The Kilauea volcano is still releasing lava from an eruption on 27 June, which is now threatening a nearby highway. Highway 130 is an important thoroughfare on the island, and lava is now approaching the roadway as the red-hot liquid rock cruises through an abandoned rural area. It is expected to reach Pahoa Village Road, providing lava access to the highway in the first week of October. Between 15 and 17 Sept., the river of lava, 300 feet across, traveled 810 feet.
Kilauea is one of the most active volcanoes in the world, and lava flows from the formation usually travel north from the mountain. This latest eruption did just the opposite, traveling toward the south.
Around 8,500 people depend on Highway 130 to travel to work each day. Officials in the community are constructing a series of unpaved road to act as detours when lava crosses the thoroughfare.
Lava is also threatening the Wao Kele o Puna Forest Reserve, home to several species of endangered animals. A new vent opened on 27 June starting the eruption and 17 Sept., the lava flow traveled a total of 10 miles. Over that time, the red-hot liquid rock crossed the terrain at an average rate of 960 feet each day.
Kilauea, the youngest of the five volcanoes that are the basis of the large island of Hawaii, is estimated by geologists to be between 300,000 and 600,000 years old. The highly-active volcano is said to be the home of Pele, the Hawaiian Goddess of volcanoes. Tradition states that her anger is the cause of frequent eruptions of the geological feature.
The United States Geological Study (USGS) has raised the aviation warning level over the island to orange. A massive eruption of the volcano could send debris high into the air where commercial aircraft travel. If this material enters jet intakes, the great heat inside the engines can turn the debris into glass, destroying the motors, potentially threatening flights.
"On August 18, the flow entered a ground crack, traveled underground for several days, then resurfaced to form a small lava pad... This sequence was repeated three more times over the following days... Lava emerged from the last crack on September 6, forming a surface flow that initially moved to the north, then to the northeast, at a rate of 400 m/day (1,300 ft/day," the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory reported.
Kilauea has been releasing lava nearly constantly since 1983. The town of Kalapana was destroyed twice - in 1990 and 2010 - by southward flows from the volcano.
While most people are getting out of the way of the lava flow, volcanologists are risking their lives traveling near the lava in order to monitor the eruption.
Retail outlets in the town of Pāhoa, three miles ahead of the lava flow, are holding "fire sales" to reduce inventory before the stream can arrive.
