[HN Gopher] Kilauea erupts, destroying webcam [video]
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Kilauea erupts, destroying webcam [video]
Author : zdw
Score : 551 points
Date : 2025-12-06 23:39 UTC (23 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.youtube.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.youtube.com)
| stevenhubertron wrote:
| That arcing of the lava really is something to behold. The
| pressures to push molten rock like that are impressive.
| 867-5309 wrote:
| icy what you did there
| asdfman123 wrote:
| It's just the weight of literally everything on the planet
| pushing down, as well as miles of rock :)
| louthy wrote:
| "just" is doing a lot of heavy lifting there ;)
| lisper wrote:
| Literally! :-)
| praptak wrote:
| Indirectly. The actual spike of pressure that ejects the
| magma comes from the gasses dissolved therein. When the magma
| moves up, the pressure drops and the gasses become
| oversaturated and thus prone to violent release.
| wanderingstan wrote:
| Indeed. I just wish we could get a better sense of the scale,
| which is always hard in nature shots devoid of trees or human
| structures. A productive use of AI would be to place some
| houses and automobiles in the video for scale.
| whyage wrote:
| Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park is absolutely stunning (and safe,
| away from the closed area). It's like being on a different
| planet. If you haven't been to the Big Island and the park, you
| should add it to your bucket list.
| magicalhippo wrote:
| Sadly there was an ongoing eruption when me and my SO visited
| the Big Island, so the entire park was closed. Was a bit bummed
| out, on the other hand people lost their homes so keeping it in
| perspective.
|
| That said, I second visiting the Big Island and visit various
| sites. Driving less than an hour and going from barren volcanic
| landscapes to lush rainforests was something else, and watching
| the sunset from Mauna Kea was magical. And lots of great
| beaches, and most that weren't next to a resort had very few
| people.
|
| While the island is big relative to the other Hawaiian islands,
| its small enough that you can drive around it in a day.
|
| I'd recommend staying on the Kona side, which is the dry and
| somewhat barren side. The Hilo side has rainforests for a
| reason.
| shevy-java wrote:
| A university professor here visits many areas. He complained
| by far the most of the dust in the air that stuck around for
| quite a while there.
| skybrian wrote:
| The Big Island has good B&B's in many parts of the island so
| I recommend staying in multiple places, to see the local
| sights without a long drive afterwards.
| DavidPeiffer wrote:
| What struck me about the big island is that it has 8 of the
| 13 climate zones, and you can go around the perimeter of the
| island in about 5 hours.
|
| I loved going up Mauna Kea visitor center and stargazing. At
| ~11,000 feet, it's one of the best places in the world for
| naked eye stargazing. You're literally above the clouds, the
| island has strict rules about exterior lights at night to
| minimize light pollution, and you're above the thickest air.
| I wasn't expecting to see the Milky Way so easily.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milky_Way#/media/File:Milky_Wa.
| ..
| ridgeguy wrote:
| Decades ago, my wife and I visited the Big Island during a
| fairly sedate eruption. We drove down Chain of Craters Road,
| got to see a tiny lava flow (talking like a couple feet of
| glowing honey), but were wanting more. In the distance, we
| could see a huge steam column where a lava stream was reaching
| the sea. We asked one of the ever-attendant Park Rangers if we
| could walk over there. He said no.
|
| But then he said - we close at 5pm, and there are no gates. OK,
| we can take a hint.
|
| We drove to Hilo and bought cheap tennis and flashlights, then
| scurried back down Chain of Craters after 6. As the sky
| darkened, we walked towards the steam column. The rocks beneath
| our feet showed incandescent glows deep in the cracks, and we
| started to smell burned rubber from our cheap tennis.
| Eventually, we came to the lava outfall.
|
| We watched nearly an hour as a river of molten rock cascaded
| into the ocean. We used our water bottles on our shoe soles,
| turning back when we ran dry.
|
| I now understand that we were stupid - apparently the park
| loses a few tourists to shelf collapse each year - but we
| lived, and the memory is a treasure. Thank you, Mr. Ranger.
|
| And yes, it's like being on a different planet - like being on
| our own, maybe 4 billion years ago.
| 14 wrote:
| Not stupid. Just experiencing life and sometimes amazing
| experiences have a chance of danger. You get to choose what
| risk levels you are okay with. Props to that ranger who
| agreed with that belief.
| ridgeguy wrote:
| At that time, we had no kids & no pets, nobody directly
| dependent on us. That figured in our conversation on the
| drive to Hilo. Nowdays, we might come to a different
| conclusion, but I'm glad for the path we chose then.
| bombcar wrote:
| Especially since _that_ path didn't collapse ;)
| serf wrote:
| it's all whimsy and adventure -- but the reality is that
| you're not just risking your own lives but also the lives
| of potential rescuers.
|
| just food for thought. I'm not about to say one should
| lead a safe and sterile life, but there is more to it
| than direct dependents.
| parineum wrote:
| Rescuers choose their jobs too.
| mrwrong wrote:
| doctors choose their jobs too and they generally
| encourage people to stay out of the ER
| parineum wrote:
| That's completely irrelevant. Rescuers can encourage
| people to be safe, that's expected. they chose that job ,
| despite it's dangers, because they care about those
| people being safe.
|
| They know the danger and chose the job. That's the
| relevant bit.
| jama211 wrote:
| I think you missed their point - just because you choose
| a job doesn't mean people shouldn't try to avoid needing
| to be rescued in the first place
| ljlolel wrote:
| Though rescuers did consciously choose that role and that
| they'd be saving ignorant people very often
| Forgeties79 wrote:
| Doesn't mean you need to add more opportunities for
| people to get hurt or killed when you know better.
| Vinnl wrote:
| I wonder if, if you'd talk to a rescuer, they'd agree...
| kbenson wrote:
| Choosing your risk level and working within it isn't
| stupid. Not knowing the risk when it's easy to gather some
| more info and then acting in ignorance _is_ , which is what
| GP was describing, and likely why they called their own
| actions stupid.
| abathur wrote:
| Also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laze_(geology) :)
| antonvs wrote:
| > The rocks beneath our feet showed incandescent glows deep
| in the cracks, and we started to smell burned rubber from our
| cheap tennis.
|
| When I was there, this happened in the area that the rangers
| guided us to. There was an active flow of pahoehoe at the
| time, which we could get as close to as we wanted - the heat
| was a strong disincentive to doing anything dumb. We were
| warned at the start that shoes with rubber soles would be
| ruined, but that warning was too late for me and I had no
| alternative. It was certainly worth the price of a pair of
| sneakers though.
| postalcoder wrote:
| Haleakala is like this as well. Don't just drive up the crater
| - hike through the thing. It's a ~12 mile hike. It's a
| remarkable experience because the landscape changes so
| frequently and dramatically from desert to tropical forest.
|
| The only comp to this is like the transition in Max Max from
| the desert to the oasis.
|
| Tourists that drive to the crater, take pictures, and drive
| down have no idea what they're missing.
| ZeWaka wrote:
| Highly recommend camping in the crater on a clear night
| around new moon. Some of the best stars you'll see. Seeing
| the sun rise in the crater gap (where you can sometimes see
| the big island) is stunning.
|
| Park in the lower lot, hitchhike to the top (or get someone
| else to drive you), and then you can hike back up to your car
| the next day on the switchbacks.
|
| Do not attempt to hike up the sliding sands trail you took
| down, it's *very rough*.
| throwforfeds wrote:
| > Tourists that drive to the crater, take pictures, and drive
| down have no idea what they're missing.
|
| And for some reason blather on and on loudly up there when
| the most mind blowing sunsets are happening. Can we not be
| silent for 15 minutes and look at the universe doing it's
| thing?
| anonymousiam wrote:
| Went there a little over a year ago. The steam vents were
| active, but no eruptions. The exhibits are wonderful and the
| birdsong in the evening is amazing.
| quercus wrote:
| birdsong? are you talking about coqui frogs?
| anonymousiam wrote:
| There are a half dozen or so different species of birds in
| the lava tube jungle areas. If you ever get a chance to go
| there just after dusk, you will be amazed. (Yes, the frogs
| make noises too.)
| spike021 wrote:
| As postal mentioned below, Haleakala is fantastic for that.
|
| Also, I recently visited Mt. Aso in southern Kyushu of Japan
| and it really felt like I was on Mars.
| ChuckMcM wrote:
| Definitely a place to visit if you can. I traveled there in
| 1983 just as it was starting to erupt and visited a lot of
| places that are now under lava rock! In a later visit we were
| walking out to see one of the "peep holes" where you can see
| the lava down below and the rocks started getting slippery,
| except they weren't slippery it was our shoe soles melting,
| oops.
| kakacik wrote:
| How would you compare it to Iceland regarding volcanoes and
| all? Thats what we Europeans have in our backyard and its a
| properly stunning and otherwordly experience.
| Mistletoe wrote:
| The final moments of the webcam were even better than I had
| hoped.
| qingcharles wrote:
| That thing took a licking and kept on ticking.
| hnburnsy wrote:
| USGC live stream
|
| https://m.youtube.com/usgs/live
| hnburnsy wrote:
| Looks like the camera and stream are still active...
|
| https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BqmpkUdMtyA
| reincarnate0x14 wrote:
| They have three cameras, well, had three. The south rim
| camera (v3) was overrun by the eruption at about 0957 local
| time, you can rewind the stream and watch its final moments.
| yuliyp wrote:
| Starting at 9:46 is when it goes from wow to WOW. The last 2
| minutes in particular are incredible, including the bizarre
| artifacts in the last 15 seconds before the stream dies.
| omnicognate wrote:
| This was incredible to watch, and I have to chuckle at this
| title. It's obvious why the webcam matters, with people round the
| world watching, but the destruction of a webcam is such a tiny
| thing in comparison to the eruption itself it's strangely funny.
| DonHopkins wrote:
| Would be nice to have a mobile phone live streaming webcam
| viewer that vibrates when the webcam is destroyed!
| jcranmer wrote:
| Kilauea is more or less constantly erupting. This is the 38th
| eruptive episode since in the past year:
| https://www.usgs.gov/volcanoes/kilauea/science/eruption-info...
| (note that the 38th episode started a few hours ago as of this
| message). Although this is still considered "one" eruption by
| USGS.
| dboreham wrote:
| Although it will stop erupting any time I get on a plane headed
| there. Same for Iceland.
| nickpsecurity wrote:
| The threat level for airplanes is set to orange... for anyone
| dumb enough to fly over an erupting volcano. The orange flying
| from the ground would be all the motivation I need to stay clear
| of it.
|
| It was an awesome video, though.
| mschuster91 wrote:
| > The threat level for airplanes is set to orange... for anyone
| dumb enough to fly over an erupting volcano.
|
| Even 180km away from the eruption, airplanes can be seriously
| damaged [1].
|
| Jet engines really, really do not like to ingest anything else
| than air and, maybe, a tad bit of water.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Airways_Flight_009
| avalys wrote:
| Volcanic ash is particularly bad because it is so abrasive,
| having been freshly formed without any opportunity for
| erosion to smooth it down like regular dust.
| duskwuff wrote:
| That's not the only problem - volcanic ash also has a low
| enough melting point that it'll melt in the combustion
| chamber of a jet engine and leave glassy deposits on cooler
| components.
| euroderf wrote:
| Prevailing winds are key. Reykjavikings told me that during
| that big eruption many moons ago, all traffic to Europe was
| ended but traffic to North American continued merrily along.
| jcranmer wrote:
| An erupting volcano can spew ash over a large distance. When
| Eya.... that Icelandic volcano (that's hard to spell because I
| don't know Icelandic) erupted several years ago, the ash cloud
| traveled far enough to disrupt travel over most of Europe for a
| few days.
| Polizeiposaune wrote:
| Eyjafjallajokull
| kzrdude wrote:
| A favourite tidbit from that time: Icelandic post released
| stamps of that eruption and it was used for European postage
| (mail to Europe).
|
| https://findyourstampsvalue.com/news/stamps-created-from-
| eyj...
|
| (Stamp is marked "Bref til Evropu" - European postage)
| jasonkester wrote:
| I dunno... Different times, different risk tolerance.
|
| Back in 1980, my dad was sitting at his desk in Bellevue one
| morning when news came in that Mt. St. Helens was erupting. Him
| and a pilot friend had the presence of mind to head straight to
| the local airport and rent a plane.
|
| "Be careful not to head South. Mt. St. Helens is erupting, and
| you sure don't want to get close that by accident."
|
| "Oh, yeah, sure. No way we'd do something like that."
|
| He has this amazing framed aerial photo of the mountain with
| the ash plume rising. Evidently, the flight home was pure
| chaos, bobbing and weaving to avoid dozens of midair collisions
| since every other pilot in the Seattle area had had the same
| idea, but 45 minutes later.
| shevy-java wrote:
| Pretty cool - that looks like two or three eruption holes.
|
| Now someone timejump to krakatau, year 1883 ...
| embedding-shape wrote:
| If we're lucky, we (humanity) get to experience another
| supervolcano eruption sometime in the future, and then we'll
| finally get some good content out of it.
| avalys wrote:
| Personally I'm looking forward to a nearby supernova or giant
| meteor impact!
| smartbit wrote:
| How about waiting for a _Geomagnetic reversal_? They happen
| on average every .45M years, the last one .78M years ago,
| big chance one happing anytime now :-)
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geomagnetic_reversal
| accrual wrote:
| It's wild to see this footage safely behind a monitor. Kind of
| macabre to ponder but I wonder if the victims of Pompeii had a
| similar experience. The last we see is a hailstorm of ash and
| molten lava raining down then signal lost.
| toss1 wrote:
| iirc, Pompeii was a pyroclastic flow [0], a fast-moving current
| of hot gas and volcanic matter with speeds between 100-700
| km/hr and temperatures up to 1000degC. So, probably something
| like that, but a lot bigger, faster, and arriving faster from
| further away.
|
| I was surprised how long the camera lasted getting buried. It'd
| be a not good end.
|
| [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyroclastic_flow
| fsckboy wrote:
| i just posted a sister comment to yours about the Mt St
| Helens explosion, with a picture from 1980, and then i
| noticed that they are calling (it's a non technical article)
| what rained down in the photograph onto the camera and
| photographer "pyroclastic flow" and it looks very similar to
| what happened here.
| db48x wrote:
| This is not a pyroclastic flow and doesn't look even
| remotely similar. The problem is that you're comparing a
| very close up image of some lava falling on a camera to
| videos taken from tens of miles away from Mt St Helens. The
| scale and nature of the event are completely different.
|
| Weirdly if you are going to be hit by a pyroclastic flow
| then it won't be moving across your field of view at all.
| It'll just be getting bigger and angrier-looking for the
| minute or two that you have left in your life.
| pixl97 wrote:
| https://youtu.be/T02pJdKARLo?si
|
| This is what a pyroclastic flow looks like.
| asdfman123 wrote:
| Yeah, they likely saw it racing down the mountain and then
| met their doom fairly immediately.
| kzrdude wrote:
| Just to add, there are two main categories of volcanism,
| shield volcanoes (hot spots, mid ocean ridges) and
| stratovolcanoes (continental and subduction zone volcanoes).
| Hawaii is the first kind ("tourist friendly"), Vesuvius at
| Pompeii is the latter kind (not friendly). The main
| difference is the silica content, the stratovolcano lava is
| sticky and viscous; it gets stuck and things get explosive
| and nasty.
|
| We have a lot of stratovolcanoes around the pacific rim so
| it's eruptions like those that we should compare with
| Pompeii, and not really Hawaii.
|
| The two categories also produce, in general, different kinds
| of rock.
| pixl97 wrote:
| https://youtu.be/T02pJdKARLo
|
| Here is a pyroclastic flow from two weeks ago. In the first
| minute you can watch it boil a rainforest to tree trunks.
| That is an insane amount of heat to do that, green stuff is
| full of water and doesnt like to burn.
| fsckboy wrote:
| there is a poignant set of images taken by a photographer
| Robert Landsburg who chose to post himself too close to the
| blow up of the top of Mount Saint Helens in 1980.
|
| the last picture from his salvaged camera is similar to what we
| see for this topic:
| https://allthatsinteresting.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads...
| his camera was found under this body, with speculation that he
| was protecting it, which doesn't seem unlikely, but it also
| would not be surprising for him not to have had that presence
| of mind, things were happening very quickly.
|
| https://allthatsinteresting.com/robert-landsburg
| tobyjsullivan wrote:
| From that article:
|
| _After taking his final photograph, Landsburg removed the
| roll of film from his camera and placed it in a canister. He
| buried the camera and the film canister deep in his backpack.
| Then, he placed the backpack on the seat next to him and
| covered it with his body._
|
| It was more than just jumping on top of his camera. Sounds
| like there's some confidence about his intention.
| clbrmbr wrote:
| When I walked across the crater as a kid, I remember there was an
| inner crater that I was told had filled up with lava back in the
| 80s and then drained down leaving a deep well. Does someone have
| a map of the historical eruption locations within the main summit
| crater?
| jcranmer wrote:
| USGS has a page on the history of Kilauea here:
| https://www.usgs.gov/volcanoes/kilauea/science/geology-
| and-h..., which also has some links on some of the eruptions in
| recorded history.
|
| Probably the closest thing to what you're looking for is here:
| https://www.usgs.gov/media/images/kilauea-caldera-
| simplified..., which lists the age of the most recent lave
| flows as of 2008 (when Halema'uma'u started filling up again).
| The 2018 eruption caused another caldera collapse within the
| crater, enlarging Halema'uma'u and creating a new mini-caldera
| that's labeled as the "down-dropped block" in subsequent maps,
| e.g. https://www.usgs.gov/maps/october-5-2021-kilauea-summit-
| erup... ... although, since then, Halema'uma'u has erupted
| enough lava to more or less fill the entire down-dropped block,
| see, e.g., the most recent map:
| https://www.usgs.gov/maps/november-25-2025-kilauea-summit-er...
| alex_young wrote:
| Here's a video I took of an eruption in June:
| https://youtu.be/BGOSSNy1hN0?si=MIFkW7MkRDxJ5tUr
| quotemstr wrote:
| I'd love to learn more about the specific failure mode towards
| the end. As the eruption debris approach the camera, we see
| glowing rock up close. The camera then flashes purple for some
| reason, goes black, then returns to streaming for a few more
| seconds, recording a vague orange glow. After that, it's gone for
| good.
| zootboy wrote:
| A little bit of educated guessing on my part:
|
| The purple frames have a bunch of gradients to white, which
| looks a lot like what happens when the infrared filter on most
| color cameras is removed and a bunch of IR light is shone into
| then. For some reason the green cells are less sensitive to IR,
| which results in a purple-ish hue. So in this case, perhaps the
| lava striking the camera melted through the lens holder and
| shifted the IR filter out of place, or is just able to shine
| intense IR light into the gap between the filter and the
| sensor.
|
| In those same frames, the dark areas with noisy borders are I
| believe an artifact of the CMOS sensor digitization process
| when cells get strongly overwhelmed. I've seen the same
| patterns on cameras where an extremely intense light (e.g. a
| laser pointer) is shone into them. It's like the cells get so
| overwhelmed they roll around back to zero.
|
| The amorphous shapes at the very end are clearly from the lens
| being totally detached / moved out of position, allowing
| defocused light to hit the sensor. I didn't spot any
| interesting sensor or encoder death frames before the video
| ends, so likely the lava severed the ethernet cable or
| destroyed the electronics at that point.
| emmelaich wrote:
| I had a look at the crater using Google maps. Does this user
| contributed photo look AI to anyone? Or at least 'shopped.
| https://maps.app.goo.gl/or6gj5XnTCTwv4Ys7
| pimlottc wrote:
| It's not real, lava has not flowed into the ocean for many
| years.
| AstroNutt wrote:
| Nothing looks right. The waterfall of lava to the caldera. How
| do you get magma ring above a non erupting caldera? It's 100%
| fake.
| csomar wrote:
| Are these giant buildings over there? Would be easy to check
| their existence (though the photo could be real but the lava is
| not)
| jcranmer wrote:
| That photo is pretty clearly fake.
|
| * The steam from lava should be arising from where the lava
| hits the lava, boiling it--there's not going to be any steam
| from the interior of a lava tube, because all of the water will
| have boiled out long ago.
|
| * It looks like somebody dumped a photo of a black rock field
| on top of a different image. There's a sploch of a normal tan-
| sand beach at the base of part of this cliffs; in recent lava
| activity, the lava will extend fully into the ocean and
| collapse. Given that the edge of the lava is a) pretty towering
| and yet b) some distance from the sea.
|
| * The lava activity in the extreme foreground is pretty
| sketchy. It's not entirely implausible to have lava flowing
| into a pit like that in some fashion, but there's also no clear
| source from the lava, and real Hawaiian lava flows tend to look
| somewhat different than that.
|
| * Lava flows downhill from a rift zone. Where's the rift zone
| here? It's basically a wall of black rock. Photogammetry is not
| my strong suit, but the presumably dried lava is towering above
| the treetops in the distance, and yet there's no clear sense of
| where the lava is flowing from.
|
| * In the background, you see something more akin to a
| stratovolcano (actually, might well be an eroded granite dike
| or some other weird formation like that as opposed to a volcano
| in the first place). Hawaiian volcanoes are shield volcanoes,
| they don't look like that. Also, Kilauea and Mauna Loa are too
| active to really have the deeply-eroded look like that. You
| have to go to Kohala on the Big Island to get that kind of
| look.
|
| * Kilauea is nowhere near the ocean. (Also, shield volcano, you
| can't see the top from the base.)
|
| * There's another island clearly visible in the background.
| None of the Hawaiian islands are close enough to each other to
| generally be visible from one another! And certainly not from
| any view of Kilauea, which is the last volcano in the chain
| that's above sea level. (Loihi still has another 3,000 feet to
| go before it pokes above the surface.)
| pfdietz wrote:
| Not saying this isn't fake, but erupting lava produces plenty
| of volatiles, including steam. These gases coming out of
| solution is what drives it to the surface.
| polishdude20 wrote:
| You can actually sometimes see the big Island from the
| Haleakala summit!
| antonvs wrote:
| I agree that image is as fake as can be. I reported it.
| Nitpick though:
|
| > None of the Hawaiian islands are close enough to each other
| to generally be visible from one another!
|
| Of the Hawaiian islands usually identified as "major",
| Molokai, Lanai, and Kaho'olawe are all visible from Maui, and
| vice versa.
|
| Many people would probably limit the list of major islands to
| four. Interestingly there doesn't seem to be any official
| term for that grouping, other than perhaps the "main
| islands".
| IAmGraydon wrote:
| That user has submitted 58,000 photos. It's AI. Everyone should
| be reporting the photo and the account.
| dawnerd wrote:
| There's a lot of really spammy data on Google maps that should
| be pretty easy for them to detect too. Go look at some remote
| locations and you'll find lots of images that advertise
| businesses, products and all sorts. Wondering if they're using
| it for image hosting.
| nsoqm wrote:
| You just have to look at the picture of the person who uploaded
| it: https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a-/ALV-
| UjW5veVXQHmH8s4Db3W...
| mertd wrote:
| What's the play here? Afaik there are no monetary perks to
| being a top maps contributor.
| Retr0id wrote:
| Perhaps they're seeding the account with "harmless"
| contributions before using it to make fraudulent business
| reviews etc.
| pawelduda wrote:
| This screams AI, 100%
| ak681443 wrote:
| A new entei has been born?
| 333c wrote:
| The AI narration was off-putting, but the video footage was cool.
| iamtedd wrote:
| That is not AI. The same voice narrates at least two years ago.
| Just scroll down in the channel's video list.
| Deukhoofd wrote:
| The description of the video states it is in fact AI:
|
| > A synthesized text-to-video voiceover was used in the
| narration for this story.
| asymmetric wrote:
| Where does it say that? I can't see it in the video
| description.
| Loocid wrote:
| The second line. The video description for me says the
| following:
|
| "HAWAI`I VOLCANOES NATIONAL PARK - An incredible sight at
| the summit of Kilauea volcano on Saturday morning, as
| Episode 38 erupted enormous lava fountains across the
| caldera, destroying one of the webcams that was live
| streaming the event.
|
| All images and video are courtesy the U.S. Geological
| Survey. A synthesized text-to-video voiceover was used in
| the narration for this story."
| moffkalast wrote:
| Well it would've been better if they kept the video on the
| actual camera that ate it instead of switching back and forth
| constantly. It's not Liam Neeson climbing a fence, guys.
| mlindner wrote:
| Just FYI, but the voice for this channel is AI generated.
| unethical_ban wrote:
| The toughest thing to realize is that it is not obvious. Other
| posters here say it's a human, which was my assumption. But I
| wouldn't bet my savings either way anymore.
| happyopossum wrote:
| Synthetic text-to-speech and "Ai" generated are not the same
| thing. We've been doing TTS for 30 years now - get over it
| louthy wrote:
| More detailed coverage from Geology Professor Shawn Willsey [1].
| He's a good channel to follow if you're even slightly interested
| in geology...
|
| [1] https://youtu.be/oc2Pr3YiRO0?si=UJInJ_wLzitdKec8
| sedatk wrote:
| I was there today. We happened to notice the smoke over Kilauea
| while driving to Hilo, then checked out USGS cams, and
| immediately drove there and spent the next 7 hours getting
| mesmerized.
|
| As my first eruption encounter, I didn't expect to experience
| several things like the heat even from a long distance, enough to
| keep me warm in my shorts at 60F, and the loud rumble, like a
| giant waterfall. The flow of lava was way faster than I expected
| too, almost like oil.
|
| Mind blown.
| kzrdude wrote:
| Hawaii volcanism is what geologists seem to call "nice and
| friendly" - low viscosity lava, not prone to explosive
| eruptions (unlike the stratovolcanoes of the Andes or the
| Pacific rim in general) - this is because it's caused by
| hotspot volcanism in Hawaii.
| lazide wrote:
| It's not nice and friendly because of the hotspot volcanism.
|
| It's because the hotspot has a chemical composition that is
| generally low in dissolved gasses and very liquid/flows well.
| (Lots of silicates I think?)
|
| It tends to come out nicely and stay liquid as it leaves, so
| vents don't plug up. Also, because of the relatively low
| dissolved gasses, pressure doesn't spike as high when it's
| flowing out of the chamber like many other magmas do, causing
| explosions.
|
| Hawaii exists basically because it's great for building up
| islands/mountains without blowing them up as part of the
| process.
| kzrdude wrote:
| I don't think hotspots can be said to have different
| composition. But if the hotspot is under a continent or an
| ocean plate makes a difference for the type of eruptions.
| Hawaii is in the middle of an ocean plate, no continental
| crust there. So we get a basaltic eruption (comparatively
| lower silica content, low viscosity lava).
| s1artibartfast wrote:
| Yellowstone is also caused by hotspot volcanism. The
| friendly eruption is a property of location, not hotspot
| origin.
|
| Your initial post read the other way, which the parent
| post is addressing.
| CGMthrowaway wrote:
| Low viscosity is due to the LOW silica content. Tectonic
| setting is the primary factor determining the magma's final
| composition (basaltic) and therefore its physical
| properties (low silica, low viscosity). The gentle nature
| of Hawaiian volcanism is a direct result of its basaltic
| magma, which it has because the hotspot is located under
| thin, basaltic oceanic crust
| retSava wrote:
| I was at the Fagradalsfjall eruption at 2023. Had been to
| Iceland for two weeks w wife and daughter, and on the last day
| (since the signs were there) I decided to postpone travel home
| for two days (w + child wanted to go home). On my last day, the
| hike opened up and I went at approx 2100 hours to the volcano.
| That was an approx 10 km hike one way.
|
| Amazing experience. A bunch of us were stupid as can be, but
| got as close as approx 50 m. Sounds really dangerous, but the
| sputter were not that violent yet, and the ground sloped away
| from us. Still, really stupidly dangerous (the sputter wall
| could've broken down, wind direction change, etc). But it
| didn't. Lots of moss fires, and walked into a small slope and
| immediately felt a sting in my nose and lungs from trapped
| gases so took that as a nope and went back.
|
| Started walking back at 0130 something, boarded flight at 0600,
| fainted (I had done Mt Esja in the morning too). Sorry other
| passengers, it was inconsiderate of me and I was an asshole for
| that. But... that experience...!
| mdani wrote:
| Same here. I'd add that viewing the lava fountain at night was
| a mesmerizing experience. You get to see the full extent of
| red, glowing lava lake and the fountain. There were thousands
| of people and yet they appeared so small in front of the
| volcano. We did experience some ash and Pele's hair on the way
| to the park, near the black sand beach. I do recommend carrying
| a torch though at night, since it is pitch black at night. The
| lava illuminated the park with the red glow, but there were
| some parts where you do need a torch esp. if you park far away
| and walk.
| JumpCrisscross wrote:
| > _viewing the lava fountain at night was a mesmerizing
| experience_
|
| Is there anything comparable to the overview effect [1] that
| attends seeing a lava fountain in person?
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overview_effect
| mertd wrote:
| I was reading about shield volcanoes and it sounds like the low
| viscosity lava is the defining feature. So the flow is par for
| the course.
| supernova87a wrote:
| I am severely tempted to hop on a flight to go and see it, but
| wondering if it's such a "once in a lifetime" thing to go see?
| That, and if it'll peter out by the time I get there, and $500+
| to just fly on a whim and stay overnight.
| egeozcan wrote:
| Probably this amazing capture is worth more than a hundred times
| the price of the camera, yet the geek in me feels really sad when
| perfectly functional hardware gets destroyed :)
| georgefrowny wrote:
| Definitely don't think about how much "nice" equipment is
| bought, used once or twice and then sits in a cupboard forever
| until disposed of in a skip when someone dies or a company goes
| under and the building is cleared.
|
| My last place had a whole box full of FPGA dev boards that I
| would have killed to play with as an undergrad.
|
| The real pities are in machining where what looks like a junk
| heap to the family may actually be a priceless trove of rare
| tools and irreplaceable machine parts. Not to mention lovingly-
| made tools and jigs. A physical cousin to unpublished software
| sitting on a thrown-away hard drive.
| MiddleEndian wrote:
| Think of it like a delicious meal or a grenade. You pay for it
| to be consumed once, then it's gone.
| andsoitis wrote:
| Worth watching: Into the Inferno, a film by Werner Herzog in
| which he depicts the relationship between active volcanoes and
| the humans who live in their shadows.
| GaggiX wrote:
| >A synthesized text-to-video voiceover was used in the narration
| for this story.
|
| I wasn't even realizing it without reading this in the
| description.
| ekjhgkejhgk wrote:
| Just a planet popping a zit.
| seydor wrote:
| The two events in the title sound so uneven
| cmiles8 wrote:
| The Big Island of Hawaii and the national park there is an
| amazing place. One of the only places where you can (relatively)
| safely visit a highly active volcano.
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