Hawaii volcano latest: Eruption could last YEARS, experts warn
SCIENTISTS have warned that the eruption from the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii could last for years and have so far been unable to predict when the destruction will end.
By PAUL WITHERS
Express.co.uk
Wed, May 9, 2018
Flaming molten lava has continued to spew out of the volcano since last week and it erupted again yesterday – the second time in two days – forcing thousands more citizens to be evacuated.
Residents were told to “go now” on Sunday night after a new fissure opened up in the Leilani Estates – bringing the total to more than 10.
The residential area is home to 1,700 people and is located 12 miles from the volcano, which first began erupting last Thursday.
More than 26 homes have been destroyed, with the latest fissure releasing potentially life-threatening sulphur dioxide gas into the air.
The Hawaii County Civil Defence Agency have said that people in the Lanipuna Gardens neighbourhood are banned from returning home “due to dangerous volcanic gases”.
Lava fountains of up to 100m high have been spewing into the air on Luana Road in Leilani Estates, with no deaths or major injuries so far reported.
Kilauea has been erupting for more than 30 years but scientists are not able to predict when the current event will end, warning it could last for years.
Bill Chadwick, a volcanologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA), said: “We can’t really peer through the ground and see it exactly in all its details and intricacies.
“It could last days, weeks, years. All that’s possible. It’s hard to say, unfortunately.”
US Geological Survey Volcanologist Wendy Stovall claimed it is this unpredictability that makes it vastly different to other natural hazards like hurricanes or tornados, where there is a clear end point.
She said: “Volcanoes will build up pressure, and then they’ll release that pressure in eruption, and then they’ll pause,” says Stovall. “And then they’ll build up pressure again and release the pressure in another eruption and then they’ll pause again.”
“As long as there’s magma supplying the system, we’re expecting more of the same to happen.”
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