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Some of you have been wondering how we are doing over here, in Hawaii, during the over active Kilauea Volcano. First, thank you for your concern, most of Hawaii is doing fine. My family and I live in Honolulu. The only affected area rignt now is at the Leilani Estates, on the the Big Island.
Honolulu is on the island of O'ahu, about 229 miles from the volcanic eruption and earthquake areas. All the excitements are on the Big Island, also known as Hawaii (same name as the State), the southern most and the biggest of all the islands that make up the Hawaiian Islands. See map below.
The eruption was caused by the newly collapsed volcano vent (Pu’u O’o) which sits on top of a band of liquid lava, like an underground river. The liquid magma (lava), which normally escaped through this vent, had no place to go. Leilani Estates and a few other small communities are built on top of this lava river--hot real estate, right? And that’s why we have “erratic" volcanic eruption. Volcanologists do know of this possibility. They just can’t pinpoint where the lava would decide to break ground and surface along the river. Whenever there’s a rupture on the earth surface, as in this case, earthquakes happen. The Big Island had many tremors right after, mostly very small. Then a big one shook up the Island, measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale. Significant earthquakes usually create tsunami waves.
No tsunami was generated from this 6.9 earthquake, nor from the smaller 5.4 shake, near Leilani Estates--where the flowing lava has already destroyed more than 30 homes. The sea briefly receded about 1 yard at the Black Sand Beach nearby (on the Big Island). Although the bigger quake did shake Oahu, we certainly didn’t feel it.
Because we live across from the ocean and next to a canal, a tsunami is not a good thing to have. So we were blessed that none was generated.
And the blessing continues, as the tradewinds, coming from the North-East, blow the heavy sulfuric acid fumes south westerly into the open ocean and away from the island chain. A few smaller communities south of the eruption (on the Big Island) do suffer from this volcanic by-product, but not as bad as it could, thanks to the strong tradewinds trying to blow it away. Our prayer for no rain by the eruption area was also answered. Any precipitation over these plumes of sulfuric-acid-laden smoke stacks would create acid rain.
On the local news, we learned that there was one family who fled from the California raging fire last year and moved into Leilani Estates. Now their life is distupted again from the unpredictable and destructive lava. It's so sad how some poeple can't escape suffering!
There are some great videos on Youtube and news networks, if you are interested in seeing Kilauea in action.
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