Kilauea , continuing to showcase its igneous merchandise to the watching humans , is n’t just contented with producingblue fervour . As reported by the United States Geological Survey ( USGS ) , it ’s also create its own blamed weather organisation . Specifically , it ’s producing “ pyrocumulus ” clouds , the volcanic combining weight to cumulus cloud – which can do electric storm .
Sometimes known as flammagenitus clouds or simply “ flaming clouds ” , these are mould when vivid heating of the earth trigger the formation of large convection electric cell , where warm melodic line procession , normally imbuing itself with moisture as it goes . When it reaches a point of stableness in the atmosphere – when the melody pile is as obtuse as the air surrounding it – it stops proceed .
The cool air around it then distill out , and these telling clouds form . Any meteorology lover out there may have clocked that this is basically what you need to fire a electrical storm : wet , a buoyant lifting strength ( the heated surface ) , and a mass of unstable air .
The USGSexplainsthat they lay the same hazards as a electrical storm . “ They do n’t contain volcanic ash tree , so they do n’t have any extra fortune from electrostatically charged ash tree particle . ” Indeed , they ’re not to be confused with ash tree columns erupt from ( normally ) explosive eruptions , which can , under certain conditions , create volcanic lightning and thunder – the latter of which was just recently enter for thevery first time .
queerly enough , pyrocumulus cloud formation is n’t normally associate with this type of volcanic eruption . It ’s ordinarily associate with paroxysmal , explosive volcanic eruptions or tremendous woodland firing .
Back in 2014 , for example , California was experiencing a somewhat particular drouth . botany became far dry than normal , and in August of that yr , Brobdingnagian forest flame were ignited , with more than 400 straightforward kilometer ( 150 hearty miles ) turned into a inferno in a subject of a few days . This intense supply of heating , as it so happens , produce pyrocumulus clouds that could beseen from space .
In the causa of Kilauea , however , it appear that the untiring Fissure 8 – one of the most active , by far , in the lower East Rift Zone ( LERZ ) – is ostensibly supply so much thermic energy to the ground there that it ’s enough to cause a jumbo sight of affectionate air to elevate .
Pyrocumulus swarm are n’t particularly threatening – no more than normal thunderstorm , anyway . Just one of good deal of types of volcanic weather condition , you ’re more probable to be threatened by volcanic fog , orvog . This concoction of carbon dioxide , water vaporisation , and sulfur dioxide – which readily react with water to form sulphuric back breaker droplet – tracks with how much sulfur dioxide is emerge from the fissures .
unluckily , since the geochemical alteration in Kilauea ’s magma in the recent past , the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory has tracked a significantuptickin the effusion rate of atomic number 16 dioxide . Although not forthwith threatening , it can behazardousif you ’re overexposed to it , or if you have a pre - existing respiratory job .
“ Volcanic gun emissions remain very eminent from the scissure eruption , ” the latestUSGS advisorynotes . “ If a forecast shift key in wind direction occurs today , widespread vog could pass on the Island of Hawaii . ” As ever , fall out the advice of the authorities , and if potential , do n’t rest it in .
trusted , volcanic conditions – like vog , and the acidic plumes oflazeon the seashore – dish as a reminder that the ongoing eruption at Kilauea is potentially serious . The risks do n’t change the fact that , on a purely aesthetic point , you just have to give Kilauea some regard : Fromlava fountainsreaching heights of a15 - story buildingto creating its own darned atmospheric condition , what more could you postulate for at this pointedness ?
Curious , I asked the USGS if there ’s any other type of volcanic atmospheric condition out there .
“ We ’re not indisputable … but we do know that volcanic eruptions can occasionally blow holes in existing weather , ” they explained . “ Back in the 1980s , when Pu’u ‘ O’o would get high spring , it would bar raining in the vicinity of the fountain , and then begin raining again when the fountain ceased . ”
That ’s not all : as pointed out by volcanologistDr Janine Krippner , you may also get lava - powered torrent .
