[Rockhounds] Hawaii eruption update

[Kitty]

Hi List,

Yesterday Bill and I drove over to Kona to do some shopping.Although our 
property did not appear to be hazy we could smell a faint whiff of 
sulfur in the air when we went outside.As we drove out of Hilo toward 
the Saddle Road, (now named the Daniel K. Inouye Highway) we encountered 
a LOT of vog.It wasn’t too bad in Kailua Kona town but on the way back 
in the late afternoon the Army Pohaku Training Area was almost invisible 
in the vog.Although sulfur dioxide is toxic if you were to put your head 
in the steam coming out of a fissure, the vog spread over the island is 
only slightly irritating to some people;Bill and I and our family & 
friends aren’t bothered by it at all, except perhaps for the slight smell.

We awoke this morning to news (in our local newspaper and on ABC & CBS 
TV networks ) that there had been an explosion at 4:17 a.m., with rocks 
and pebbles being spewed out of Halemaumau Crater and an ash plume as 
high as 30,000 feet.At 25 miles away, we didn't experience any evidence 
of that.

This does not mean that the eruption is over!It may continue for months 
or even years.I’ve looked at the USGS account of Kilauea’s phreatic 
eruption 94 years ago and the pictures (black & white) look very much 
like the color photos in the media today.

More fissures have appeared and more houses have been overrun in the 
area southeast of Kilauea crater.The ash cloud has caused some schools 
in the area to close, and people in the ash cloud area have been advised 
to stay indoors with windows closed, and if they have air-conditioning 
to put it on recycle. Hilo and the northern half of the Big Island and 
all the other Hawaiian Islands are fine, but our newspaper says that the 
visitor industry here is suffering, mostly without reason.So visitors, 
come on!Gary & Dot Brown are scheduled to arrive here on June 4!Yay!

Aloha, Kitty

Here are some links that you might find interesting:

The May 1924 Explosive Eruption of Kīlauea:

https://volcanoes.usgs.gov/volcanoes/kilauea/geo_hist_1924_halemaumau.html

Phreatic eruption:
<https://volcanoes.usgs.gov/vsc/glossary/phreatic_eruption.html>

https://volcanoes.usgs.gov/vsc/glossary/phreatic_eruption.html

Good photos of the current eruption:

https://abcnews.go.com/US/eruption-kilauea-evacuation-dangerous-ash-plume/story?id=55201949