Kilauea Lava Flows Claim 1 House, 2 More Threatened

A surge of lava from Kilauea, Hawaii’s most active volcano, is gradually encroaching upon the community of Kalapana, on the southwest side of the Big Island. 

Around 3:00 a.m. Sunday morning the flows claimed their first victim, a two-story wooden house. A day later, only the tin roof and pieces of the water tank remained, visible atop of a few feet of lava (shown in the top image). 

No one was hurt during the incident. Residents were evacuated over a week ago, but they have returned every day to check the status of their home. They were there early Sunday morning to bid a final farewell. 

This is the first time in over ten years that Kilauea’s lava flows have destroyed an occupied structure, Matt Patrick of the United States Geological Survey's Hawaiian Volcano Observatory told Discovery News. 

The destruction is likely to continue. Two more houses are now in immediate danger, with the lava front less than 300 feet away.  

The residents of Kalapana, like Andrea Ka`awalo Okita, have a long history of dealing with Kilauea’s menacing flows. 

Okita, whose family’s house is in the line of fire, said, “My family has had to evacuate three times, in the late 1980s, in 1990 -- which formed the flows we are currently standing on -- and now.” 

“Even though we are used to the volcanic dangers and know how to respond, that doesn’t make it any easier,” Okita added. 

A frustrating part of the process is the uncertainty: where will the flows go next and how long will it take? 

Volcanic eruptions, like earthquakes, cannot be predicted. Geologists give their best hypotheses about where they think the flows will go, taking into account a variety of factors. They consider the previous day’s rate of activity, the topography of the land, and the type of land cover, but there are always unknowns.  

During the last two weeks of activity, for example, Kilauea has undergone major changes in its internal plumbing. These involved a series of deflation/inflation events in which magma deformed parts of the volcano as it moved through the crust.

It often takes 17 hours for these types of events to propagate down to the active flow fields in Kalapana, along the volcano’s southern flank. 

The volcano entered a new inflation event Monday night, signaling that more lava is on the way and dashing residents’ hopes that the activity will end soon. 

This latest round of deformation parallels the conditions of the 1990 lava flow event in Kalapana, Tim Orr, head geologist at HVO said. 

The 1990 episode lasted over a year and buried 100 homes, a church, and a store under several feet of lava. The town has never fully recovered.Since then, only around 40 new structures have been built in the Kalapana area on or near land covered by the 1990 lava flows. 

After the historic event, the volcanic activity in the region halted temporarily. Then in late 2007, the flows started back up again covering 15 square miles of land.

Since then, flows have intermittently plagued the region. In 2008 and 2009, 17 structures in the Royal Garden region, north of Kalapana, were destroyed by lava and resulting fires. 

In April and May of this year, activity drew closer to Kalapana but spared the town, moving into the ocean instead. 

By Sunday afternoon, one finger of the active flows had made its way to the ocean. Although the ocean entry is small, Orr thinks it might divert the lava away from other houses. 

In recent weeks, the region of Kalapana has been inundated by thousands of tourists hoping to catch a view of the lava. The flood of onlookers is a persistent irritation for the Kalapana residents who are in the midst of packing up their belongings. 

The destruction of the first house completely changed the atmosphere down in Kalapana, igniting changes in the number of visitors allowed into Kalapana and restricting where they can go.

Images: Zahra Hirji, Property of USGS

Editor's Note: Discovery News blogger Zahra Hirji spent the summer working with the HVO/USGS, which gave her a front-row seat for Kilauea's spectacular volcanic display. Her opinions and reporting are her own, however, and the above post in no way reflects the opinions or views of the United States Geological Survey.