A tide of molten rock has turned a Hawaii street into a volcanic wasteland as the number of homes destroyed by the erupting Kilauea volcano continues to soar.
The destructive fury of the erupting volcano was unleashed on the Big Island's Leilani Estates, with the number of homes destroyed leaping to 82.
Some 2,200 acres of land have been torched by lava since May 3, in what is likely to be the most destructive eruption of Kilauea in more than a century. NASA scientists have released an extraordinary image of Kilauea volcano erupting on Hawaii’s Big Island. View the latest pictures and aerial shots from Kilauea's volcanic eruption. The amazing picture as seen from the International Space Station (ISS) during Expedition 55 shows ash spectacularly pluming from Kilauea’s summit.
In just the past 24 hours there were between 250 and 270 earthquakes at Kilauea's summit, with four explosions yesterday sending ash to altitudes as high as 12,000-15,000 feet.
On May 3rd 2018, the Kilauea volcano on Hawaii’s Big Island erupted from new fissures and sent lava flowing over streets and neighborhoods.
Winds are set to shift on Monday and Tuesday, causing higher concentrations of ash and volcanic smog that will spread west and northwest to affect more populated areas.
On May 3, 2018, a new eruption began at a fissure of the Kilauea volcano on the Island of Hawaii.
Kilauea is the most active volcano in the world, having erupted almost continuously since 1983. Advancing lava and dangerous sulfur dioxide gas have forced thousands of residents in the neighborhood of Leilani Estates to evacuate.
A number of homes have been destroyed, and no one can say how soon the eruption will abate and evacuees can return home.
The ongoing eruption of Mount Kilauea is the biggest seismic event in Hawaii for decades.
MOUNT Kilauea is showing no signs of letting up, as Big Island continues to feel the destructive fury of the volcano. With 270 earthquakes recorded yesterday in just 24 hours, here is the latest on Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano. National Weather Service meteorologist John Bravender said that the flurry of earthquakes caused four massive explosions from the volcano’s summit, sending ash clouds up to 4,500 meters into the atmosphere.
Winds are set to shift on Monday and Tuesday, causing higher concentrations of ash and volcanic smog - ‘vog’ - that will spread west and northwest to affect more populated areas, Bravender said.
U.S. Marine Corps and National Guard helicopters are on standby for an air evacuation near Highway 130, the last exit route for coastal residents
Cracks in the highway are being monitored for hydrogen sulphide gas emissions which would indicate magma was rising towards the surface and new fissures opening.
Lava from the volcano continues to drain underground from the main summit’s lava lake, sinking into the fissures which spread out like fingers and explode through cracks in the earth. The volume of lava being pushed out of the fissures is now forming massive 30-metre high cinder cones - a steep conical hill of volcanic matter.
Magma continues to spew from these mounds, filling up in pools at the top and overflowing, causing streams of viscous lava to flow across swathes of land, devouring everything in its path.
US Geological Survey geologist Wendy Stovall said: "It's this tide of lava that rises up and overflows itself on the edges and keeps rising and progressing forward.”
The USGS tweeted earlier that a flow of lava has once again entered the Puna Geothermal Venture (PGV) - a geothermal plant which provides a quarter of Big Island’s electricity.