[Rockhounds] Heavy Rainfall May Have Sparked Kilauea's Explosive 2018 Eruption

[Kreigh Tomaszewski]

Scientists are attributing the 2018 Kilauea eruption
<https://earther.gizmodo.com/kilaueas-recent-eruption-was-the-biggest-in-two-centuri-1831000864>,
which destroyed hundreds of homes on Hawaii’s Big Island, to a surprising
source: intense and sustained rainfall.

Excessive precipitation in the months leading up to the eruption led to the
collapse of rocky support structures near the caldera’s magma chamber,
causing lava to creep up and burst through the surface, according to new
research <https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2172-5> published on
Wednesday in Nature.

The study, co-authored by geologist Jamie Farquharson from the University
of Miami, proposes a new way of predicting the timing and frequency of
volcanic eruptions at Kilauea and other volcanoes. That said, excessive
rainfall is one of many possible triggers leading up to an eruption, so
this is no crystal ball.

https://earther.gizmodo.com/heavy-rainfall-may-have-sparked-kilaueas-explosive-2018-1842999278