Living with Lava, Tired of Turkey

[Note: This is another blog based on my weekly emails to my family on the mainland.]

12/3/22

Aloha All  -- 

Who's Got the Marshmallows?

Well, the big news here this week, of course, has been the eruption of Mauna Loa that began last Sunday night and has continued all week, with some interesting developments along the way.  Another of our volcanoes, Kilauea, has continued its 14-month summit lava lake activity, so at the moment we have the distinction of being an island with two simultaneous eruptions going on. Lotsa lava!  Now, if we can just get Hualalai  to go off also, we'll have a trifecta!  (I shouldn't say that -- it's the volcano we live on and overdue for an eruption...)

Mauna Loa had been rumbling since September, when the usual 10-15 earthquakes per day increased to 40-50.  Even so, the volcanologists didn't think it was about to erupt.  Here's the official update the morning of the eruption last Sunday: "Mauna Loa is not erupting and there are no signs of an imminent eruption at this time. Monitoring data show no significant changes within the past 24 hours. Mauna Loa continues to be in a state of heightened unrest as indicated by increased earthquake activity and inflation of the summit. The current unrest is most likely being driven by renewed input of magma 2–5 miles (3–8 km) beneath Mauna Loa’s summit."  

They were likely embarassed, then, when lava started spewing in the summit caldera about 11:30 p.m, that night. Oops.  However, Mauna Loa is a very active volcano that has erupted over 30 times since 1843, the first well-documented eruption (that's an average of once every 5 years), so nobody was surprised that it did so again.  In fact, the last time was in 1984, so we were kind of overdue.  I'm sure the volcanologists are carefully looking at how they misjudged the timing and what signs they missed.

Pretty Awesome!

The action at the summit was over in just a couple of days, and the eruption has continued from fissures further down slope, along what's called the Northeast Rift Zone. This shift has been common to about half of Mauna Loa's eruptions. Rift zones are a common feature of shield volcanoes and are natural lines of weakness that form as the volcano grows and settles.  The fissure eruptions have produced some spectacular fountains of lava, sometimes reaching 200 ft. They are in a rather remote area, however, and the best views have come from helicopter flyovers and from a web cam the volcanologists quickly set up.  The lava is flowing to the northeast, away from us, and there is almost no chance it will directly impact us.  Nor are there any communities in the path of the lava, unlike when Kilauea's rift zone eruption of a few years ago took out quite a few houses down south. However, it is looking increasingly likely that lava will cut Saddle Road, a major highway connecting Hilo and Kona.  This will be a major disruption, because many people live on the Hilo side and commute to the Kona side.  Also, a unique problem is that the only landfill on our island is on the Kona side, so trucks have been using the Saddle Road to haul all of the Hilo side trash to the landfill.  Commuters and truck traffic will have to use longer and more difficult routes.  The lava is currently about 4 miles from the highway and has slowed as it reached a more level area.  It could take a week before it cuts the road, but it seems inevitable if the eruption keeps going.

Being the lava enthusiasts that we are, on Thursday night we drove up north and went along Saddle Road to several spots where you could see the lava pretty clearly.  With binoculars we could even see lava fountaining from the most active fissure.  Pretty impressive, and we can add to our life achievement lists two firsts: seeing in person an eruption from Mauna Loa, and seeing lava fountaining in person.

Living with lava for the past 20+ years has taught us to take the dire, shrill, and hey-look-at-this -we're-all-going-to-die-isn't-this-terrible news reporting with a very large dose of "ho-hum."  We'll see what the reality is and deal with it -- yes, there will be vog (but none now), and yes, there will be destruction and disruption (but likely less than Kilauea's last rift eruption).  In the meantime, it seems best to just enjoy the educational entertainment it is providing, the recreational opportunities (lava tube hiking), and the money it's bringing to the island (thousands of tourists spending lots of it). 

In non-volcano news, Karen and I worked out at Planet Fitness on Sunday, trying to do penance for our Thanksgiving over-indulgence.  We had planned to also play golf on Thursday, but the course had to close for the day because their new liability insurance hadn't become effective.  They thought the change would be seamless, but some unexpected legal snafu came up that couldn't be quickly fixed.  Since we're leaving for CA next week, it may be awhile before I can chase a little white ball again. Darn.  We may miss the Nene babies when they make their debut.  We could have played somewhere else, but I'm kind of committed to Makalei and other courses don't interest me much. (Note, that should make clear my lack of seriousness about the game.)

We also managed to finally finish off our turkey.  Even though we bought a small 13-pounder, it has taken a week of lunches and dinners, plus a plate to take to our bachelor next door neighbor, plus freezing a fair amount, to do it justice.  Talk about bang for your buck!  I confess that about mid-week we took a break and barbecued a steak.  I think I've had enough turkey to last another year.  Not sure about steak, however,

We managed to get up more Christmas decorations than I thought we would before our trip, including setting up our (artificial) Christmas tree.  I have a few lights on the outside, and all in all it looks credibly festive.  

Ok, off one more time before our trip to run some errands and to enjoy our beach picnic breakfast.  Bundle up, keep smiling, stay healthy.