(Image: Webcam shot at Mauna Loa's Fissue 3, taken this morning, December 10, 2022. Credit: USGS.)
The Mauna Loa eruption right now is a little like the movie Jaws: something's moving under the calm surface...when will it rise?
The eruption that started November 27 has stopped producing much lava. Its threat to the Saddle Road is, for now, abated. It's not fountaining any more. There's just a pond of lava at the Fissure 3 vent, which is spilling over into short, stagnating flows. Significantly less gas is being pumped out of the fissure.
But deep below, magma is still moving up into the upper reaches of the mountain.
"Tremor (a signal associated with subsurface fluid movement) continues beneath the currently active fissue," the USGS reported this morning,
"This indicates that magma is still being supplied to the fissure and activity is likely to continue as long as we see this signal."
Yesterday, the USGS suggested the fountaining could return any time, Today, the scientists downplayed that possibility: "None of the eight recorded eruptions from Mauna Loa's Northeast Rift Zone returned to high eruption rates after those rates decreased significantly."
So the magma is still rising underground, but it's not erupting.
Hmm. Can you hear the "Jaws" drumbeat?
© Jan TenBruggencate 2022
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