BIO —Uncwitr r arming, miutim;, mn« aw, tm
Volcanoes create natural fireworks
WASHINGTON For the first first recorded eruption in 1832, earthquake activity and swelling
time since records have been kept, through 1950, it averaged one of the mountain, followed by lava
four American volcanoes ap- eruption every 3.6 years. It was flows that may continue for
parently erupted on the same day somnolent from 1950 until 1975. months. Brilliant lava fountains,
this year. The 4,090-foot Kilauea, on Mauna hundreds of feet high, may ac-
At the center of the far-flung Loa’s southeast slope, has been company the eruption,
fireworks was Mauna Loa in much more active in recent years. Despite their comparative
Hawaii, the world’s largest active It’s been erupting periodically safety, the Hawaiian eruptions are
volanco. It began its first eruption since January 1983. awesome, sometimes terrifying
since 1975 early in the morning of All Volcanoes spectacles, displays of nature’s
March 25, sending a threatening Different power that demand respect,
river of lava toward the port city of Volcanoes are like people, Witness Describes
Hilo. The eruption ended three Tilling says. “People are in- Blast
weeks later. dividuals. There’s only one of a After flying over the latest
On March 30, while Mauna Loa’s kind of a particular person, and Mauna Loa eruption at night, a
glowing flow was still going strong, volcanoes must be considered the visitor described “a suffused
Hawaii’s only other active volcano, same way. They share certain fire... Minutes later the plume
the smaller Kilauea, had a brief common characteristics, but each resolved into a crimson, sickle
eruption. That alone was quite an volcano is distinctive.” shaped glow, not unlike the
occasion; Scientists at the Like the other Hawaiian emission from a blast furnace.”
Hawaiian Volcano Observatory volcanoes both of the active ones Three days later, from her
say it was the first time in 116 are on the “Big Island” of Hawaii, campsite some 20 miles distant
years that both volcanoes had largest and newest in the ar- from the lava flow, she wrote: “A
“vigorously fountained” on the chipelago Mauna Loa and smoldering ribbon of 15 miles of
same day. Kilauea are “shield” volcanoes, so molten lava glowed like peat
Others on Mainland named because their broad, newly-fanned by a draft from an
While all this was happening in gradual slopes resemble an in- open door. It was not unlike a
Hawaii, Washington state’s Mount verted shield. double-carnation lei, unfastened
St. Helens, whose violent eruption Their shape is formed by the and stretched along the horizon.”
that killed 60 people in 1980, comparatively smooth, gas-free Tilling of the USGS and his
belched out a towering plume of type of lava that periodically associates at the Hawaiian
smoke and steam. squeezes out of the “hot spot” Volcano Observatory aren’t that
And to top it all off, Veniaminof, reservoirs of magma, the pools of poetic, but they’re enthusiastic
a volcano on the Alaskan Penin- molten rock bubbling more than 30 about what they expect to learn
sula, almost certainly erupted that miles below the Earth’s surface. from this eruption,
day, U.S. Geological Survey Unlike some other types of It was, says Tilling, “one of the
volcanologists say. But a volcanoes, whose explosive best-monitored, the best-studied of
helicopter sent to check it out ran violence has taken an estimated the Mauna Loa eruptions, because
into bad weather and couldn’t 200,000 lives over the past 500 ever since the one in ‘75, when I
verify the eruption. years, the Hawaiian volcanoes was there, we subsequently have
“We probably had a quadruple have caused only one known death greatly increased the in
event,” says Robert I. Tilling, a since records have been kept, strumentation, the scientific
volcanologist at USGS Property damage is another networks on the mountain,
headquarters in Heston, Va. “It’s matter. “It’s going to be the best data
the first known instance of that in The death occurred in 1924, when base for a Mauna Loa-type
the United States.” an over-eager photographer eruption. My guess would be that
The four eruptions, Tilling says, ignored warnings and rushed when we have a chance to really
were unrelated. Even the two forward to record a “phreatic” analyze that data, we’re going to
Hawaiian volcanoes have separate explosion on Kilauea, a bottled-up discover all kinds of things that we
power sources. blast of steam caused by water didn’t know before.”
In itself, the relatively gentle seeping onto the magma. Some things the scientists may
eruption of the 13,680-foot Mauna The more common type of never know. Hanging over every
Loa wasn’t that unusual. Since its Hawaiian eruption is preceded by (Turn to Page B 12)
T BLACK 6. LT.6REY \ \
2. REP 7. GREEN \ J
3. iBUOW 0. LTBROWM
4-. BLUE 9. LT. BLUE ,
5. BROWN 10. LT. GREEN g t '
RIV6RBMT- AS IA NPS _ _
longtab Mississippi aVx-t- 0 Trip
RMBRU/BRB SBTTLBD, 0 ITT 3 _ ±_ 5
7NB RMBR 6BCAMB PA/ ——- LU- A
IMPORTANTNI6NCVAV FOR 5 3__ » 0 r
7HB NAUUN6 OFPFOPIB % '
AND CAR6OBS OF COTTON
ANOSU6AR.TNBSBFLOAT < *
IMG PALACBS PBACNBO r
7NB/RPBAR/NLUXURY 9
A NUMBER OF YEARS BB-
FORB TUB OU/L U/AR. x^
Kiiauea, one of Hawaii's two active volcanoes, erupts in a
fiery tower of lava, sending a glowing river down its slopes.
The 4,090-foot volcano has erupted periodically since
January 1983. Earlier this year, it erupted the same day as
three other American volcanoes - the first known quadruple
event in this country, volcanologists say.
■IRR
, »••••✓
x J
£2