Kilauea is currently an active shield volcano in the Hawaiian Islands, and the most active of the five volcanoes, that together form the island of Hawaii. In the native Hawaiian language, which is Polynesian, ‘Kilauea’ means spewing, and this is the origin of the volcano’s name. A volcanic eruption is often not the explosive, flash flood of lava affair that persists in the popular imagination, largely thanks to the notorious event at Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. Rather, volcanic eruptions can be disasters in slow motion. This is currently the case in Hawaii, where Kilauea, a shield volcano, is releasing a ponderous lava flow that is causing havoc on local communities and causing mass evacuations. But Kilauea’s prominence in the recent news cycle is deceiving; in reality, the volcano has been insidiously erupting for 35 years. Located along the southern shore of the island, the volcano is between 300,000 and 600,000 years old. Although its age, the famous volcano only emerged above sea level about 100,000 years ago. Shield volcanoes are the largest volcanoes on earth. The main difference with shield volcanoes, compared to composite and cinder cone volcanoes, is that they're formed out of lava flows which have a low viscosity. The volcanic mountain has a broad profile and is built up over time by flow after flow of relatively fluid basaltic lava distributing from vents or fissures on the surface of the volcano. The shape and nature of a volcano depends on the viscosity of the magma contained in the volcano and this is how the gently sloping sides are formed. Kilauea is so dangerous towards communities surrounding it because shield volcano’s lava travels for kilometers very easily because of the low viscosity of their lava.
The Kilauea volcano, one of five on the island of Hawaii, began erupting on Thursday, May 3rd. The eruption was caused by the floor of the crater collapsing and after a series of earthquakes over the past week. As a result, lava poured into a mine of tunnels under the mountains into the residential communities around Kilauea. Explosive eruptions that produced significant ash deposits happened when the volcano's summit crater was so deep that its floor was below the water table, letting ground water seep in, forming a lake. Whenever magma erupted into the lake water, violent explosions of steam and volcanic gases resulted, fragmenting the magma into tiny ash particles and driving fast-moving, extremely hot ash-laden steam clouds, known as pyroclastic surges, out of the crater. Explosive eruptions at Kilauea are thought to be caused when water encounters hot magma and flashes into steam. In 1924, this happened after the level of the lava lake in Hemalums’ Crater dropped below the water table. The walls of the crater then collapsed and blocked the opening down which the lava had drained, allowing steam pressure to build up and cause violent explosions.
Kilauea is located in the center of a crustal plate, the pacific plate, away from any plate boundaries. The Hawaiian island chain exists due to the presence of a hotspot under the center of this plate causing volcanism. A "hotspot" refers to a phenomenon of columnar shaped streams, which transport hot material from the deep mantle, of the Earth, to the surface. Like a blow torch, the material burns through the Earth's crust and forms volcanoes. For a long time, it was assumed that these hotspots were stationary but over time geologists have discovered, if the tectonic plate moves across the hotspot, a chain of volcanoes evolves, with the youngest volcano at one end, and the oldest at the other, leading the theory that these hotspots aren't stationary. The size of the Hawaiian hotspot is not well known but is presumed to be large enough to encompass and feed the currently active volcanoes of Mauna Loa, Kilauea, Loihi and, possibly, Hualalai and Haleakala. Some scientists have estimated the Hawaiian hotspot to be about 200 miles across, with much narrower vertical passageways that feed magma to the individual volcanoes.
The Kilauea volcano spewed fountains of lava into communities on Hawaii’s main island, known as “Big Island”. As a result, lava poured into a mine of tunnels under the mountains, on the island, into the residential communities and has spread toxic fumes through most of this region, forcing more than 10,000 people, including many retirees, to flee from their mountainside homes in the areas of Leilani Estates, Pohoiki and Lanipuna Gardens. Molten lava continues to surge into the streets of the East Rift Zone at the base of the Kilauea volcano, leaving dozens of homes in the Leilani Estate and Lanipuna gardens areas compacted in rubble. The latest US Geological Survey (USGS) map of the affected area around Kilauea shows the lava flow continues to surge into the sea off the coast near Pohoiki. Hawaii Civil Defense spokesman Talmadge Mango stated, “the number of buildings swallowed up by the lava jumped from 77 on Thursday to at least 87 during the end of the week”. Due to the horrific eruption, residents have been issued a stark warning in response to the continuing crisis. Evacuate or be arrested. A major obstacle for the residence and tourist on the island at the time was methods to escape the area. This is because earthquakes have continued to plague the area, breaking up connected roads and highways that are vital for evacuees to escape the area. Hotel companies and tourism activities have seen a staggering decrease in bookings, as tourist’s fear visiting the islands due to Kilauea's raging volcanic activity. Big Island’s tourism has slumped by almost 50 percent since Kilauea’s violent eruptions started on May 3, according to the Hawaiian Tourist Board. The island is Hawaii’s largest and most southerly in its archipelago, and tourism is its main industry. More than 30 percent of private sector jobs in 2017 came from the industry alone, according to the Hawaii Visitors Bureau. The main attraction for visitors is usually Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, home to three active volcanoes, including Kilauea. But two-thirds of the park has been closed since May 11 due to the ongoing seismic activity and steam explosions. Holidaymakers, alarmed by surging rivers of lavas and warnings of toxic gases permeating the air, have lead them stay away. The park’s closure has cost Big Island a whopping $166 million, according to the National Park Service. This is estimated to rise further to $222 million when 2,000 jobs are lost due to the park’s tourism decrease. Hawaii’s guesthouse owners and tour guides usually depend on two million visitors to visit Hawaii Volcanoes National Park each year alone. Another economic impact the volcano has imposed is cruise ships have also stopped arriving to Big Island.
Volcanologists can predict volcanic eruptions. If they have a thorough understanding of a volcano's eruptive history, if they can install the proper instruments or tools on a volcano well in advance of an eruption, and if they can continuously monitor and adequately interpret data coming from that equipment. But even then, like their counterparts in meteorology, volcanologists can only offer probabilities that an event will occur. They can never be sure how severe a predicted eruption will be or, for that matter, whether it will even break the surface. They had a decent idea of when and how Kilauea was going to erupt because it does so frequently and predictably, and because after decades of intensive study they know the volcano inside and out. Learning as much as possible about a volcano's previous behavior is the essential first step in anticipating future blows. Such work involves picking through the physical remains of previous eruptions, mapping such old lava flows, pyroclastic deposits, and other volcanic debris distributed around a crater can reveal much about the timing, type, direction, and magnitude of previous blows. Satellite data can greatly aid such mapping. The satellite's purpose is to study environmental problems such as global warming and depletion of the ozone layer, but it will also gather information of use to volcanologists, including gas concentrations in the atmosphere over volcanoes and images clear enough to reveal the fallout from former eruptions.