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Rock Face of Kilauea Volcano Collapses
jurt1235 writes "The rockface on the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii recently collapsed over the course of about four hours. The collapse was predicted. The USGS has some great pictures of nature in action. The new rockface, which most likely will fall again, is already being build up by the vulcano." From the CNN article: "The plume, 6 feet in diameter, sent up a tower of steam as it hit the water and began forming a ramp of new land. The collapse of solidified lava shelf and sea cliff Monday was the largest since Kilauea Volcano began its current eruption in 1983."
The rock face of Kilauea didn't collapse. A shelf on the coastline formed by lava flows from Kilauea collapsed. Kilauea is located fairly far inland and has no chance of collapsing without taking a decent portion of the island of Hawai'i with it.
"When you sit with a nice girl for two hours, it seems like two minutes. When you sit on a hot stove for two minutes, it
"Rock Face of Kilauea Volcano Collapses" almost had me lunging for CNN in the hope of spectacular footage of Hawaii sliding into the ocean beneath mile-high plumes of steam and lava, while the USA's west coast falls into panic before the approaching tsunami.
"Biggish Lumps of Lava Miles from Kilauea Fall Into Sea" would be a more accurate description. Maybe the editors can use that for next week's dupe.
For anyone who didn't get it you might read the wiki page for Scientology. However, to spare you from going through an entire page on that "religion", here's the related excerpt:
Space planes and nuclear weapons. The basis for any worthwhile religion.
[insert comments about WMDs and Bush searching for Xenu here
"What do you despise? By this are you truly known." --Princess Irulan, Manual of Muad'Dib
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However, to spare you from going through an entire page on that "religion", here's the related excerpt:
Heh, better yet, download the really funny Southpark Episode on scientology from Xenu.net (free and legal, thanks to Matt Stone and Trey Parker). This is the one that asks Tom Cruise to come out of the closet ~forty times...
Flying is easy, just throw yourself at the ground and miss. -Douglas Adams
"Who owns it?"
The federal government. It's all generally a part of Volcanoes National Park.
"If my 2 3/8 acre lot suddenly got bigger on on side, somehow, would I own it? My neighbor?"
First off, let's assume for the moment that the process of adding new land doesn't destroy any improvmenets (i. e. lava didn't run down your house). If you're on the wrong side of Kilauea, do you want to know what your property insurance rates look like?
But beyond that, even after everything had cooled and solidified, this new land generally isn't anything you'd want. It is black rock; it will bake your sorry ass off in the sun (just ask the triathelets in the Ironman, and the parts they run/bike through is much older and much less reflective than the new stuff). Generally speaking, on Hawai'i, there are two flavors of cooled lava: 'a'a and pahoehoe. 'A'a is essentially broken, jumbled black rocks, but very sharp broken, jumbled black rocks (new rocks means no erosion) that can be trecharous to walk on and can kill a new pair of shoes (or your knees and hands when you stumble). Pahoehoe looks like solidifed toffee, a single, solid sheet of EasyBake Oven.
Not all of the island of Hawai'i is the lush, tropical paradise everybody writes home about. Tropical rainforests (and all that it entails) on the windward side, desert on the leeward, snow on Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa, and an outright moonscape on the wrong side of the volcanoes. Even outside of the national park there is a whole mess of land that won't be selling any time soon.
"Would I have to pay increased taxes on my suddenly-newer lot?"
Probably the other direction; your property value would likely plummet once Pele is done with it.