MARCH 17, 2017--The week of March 13 OR&R’s Emergency Response Division (ERD) provided guidance to USCG Sector Honolulu for establishing a science-based safety zone where lava flowing from Kilauea Volcano is currently entering the ocean at Kamokuna on the Big Island of Hawaii.

ERD collaborated with scientists from the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory and Hawaii Volcanoes National Park in this effort. ERD evaluated the risk of floating vessels operating near the lava flow being blown ashore by winds if they lose power. Among the potential threats to vessels are tephra jets, scalding, acidic water, and corrosive gas mixtures of steam, hydrochloric acid droplets, and volcanic glass particles. Collapses of sea cliffs, deltas and the submarine slope can generate waves and surges as well as ballistics that can be thrown in all directions from the point of collapse.

The Kilauea Volcano’s ongoing eruption began in 1983 and ranks as the most voluminous outpouring of lava from the volcano’s East Rift Zone in the past five centuries.

For more information, contact Ruth.Yender@noaa.gov.

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