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An eruption from Hawaii’s Kilauea Volcano has prompted the evacuation of more than 1,000 residents and the declaration of a state of emergency in affected areas. There are reports of lava rolling into several areas including roadways, forestry areas and close to residential districts.

is a geologist and professor in the Department of Earth Sciences at ���ϲ�����’s College of Arts and Sciences. He is also one of the principal investigators of the , which provides a laboratory setting to experiment with volcanic eruptions. Karson says this latest eruption in Hawaii represents just one small addition of lava to the mountain.

Karson says:

“Besides the danger of exposure to hot lava spatter and flows (~1200°C or 2200°F- 5 times hotter than your oven’s maximum temperature), other hazards are fissures opening along the rift zone, fires and poisonous sulfur dioxide gas emissions. The eruption could last for a few days or much longer.

“The ongoing eruption in Hawaii is no surprise. In a geological sense, this is ‘business as usual’. The big island of Hawaii is a giant volcano- the largest on Earth- most of which is below sea level. It has been built up by countless lava flows over about half a million (500,000) years. This eruption represents just one small addition of lava to that mountain.

“The Kilauea center has been erupting for decades and this is just a slightly more vigorous phase. Recently, lava from the summit of Kilauea has been advancing in surface flows. The current eruption is a fissure eruption with lava fountaining and flowing from vertical conduit injected along the East Rift Zone, comparable to the Holuhraun eruption in Iceland in 2014-15.”

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