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.

Comments

Re:The Big One?

[amiga3D]

As long as it doesn't go off like Krakatoa did in 1883. That pretty much obliterated the entire Island killing many miles away. Some of the pyroclastic flows reached the Sumatran coast 25 miles away, having apparently moved across the water on a cushion of superheated steam. That would be "the big one."

Hilina Slump

[MrKaos]

One of the areas I'm interested in on this island is Hilina Slump. It shears of a block of land into the ocean quite regularly (about every two years) and is generally expected, however it is overdue for such an event as of now.

Apparently geological evidence has been found suggesting it has been responsible for mega-tsunamis big enough to reach the east coast of Australia. So considering it's proximity to this volcano it is worthy of our attention.