Hawaii volcano update: Huge crater EXPANDING – could SWALLOW major volcano museum
FEARS are growing Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano could devour a nearby volcanology museum used by the United States Geological Survey’s (USGS) Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) team to monitor summit activity.
By KAT HOPPS
Express.co.uk
Thu, Jun 28, 2018
Kilauea’s Halemaumau Crater has lost the equivalent of 100,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools, or 250m cubic metres of mass, since eruptions began on May 3.
Cracks have starting appearing inside the Jaggar Museum in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, with staff “very doubtful” they will ever be able to return.
As explosions continue to rock the summit with up to 5.3 magnitude quakes, the area’s subsidence continues to slump.
Jessica Ferracane, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park spokeswoman told Hawaii Tribune Herald: “Every single day, we are sustaining damage from these ongoing earthquakes.
The cracks and the fractures along the overlook of Jaggar go through rock walls down through the ground.”
She added: “It’s very doubtful we would ever return to Jaggar Museum and the USGS HVO building.”
USGS’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory were relocated to the University of Hawaii’s Hilo campus six weeks ago after the building was deemed unsafe.
The scientific agency said on Twitter on Tuesday: “The current slumping and rocksliding is a response to magma draining from the former summit lava lake. However, we don’t know if or when the lake might reappear.”
Just a week ago aerial photos showed the devastating size and the vulnerability of Jaguar Museum pictured close by.
What is the Jaggar Museum?
The museum dedicated to volcanoes was built in 1927, named after the geologist Thomas A Jagger who founded the HVO.
After the 1908 Messina earthquake saw 125,000 perish in Italy near Mount Etna, Mr Jaggar said “something must be done” to support studies of volcanoes and seismic activity.
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