What's been driving Hawaii's lava fountains?
Before the lava fountains started, the ground was expanding by half a meter a day.
Before the lava fountains started, the ground was expanding by half a meter a day.
The short version
- In most cases, hotspot-driven volcanism is relatively sedate, with lava flowing down mountainsides slowly enough that people can walk out of its way.
- But in a number of locations—Mount Etna, Hawaii, Iceland—lava gets expelled in dramatic fountains that can reach several hundred meters in height.
- Right now, we’re not sure what powers them.
What happened
However, thanks to a recent set of eruptions at the Kilauea volcano, we have some of the best documentation yet of erupting lava fountains. In a recent edition of Science, researchers from the US Geological Survey describe what we’ve seen and compare it with what we might expect based on our best ideas about what powers these fountains of molten rock.
Why it matters
Following a major eruption in 2018 that partly drained one of the underground lava reservoirs, there were indications that it was being steadily refilled.
Summary by Nerd News Network. Read the full article at Ars Technica via the links above and below.