What is the latest activity at Kilauea?

Bob

Hi Bob,

Your question about the latest activity at Kilauea was well-timed. This is the reply that I got from Dr. Jim Kauahikaua over at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO). They are still trying to recover from that horrible experience of being furloughed, and along comes new activity. I think this will tell you a lot more useful stuff than will be found in any newspapers (ours here in Honolulu are hopeless).

Sincerely,

Scott Rowland

---------- Text of forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 06 Feb 1996 17:28:24 -1000

I can give you a brief account:
Thurs AM summit tilt starts climbing abruptly at around 8:30(?) accompanied by an EQ swarm. Possible summit eruption was warned. 10:30am no change in current eruption and no summit eruption despite continued inflation and EQ. around noon: summit inflation flattened out, Pu`u `O`o got real active, pond level came up, and lava literally geysered out of 3 skylights in the first couple of kilometers of the tube system - Uppermost fountain was about 8 m high and fed a fast moving flow that reached the base of Pulama pali from the base of Pu`u `O`o in around 5-6 hours(?). Dome fountaining tailed off over the next day - flows still active on pali and coast, entry plume still visible, although it did disappear for a while. As of yesterday, we are in a pause, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Forgive the brevity, I'm sure more will be forthcoming when we are sure it's over!

Jim

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