Loading ...For those who have looked at the USGS web pictures site I posted last night, you may have some idea of the huge hole in the summit of the volcano… getting bigger every day.
Halemaumau crater was a scant 4 acres in size in a corner of a larger caldera area of the summit. The earthquakes keep collapsing the sides of the rim in, and it has begun eating away at the caldera rim cliff where the USGS observatory and Jaggar Museum (now evacuated) are located. The hole in the ground now encompasses 130 acres and is over 1,000 feet deep… and it is still crumbling inward.
Today the USGS and Park Service staff were moving out artwork and equipment from the museum to abandon it. The building is structurally damaged, and the ground is cracking at the front of the building. It could soon fall into that big hole.
Today’s 5.3 magnitude steam explosion happened at 1:30pm local time. Following the pattern, it will be quiet for around six hours, then the small 2.5 to 3.3 earthquakes will begin slowly, then with increasing frequency overnight until tomorrow they are coming at the rate of one every five minutes or less. Then again tomorrow we will have another ‘Hawaii 5-0’ magnitude steam explosion. All the while the hole keeps getting bigger.. and bigger.