Hawaii’s Kilauea Billows 2,500 MT of SO2

Kilauea’s Halemaumau crater billows up to 2,500 metric tons of sulfur dioxide each day

The vog (volcanic fog) billowed out from Kilauea contains large quantities of sulfur dioxide which is killing crops in the Big Island.

With stagnant winds present, Halema`uma`u plume stands straight up, showing off the distant, but bright, full moon [Photo Date: November 13, 2008 ]. Photo Credit: M. Poland; Source: USGS

The U.S. Department of Agriculture declared Hawaii County a natural disaster area, which means the farmers there could apply for low interest loans from the federal government,  a report said.

However, it’s not known what the farmers are meant to do with the money, or how they would pay it back, since there’s no agreement with Kilauea concerning the  SO2 emissions!

In reality these loans should be “relocation grants” to allow the farmers leave the Big Island (in a hurry). As of December 2009, the only indication is that there would more SO2 billowing out of Kilauea in the coming weeks, month and possibly years. That situation could change, of course, but the farmers shouldn’t put too much hope in that.

“We can wash our trucks in the morning and in the afternoon you rub your hand across the top of the truck and it feels like sand paper,” said Phil Becker who, together with his wife, own  Aikane Plantation Coffee Company on the southern part of Big Island.

The Beckers previously grew and sold protea, however, vog has destroyed their plants.

“We’ve only got about three plants left after about 181 is what we started with and we’ve only got three that are trying to survive. It’s also impacted our cattle as far as the grass not recovering the way it usually does,” Phil Becker was reported as saying.

These days the Beckers are focusing their efforts on growing coffee … and even that is suffering. This year’s crop is about a third the size of a normal crop.

Not only So2 reacts with moisture in the air to give extremely corrosive sulfurous acid, which covers the leaves and stalks of plants, killing them, the deadly gas molecules also block the sun as they permeate the stratosphere and prevent needed sunshine from reaching the crops.

Kilauea Status Reports, Updates, and Information Releases

Aerial view of Pu`u `Ō `ō and vicinity

July 21 Eruption Near-view Map: November 25, 2009

Map showing the July 21, 2007 eruption flow field. The Thanksgiving Eve Breakout (TEB) flow is currently active and is that portion of the July 21, 2007 eruption flow field that extends south from the TEB vent to the ocean. Light red is the area of the flow as of November 7, 2009, while the bright red shows the flow field expansion that occurred between November 7 and November 25. Source of Image and Caption: HVO

HVO DAILY UPDATE Tuesday, December 1, 2009 7:47 AM HST (Tuesday, December 1, 2009 17:47 UTC)

KILAUEA VOLCANO (CAVW #1302-01-)
Coordinates: 19°25’16” N 155°17’13” W
Summit Elevation 4091 ft (1247 m)
Current Aviation Color Code: ORANGE
Current Volcano Alert Level: WATCH

Activity Summary for past 24 hours: Kilauea continued to erupt from two vents. At the summit, a lava pond was visible for several hours before draining and crusting over. Sulfur dioxide emission rates from the Halema`uma`u and east rift zone vents remain elevated. From the east rift zone vent, lava flows through tubes to the coast and is entering the ocean at several locations west of Kalapana.

Related Links:

• A New Era of Intense Volcanic Unrest May Have Begun
• Nature’s ‘Deselection’ Engine Revving Up!
• Murphy’s law has no time vector!
• The Fate of Energy Dinosaurs
• State of the World
• Earth’s Human Induced Antiphase Nears Completion
• The Death of Homo Sapiens Sapiens (Part 1)

• Volcanic Explosions Could Split More Than Africa
• Arabia Shakes
• Messages From Earth’s Powerhouse
• FEWW Volcano Links
• Volcanoes
• FEWW Earthquake Links

• Volcanoes affect life on earth
• Volcanoes Killed Off Dinosaurs
• Rhyolitic volcanoes pack a much bigger punch

Other Related Links:

• U.S. Volcano Status Map
• Elevated Activity Page
• U.S. Volcano Webcams

Redoubt Volcano Erupts Explosively

Published at: March 28, 2009 06:05 UTC (March 27, 2009 22:05 AKDT)

Redoubt Volcano Latest Observations (Source: AVO)

2009-03-27 21:55:58 AKDT
At 19:25 AKDT March 27, 2009 (3:25 UTC March 28) an explosive eruption occurred at Redoubt volcano. National Weather Service reports an ash cloud height of about 51,000 feet above sea level. This follows closely behind the eruption that occurred at approximately 17:35 AKDT (01:35 UTC) that sent ash to an estimated height of 40,000 feet above sea level.
See the National Weather Service Redoubt Coordination Page for any ash fall advisories: http://pafc.arh.noaa.gov/volcano.php

For background information and selection of previous images see:

• Redoubt Volcano: Recent Images
• Redoubt Erupts
• More Redoubt images

For Latest Images see below:

Photograph of impact from the volcanic ash fall out in Nikiski, AK from Redoubt volcano. This plume was generated during the March 28, 15:29 AKDT, 2009 event, and ash fall began at approximately 16:16 AKDT and lasted maybe 5 minutes. Fine ash is resuspended as vehicles drive over the recently deposited ash fall deposit. Picture Date: March 30, 2009 16:45:00 AKDT. Image Creator:  Kristi Wallace. Image courtesy of AVO/USGS.

Photograph of Redoubt’s March 27, 19:25 eruption cloud, as seen from near Homer. Photograph courtesy of Dennis Anderson. Picture Date: March 27, 2009 19:57:00. Image Creator: Dennis Anderson. Image courtesy of Dennis Anderson (via AVO)  http://www.auroradude.com

Photograph taken during oberservation / gas collection flight to Redoubt Volcano on March 26, 2009. Image Creator: Tina Neal. Image courtesy of AVO/USGS.

Ash cloud seen in the geostationary MTSAT data, courtesy of the National Weather Service, processed by the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison . We are at the extreme edge of the view for the satellite which is over the equator in Asia. Picture Date: March 26, 2009 17:30:00 UTC. Image Creator: Jonathan Dehn. Image courtesy of the National Weather Service.

Redoubt volcano viewed from the south over the ash-covered Crescent River Valley. Picture Date: March 26, 2009 17:18:45 AKDT. Image Creator: Game McGimsey. Image courtesy of AVO/USGS.

View northeast over the piedmont lobe of the Drift Glacier and down the Drift River valley showing the effects of flooding caused by eruptions of Redoubt volcano earlier in the day. Picture Date: March 26, 2009 17:29:02 AKDT. Image Creator: Game McGimsey. Image courtesy of AVO/USGS.

Photograph taken during observation / gas collection flight to Redoubt Volcano on March 26, 2009. Picture Date: March 26, 2009. Image Creator: Tina Neal. Image courtesy of AVO/USGS.

Photograph taken during observation / gas collection flight to Redoubt Volcano on March 26, 2009. Picture Date: March 26, 2009. Image Creator: Tina Neal. Image courtesy of AVO/USGS.

View west across Drift River of small eruption cloud over Redoubt volcano. Picture Date: March 26, 2009 16:08:16 AKDT. Image Creator: Game McGimsey. Image courtesy of AVO/USGS.

Photograph of Redoubt’s ash cloud, taken on the morning of Thursday, March 26, 2009, by Robert Cole, Peninsula Airways pilot. Image courtesy of Robert Cole and PenAir.

View of the ash-covered lower Crescent River Valley. Picture Date: March 26, 2009 17:17:25 AKDT. Image Creator: Game McGimsey. Image courtesy of AVO/USGS.

OMI sulfur dioxide satellite image from the March 23 2009 eruptive events at Redoubt volcano. Colors represent relative amount of gas with dark orange/red being the highest and blue/purple the lowest. This is from combining 2 OMI orbits for March 23 2009. AURA/OMI: 03/23/2009 20:43 – 22:34 UTC, SO2 mass: 42.152 kt; Area: 285,359 km2, SO2 max: 58.87 DU at Lon: -149.05, Lat: 61.58. These data are from NASA’s EOS-Aura satellite and its Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI), courtesy of Dr. Simon Carn, Michigan Technology University. Picture Date: March 25, 2009.

Photograph of ash fall at Homestead Lodge, about 35 miles south of Redoubt, on the western side of Cook Inlet. View is of the backyard, with ash. Picture Date: March 26, 2009. Image Creator: James Isaak. Image courtesy of the photographer.

SEM image of ash particles erupted by Redoubt volcano on March 22, 2009. The ash sample was collected during the ashfall in Healy, Alaska by Pavel Izbekov on March 23, 2009. The image was acquired by Pavel Izbekov and Jill Shipman using ISI-50 Scanning Electron Microscope at the Advanced Instrumentation Laboratory, University of Alaska Fairbanks. Picture Date: March 24, 2009. Image Creator: Pavel Izbekov.  Jill Shipman. Image courtesy of the AVO/UAF-GI.

Related Links and volcano entries for March 2009:

• 60 pct Chance Redoubt May Erupt
• Weekly Volcano Watch: 26 March 2009
• Redoubt Volcano: Recent Images
• Redoubt Erupts

• Hunga Ha’apai Volcano Update
• Weekly Volcano Watch: 19 March 2009
• Rumble III Volcano “blew its top!”
• Weekly Volcano Watch: 12 March 2009
• Weekly Volcano Watch: 5 March 2009 [Take 2]

• A New Era of Intense Volcanic Unrest May Have Begun
• Possible Thule Eruption Disasterous for Antarctic Ice