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Hawaii Volcano: Kilauea Lava Boiled Away Big Island's Largest Freshwater Lake

posted by janrinok on Wednesday June 13 2018, @07:22PM   Printer-friendly
from the unexpected-consequences dept.

realDonaldTrump writes:

"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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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by frojack on Wednesday June 13 2018, @09:41PM (4 children)

    by frojack (1554) on Wednesday June 13 2018, @09:41PM (#692549) Journal

    Actually, lava flows have been steered via water cooling in a number of instances.

    Efforts to reduce damage caused by the force of the lava flow have been made several times, notably in the form of the construction of dikes or ramparts. The protection measures at Heimaey are undoubtedly the most extensive that have ever been used in a volcanic eruption. The chief reliance was upon cooling by water. This method has been tried previously on a small scale in Hawaii in about 1960, where the spraying was done directly on the lava margin and was considered to have produced results [Editor's Note: Bolt and others, 1977; Blong, 1984; Macdonald and others, 1986]. Perhaps an experiment of this kind was also [said to be] undertaken at Mt. Etna (on Sicily, Italy) a few years ago.

    https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/1997/of97-724/lavacool.html [usgs.gov]

    More detailed information about an Iceland water cooling project:
    https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/1997/of97-724/methods.html [usgs.gov]

    Water flows necessary to actually cool the lava leading edge enough to form a steering dike takes a while to set up, huge pumps and you need to do it on the right type of terrain, to steer the flow, not try to stop it. How would civil authorities decide to sacrifice one subdivision in favor of another?

    Hawaii is kind of fatalistic with regard to lava flows. Its easier to just get out of the way, and it might cost less in the end.

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  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday June 13 2018, @10:06PM

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Wednesday June 13 2018, @10:06PM (#692567)

    Usually, when you do clever things to alter nature: dams, levees, causeways, channels, etc. there are unexpected prices to pay later (unpleasant ecosystem development, more dramatic flooding when it comes, accelerated erosion, etc.), and maintaining the clever structure can quickly cost more than building it in the first place. Getting clever with lava flows is like asking Pele to teach you a lesson.

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  • (Score: 2) by cubancigar11 on Thursday June 14 2018, @05:24AM (2 children)

    by cubancigar11 (330) on Thursday June 14 2018, @05:24AM (#692723) Homepage Journal

    I going to patent an idea right now: Use all the plastic garbage USA dumps in the ocean to build a wall around lava to divert its flow. There will never be shortage of plastic and ocean will get clean. The only downside is all the poisonous fumes but how are you going to avoid it during a volcano anyway?

    • (Score: 2) by frojack on Thursday June 14 2018, @03:44PM (1 child)

      by frojack (1554) on Thursday June 14 2018, @03:44PM (#692967) Journal

      The US does not dump plastic or garbage in the Ocean. So file your patent claims in south east Asia.
      And do a little research maybe.

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      • (Score: 2) by cubancigar11 on Thursday June 14 2018, @06:37PM

        by cubancigar11 (330) on Thursday June 14 2018, @06:37PM (#693097) Homepage Journal

        Fine man we get the garbage from wherever. Patented ideas are country agnostic because ideas are country agnostic. Way to miss the meat for the skin.