, U.S., May 13, 2018. REUTERS/Terray Sylvester

One new fissure from Sunday morning was a vivid gouge of magma with smoke pouring out both ends and was the 17th to open on the volcano since it began erupting on May 3. Some 37 buildings have been destroyed and nearly 2,000 people ordered to evacuate in the past 10 days.

Viewed from a helicopter, the crack appeared to be about 1,000 feet (300 meters) long and among the largest of those fracturing the side of Kilauea, a 4,000-foot-high (1,200-meters) volcano with a lake of lava at its summit.

“It is a near-constant roar akin to a full-throttle 747 interspersed with deafening, earth-shattering explosions that hurtle 100-pound (45-kg) lava bombs 100 feet (30 meters) into the air,” said Mark Clawson, 64, who lives uphill from the latest fissure and so far is defying an evacuation order.

Closer to the summit, in the evacuated Leilani Estates neighborhood of about 1,500 people, explosions could be heard in the distance as steam rose from cracks in the roads. The bulging rim of one fissure wrecked a building, leaving behind torn metal.

An 18th fissure opened nearby on Sunday evening at about 6 p.m. local time, spewing fumes and lava, officials said.

In areas where sulfur dioxide emissions were strong, the vegetation turned brown and leafless trees withered.

Volcanic gases rise from the ground in the Leilani Estates subdivision during ongoing eruptions of the Kilauea Volcano in Hawaii, U.S., May 13, 2018. REUTERS/Terray Sylvester

Volcanic gases rise from the ground in the Leilani Estates subdivision during ongoing eruptions of the Kilauea Volcano in Hawaii, U.S., May 13, 2018. REUTERS/Terray Sylvester

The U.S. Geological Survey warned that fissures could erupt throughout the area, and Civil Defense officials on Sunday ordered people living on Halekamahina Road to evacuate and be on the alert for gas emissions and lava spatter.

Meanwhile, other fissures continued to billow smoke over homes on the eastern point of the Big Island of Hawaii, the largest of the Hawaiian islands.

Even so, some people such as Clawson remained in their homes, confident they would be spared.

“We are keeping track of lava bombs. One went through the lanai (porch) roof of a neighbor’s house,” Clawson said. About eight to 10 neighbors had yet to evacuate, he said.

The Hawaii National Guard is warning people in the coastal Lower Puna area to prepare to leave, saying anyone who chooses to stay behind cannot count on being rescued. An evacuation has not been ordered there but might be if a local highway is cut off.

Volcanic gasses rise from the ground in the Leilani Estates subdivision during ongoing eruptions of the Kilauea Volcano in Hawaii, U.S., May 13, 2018. REUTERS/Terray Sylvester

Volcanic gasses rise from the ground in the Leilani Estates subdivision during ongoing eruptions of the Kilauea Volcano in Hawaii, U.S., May 13, 2018. REUTERS/Terray Sylvester

“We’ve been telling them, ‘Evacuate if you can, because if we have to come in and get you we’ll be putting first responders at risk’,” Major Jeff Hickman told reporters. “There’s a point where we’ll tell our first responders, ‘Nope, you can’t go’.”

 

(Reporting by Terray Sylvester in Pahoa and Jolyn Rosa in Honolulu; additional reporting by Rich McKay in Atlanta; Writing by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Paul Simao, Daniel Wallis and Paul Tait)