In the 2018 the Kilauea volcano, in the Hawaiian volcanic archipelago (formed by one of the main hot spots on the planet), gave rise to a series of 12 eruptions many details, the most recent for this volcano. These eruptions have changed scientists’ perception of volcanic eruptions typical of Hawaii, called “Hawaiian”. What makes them so special is trigger mechanism, which may be different from any previously found for this volcano. The study, carried out by a team of American researchers supervised by the USGS, was subsequently published in the journal Natural geosciences THE May 27, 2024.
It all started from the analysis of 12 eruptive events of Kilauea in 10 days for May 2018. On this occasion, there was a magnitude 5.0 earthquake and the union between the earthquake and the eruption caused the transfer of approximately 1700 people for several months. It was then that we decided to analyze the eruptive mechanism and we realized that we were faced with something new: normally, in fact, the eruptive mechanisms of the volcano involve the rising magma, phreatomagmatic events (i.e. interaction between magma and steam/water) or a combination of the two.
“ These eruptions are quite interesting because they do not seem to involve either mechanism. » said the lead researcher and so he and his team decided to investigate further.
After several analyses, they hypothesized the presence of a mechanism comparable to a “toy rocket”: in this case, to make the fake rocket take off, it is necessary to press on an air pocket which, through a small tube, allows it to take off. . Likewise, the partial collapse of the caldera in the crater, because of the earthquake, this would have caused a rapid increase in internal pressure, giving rise to eruptive phenomena with plumes of molten rock and gas. In numerical terms, this mechanism would have allowed it to erupt 3000 cubic meters of volcanic material per second: it is a volume greater than that of an Olympic swimming pool!
Attention: This is a mechanism that has not yet been confirmed and, until further testing is carried out, will remain a very likely but not certain hypothesis.
