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"Lava from the Kilauea eruption has boiled away Hawaii's largest freshwater lake in just a matter of hours.
In a statement released on June 2, the U.S. Geological Survey explained that lava from the eruption's fissure 8 entered Green Lake and boiled its water away, sending a white plume high into the sky.
USGS tweeted that lava entered Green Lake at 10 AM local time. By 3PM, Hawaii County Fire Department confirmed that the lake had filled and that its water had evaporated." foxnews.com/science/2018/06/12/hawaii-volcano-kilauea-lava-boiled-away-big-islands-largest-freshwater-lake.html
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Hawaii Volcano: Kilauea Lava Boiled Away Big Island's Largest Freshwater Lake
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There will be big changes for you but you will be happy.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 13 2018, @08:35PM (10 children)
Anyone see anything about this lakes volume? I can't find it anywhere.
Of course wikipedia lists it as a "former lake" already. But the pictures it has of it don't make it appear very large.
(Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Wednesday June 13 2018, @08:53PM (8 children)
Yeah, I think this was a pretty small lake. Wikipedia claims it was 200 feet deep, and numerous news sources have repeated that, but state data files [hawaii.gov] from Hawaii say its maximum depth is only 20 feet, with a surface area of 2 acres.
(Just wondering aloud -- does no one do anything like fact-checking anymore, or just accept whatever BS Wikipedia serves up? Of course, this was the first official state data file I could find, so it may not necessarily be accurate -- but 200 feet deep vs. 20 feet is a huge difference.)
That's a pretty small lake. May have been important (as not many freshwater lakes in Hawaii) but sounds tiny as bodies of water go.
(Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Wednesday June 13 2018, @09:09PM
Found this [bishopmuseum.org] survey of Hawaiian lakes, which includes a detailed map of the lake with depth indicated on page 6, indicating maximum depth between 6 and 7 meters (about 20 feet).
Perhaps all the "200 feet deep" sources might be fake news.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday June 13 2018, @09:44PM (3 children)
> That's a pretty small lake. May have been important (as not many freshwater lakes in Hawaii) but sounds tiny as bodies of water go.
That's still a lot of water to boil off in less than 5 hours. Maybe I should move there, the kids will get their pasta a whole lot faster than with my not-really-puny gas range.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 13 2018, @10:18PM
I think you mean your Puna lava range.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by AthanasiusKircher on Wednesday June 13 2018, @11:24PM (1 child)
True. With a back-of-envelope calculation, I think it probably would require somewhere around 4.5 gigawatts of power over those 5 hours to evaporate water at that rate. (Someone else can check the math, but I think it's around that magnitude.)
Of course, on the other hand, the volume of the lake was probably only on the order of a million cubic feet. Meanwhile, the current eruption has produced something like 4 billion cubic feet of lava... And a cubic foot of lava could roughly evaporate a cubic foot of water as it cools, so this lake is a tiny fraction of the heat energy produced in the eruption.
(Score: 3, Funny) by JeanCroix on Thursday June 14 2018, @12:55PM
Wow, that's enough power for three trips to 1985!
(Score: 4, Interesting) by FatPhil on Wednesday June 13 2018, @10:01PM (1 child)
As added by "Sounder Bruce" who self-identifies as "I am Bruce Englehardt, board member of Cascadia Wikimedians User Group. I primarily edit articles about the Puget Sound region and Washington, with an emphasis on transportation and the built environment."
As someone who seems to do many dozens of edits a day, sometimes up to a hundred, he seems to satisfy the stereotype of "those who do many dozens of wikipedia edits, sometimes up to a hundred, a day are actually useless cunts" that a group of data scientists concluded (albeit with slightly different words) a few years ago.
Well done, Bruce Englehardt - pat yourself on the back, you're now officially a flag-waving member of the "I am part of the problem" club.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday June 13 2018, @10:09PM
What Bruce forgot to mention was that the 200' deep point in the lake was in a lava tube 6' wide, which silted over in the 1950s.... (also fake news...)
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday June 13 2018, @10:02PM
Shield volcanoes generally don't make big scooped out shapes that hold water (other in the caldera).
Not when the checked facts are less sensational than the easy to find ones.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday June 14 2018, @05:12PM
Most lakes are quiet. Probably this one was also.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.