By now we have received plenty of information about the volcano and Hawai’ian culture and biology and how it all works together. Knowing and memorizing all this information and putting it right so it makes into a nice interpretive talk for the visitors is yet another thing. Shadowing a little bit the rangers at the information desk at the KVC (Kilauea Visitor Center) today showed, however, that most questions will be relatively easy to answer if you are scheduled for that task. Giving the daily talks and the special ranger-led hikes and activities will be way more demanding, I am sure, and preparing those will be key throughout the next week.

There is a need for getting the information from the various angles, and today was a good day in class. Ultimately, understanding what Kilauea and its neighboring big sisters are doing will only work if all the scientists use all the toolkits available to them and discuss and talk to each other to make all the data fit together in a nice puzzle that explains the situation most reasonably. Still, we will never be able to predict the exact behavior of the volcano or to time the next eruption to the minute, but hopefully the folks at HVO etc. will be able to see the next big one coming that will put the visitors and the people living inside or near the crater at risk so they can be warned.

The five basic tools in the toolkit presented to us today comprise
– Geology: Field observations, measurements and data from the field on active and past lava flows will always be a key piece in the puzzle. As J. Hutton already said: The past is the key to the present. With modern technology such as satellite and other means of remote sensing and tiny little webcams that can transmit excellent pictures 24/7, observation of the volcano has become a lot easier, and it sure makes for some stunning photographs and footage of eruptions, explosions, collapses and lava lake drainages and refillings that would otherwise have been missed.
– Seismology: There is a dense array of seismometers around the volcano and all across the island. Historic seismicity and the distribution of ongoing seismicity patterns helps understand sort of the “breathing pattern” of Kilauea et al. More, this is an indication of magma movement in the underground and helps tracking the summit and the rift zone magma behavior.
– Gas sampling: This seems to be one of the most important features up here at Kilauea, and various creative and new methods of gas sampling are constantly being tried out. Vog (volcanic gas) is really a problem around the island, especially as it tends to trap in places you wouldn’t expect it – such around the touristy places in Kona. Also here, remote sensing techniques have become very helpful in the recent past. The gas balance and emission patterns between Kilauea summit and Pu’u O’o also indicate the mutual behavior between the two.
– Deformation: Currently, on Kilauea it is all about DI, the Deflation-Inflation cycle. It is really like a breathing giant, and it is the ongoing DI cycle that keeps the fresh lava flows from entering the ocean. It seems that whenever Pu’u O’o has released a good quantity of lava to flow down the Pali (cliff) towards the ocean near Kalapana, Kilauea exhales and breathes and lowers the activity level so that the lava starts receding rather than advance its front, which is too bad really for viewing.
– Geophysics: All the nice little applications that we learnt at ETH are really in use here, too. Geomagnetics, gravity measurements, electric conductivity and various further indirect, non-invasive techniques are used to round up the full measurement array to get a better picture of this most active volcano in the world.

Speaking of which – the Kamoamoa episode is one of the discrete eruption events that is distinguished by the folks at HVO as being a major active one. It tok place in March 2011 and brought an end to a relatively abrupt inflation cycle. The lake level dropped immensely, indicating that magma had gone elsewhere – that is, to the rift zone. Ever since, there was a steady but slow inflation trend, and absolute levels are pretty high at the moment, so that’s good hope that Kilauea might put on a show soon (but you never know of course!). Compared to other volcanoes in the world, Kilauea is certainly not the most frightening or the most likely for very fierce eruptions, but it is really stunning to tell visitors that in fact they are watching an explosive ongoing eruption at the summit of Halema’uma’u right now. Where else in the world can you find a volcano that has been erupting constantly from TWO vents at the same time without full interruption since 1983? Right, you can’t!