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Kilauea Volcano Erupts On Hawaii's Big Island (nytimes.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The New York Times: The Kilauea volcano erupted from its summit on Thursday morning (Warning: source may be paywalled; alternative source), spewing an ash plume that reached 30,000 feet above the island of Hawaii, the authorities said. The eruption was the most forceful new explosion so far at Kilauea, one of the world's most active volcanoes. Kilauea has already been triggering small earthquakes, creating gas-emitting fissures and releasing flows of lava that have destroyed dozens of homes this month. The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory issued a "code red" warning that additional activity could be expected. "At any time, activity may again become more explosive, increasing the intensity of ash production and producing ballistic projectiles near the vent," the observatory said. But Dr. Michelle Coombs of the United States Geological Survey said that ash fall from the eruption, which occurred shortly after 4 a.m., was "pretty limited" to the area around Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. She emphasized that the new eruption wasn't the "big one" that some are fearing, drawing a contrast with the eruption in 1980 of Mount St. Helens in Washington State that killed 57 people.
It is a non-issue for your travels.
It also has been erupting for 35 years with significant outflow of lava and sulfur dioxide in the East Rift zone for the last 3 weeks. The lava lake in the Halema'uma'u crater fell (likely feeding the tubes undernath the Easter Rift Zone, although the lava there is still chemically different). As a result of the falling level of the lake, there is nothing pressing outwards on the walls of the crater and rocks are falling in causing periodic burts of ash rising up to 30000 feet this morning. Geologists still expect a steam explosion, similiar to one in 1924, when the lake level falls below that of groundwater and with increasing rock falls likely closing the crater, allowing pressure to build.
We slashdot virgins get nervous when volcanos open up.
Yeah but look on the bright side, apparently the angry volcano can be appeased by throwing a sitting US president into it.
A much better (i.e. much bigger) example is Mt Tambora, 1815, and also in Indonesia (like Krakatoa.)
However the Hawaiian volcanos are the wrong type make a Krakatoa sized bang. If Hawaii wants to create a epic disaster, it would do it by an under sea landslide triggering a tsunami.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Note Hawaii does not feature on this second map, although it is for VEI 7 and 8 volcanos, while Krakatoa was smaller at merely VEI 6.
Quattuor res in hoc mundo sanctae sunt: libri, liberi, libertas et liberalitas.