Hawaii's Kīlauea Volcano Sports a Happy Face, Says US Geological Survey

In a recent twitter post, the United States Geological Survey reported that Hawaii's Mt. Kīlauea Volcano now shows a happy face. We often see patterns in nature, but this one is especially ironic given that the Big Island is experiencing it's biggest earthquakes in 4 decades.

Kīlauea has been erupting nearly continuously since 1983 and has caused considerable property damage, including the destruction of the town of Kalapana in 1990. On May 3, 2018, new lava vents opened in the lower Puna area, downrift from the summit. The new burst of volcanic eruptions was accompanied by toxic gas jets and strong seismic activity, resulting in nearly 2,000 people being evacuated from Leilani Estates.

Kīlauea is a currently active shield volcano in the Hawaiian Islands, and the most active of the five volcanoes that together form the island of Hawaiʻi. Located along the southern shore of the island, the volcano is between 300,000 and 600,000 years old and emerged above sea level about 100,000 years ago.

It is the second youngest product of the Hawaiian hotspot and the current eruptive center of the Hawaiian–Emperor seamount chain. Because it lacks topographic prominence and its activities historically coincided with those of Mauna Loa, Kīlauea was once thought to be a satellite of its much larger neighbor. Structurally, Kīlauea has a large, fairly recently formed caldera at its summit and two active rift zones, one extending 78 miles east and the other 22 miles west, as an active fault of unknown depth moving vertically an average of a fraction of an inch per year.

"Here's a link to what's going on with magma at Kilauea's East Rift Zone - but more importantly, in apparent sarcasm, nature opened this portal to hell with a happy face?

https://www.nps.gov/havo/planyourvisit/lava2.htm ...

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#Kilauea

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