Hector , encounter Hawaii .
As you ’ve probably heard by now , a fairly herculean hurricane is moving westwards across the Pacific Ocean , and it could – somewhat unusually for the land – make landfall on Hawaii ’s Big Island in the next few days . It could also just brush past it . It ’s presently a Category 4 , which entail that it has wind hurrying of209 - 250 kilometers ( 130 - 156 mile ) per hour .
The show of a brawny hurricane anywhere there are humans obviously is n’t welcome , and floods and life-threatening wind conditions are possibleness . What several people have been asking on various societal medium channels , though , is what happens when a hurricane meets an erupting vent ?
dingy to disappoint fans ofhistrionic tabloids , but it ’s not going to cause anything apocalyptic . The two upshot will just interact , if at all , and here ’s why .
For the last few months , the Kilauea eruption has been generally without incident , with the celebrated exception of that near - fatal , lava - dud - meet - tour of duty - boatdrama that diddle out a few weeks back .
The summit volcanic crater continue toslumpas magma beneath it go along to drain . At the same time , fissure 8 in the Lower East Rift Zone ( LERZ ) has remained the exclusive lava - producing fissure .
There ’s a chance that the magmatic source is temporarily prevail modest . The latest United States Geological Survey ( USGS ) update on the situation billet dropping lava flux rate from fissure 8 . The lava channel is crust over , and less lava isentering the oceanthese day , withlazelevels belittle overall .
The USGSstress , however , that “ it is common for eruptions to climb and ebbing or pause all , ” adding that “ a homecoming to high level of lava discharge or unexampled irruption in the area of active fissures could occur at any metre . ”
Still , what you presently have is a fair bit of lava going on , with somevogand laze . So how can that dance with a hurricane ?
vent loss alot of energyin various ways . Effusive , lava - acquire eruptions like this one are n’t that powerful compare to , say , the explosive tragedy grow by stratovolcanoes , because the latter free more energyper second – that ’s top executive – than the former .
The May 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens unleashed at least 100,000 trillion Joule of vigour in moment , which is for sure a lot . Here ’s the thing , though : hurricane can release around 603 trillion joules every single second , most of which goes intocloud and rainfall establishment , not wind coevals .
rely me , you couldn’tnukea hurricane into not existing . So forget Kilauea – even the most powerful explosive eruption find itself in the middle of a hurricane would be like a cracker going off in a massive bonfire .
Could the high temperature from the lava total somethermal fuelto the warm water that power the hurricane though ? Hypothetically , certain , perhaps a very small amount , but there ’s no grounds to show this has any effect .
A 2014study – which observe Hurricane Iselle take up up some ash from a Hawaiian eruption – found that it promoted the interval of positively and negatively charged particles in the swarm layer . This lead to an increase involcanic lightning , which is groovy .
Will the hurricane itself have much of an result on the eruption ? The rain may make firm cooling of fresh lava , and there ’s a chance that heavy rainfall will cause badly consolidated gradient of volcanic sediment to sink and collapse – but that ’s nothing major .
research worker also toldThe Smithsonianback in 2014 that , although the low-spirited air pressure over an alive vent could hypothetically advance more lava to break out forth , magma source are too cryptic underground to be affect . The line pressure change involved during a hurricane would be too small anyway . Do n’t bear a new eruption touch off by the hurricane , then .
Update : Yellowstone Volcano Observatory ’s Scientist - In - Charge and a senior volcanologist at the USGS , Dr Michael Poland , is puzzled . There ’ll be “ reasonably much no impact , ” he severalise IFLScience . The rain could quell some lava , but he points to interchangeable encounter in the past where the blast was alone untouched .
He also refer to the 2014 clash cite above , noting that at the prison term , lava was raise on the townspeople of Pahoa . “ Of of course , the hurricane had no wallop whatsoever on the menstruation , nor the eruption itself . ”
Sorry , Internet : this is n’t the titanic mash up you may believe it is .
