January 18th Kilauea Lava Updates

Not a whole lot has changed recently. A call to the daily lava update line reveals that "the best way to see lava is to drive to the end of Chain of Craters road and look up the hill for a glow after dark (about 6:15)". It says that dots and streams are visible that way (they are several miles away). During the day, you can also still see a steam cloud usually, 2 miles away, if you walk in 1/2 mile on pavement and another several hundred yards on old lava. It appears that you no longer can walk any closer than that - it sounds like they fear a bench collapse like the one that caused this view:


Photo Courtesy of U.S. Department of Interior, U.S. Geological Survey

Notice how the whole cliff looks sheared off - that's caused by about 40 acres of land just falling into the ocean last month.

At the USGS site, they say that there is some lava visible a couple miles in on the Kalapana side of the current eruption. It would be interesting if the flow moved over to the Kalapana side again.