HR: 09:00h
AN: V51H-05    [Abstracts]
TI: The Birth and Growth of Kupaianaha Lava Shield, Kilauea Volcano: 1986-1992
AU: * Hon, K
EM: kenhon@hawaii.edu
AF: University of Hawaii Hilo, 200 W Kawili, Hilo, HI 96720,
AU: Heliker, C
EM: cheliker@usgs.gov
AF: U.S. Geological Survery Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, Box 51, Hawaii Natl Park, HI 96718,
AB: Kupaianaha began to form on July 20, 1986, 3 km northeast of Pu`u `O`o, which had been the focus of Kilauea¡¦s east-rift-zone eruption for the prior 3.5 years. On July 18, Pu`u `O`o was primed for the 48th episode of high fountaining. Instead, fissures erupted first uprift and then downrift of the cone. This activity, which lasted until mid- morning on July 19, was preceded by an earthquake swarm and accompanied by 17.4 ƒİradians of deflation at Kilauea¡¦s summit. On July 20, another small swarm of earthquakes heralded the eruption of the 200-m-long Kupaianaha fissure. Lava flows spread rapidly from the new fissure, advancing about 800 m southeastward during the first 2 days. The nascent shield was 4 m high by July 25, and a lava pond was forming over the vents. On July 26, a major breakout fed a channelized flow with an `a`a terminus that traveled 4.6 km southeast before stagnating on August 3. The upper end of the channel remained active on the shield after August 3 and evolved into the pond neck and the upper section of master tube that would direct most of the lava to the southeast during the next five years. The Kupaianaha shield attained a height of 33 m during August due to pond overflows, and expanded to cover an area of 1 x 1.6 km. By early October 1986, the lava pond had acquired its final shape and the shield was over 40 m high. Growth of the shield via intrusions also began in August and continued throughout the first year. Outpourings of intruded lava built satellitic shields, and extrusions of `a`a emanated from upwarped regions on the flanks of the shield. Intrusions were volumetrically less important than pond overflows, but they had a significant effect on the final shield morphology. The Kupaianaha shield reached a final height of 60 m early in July 1987, when a blockage of the master tube caused the pond to overflow in all directions for the last time. Two days later, the master tube broke open on the east side of the shield, building a satellitic shield nearly as high as the main shield in just 2 days. Lava flows from this shield constructed a new tube system to the southeast. On July 29, the new tube became blocked and lava overflowed from the summits of both the satellitic and main shields. The increased pressure reopened the connection to the original master tube buried within Kupaianaha. During this same period, the large (500 x 200 m) laccolith complex and `a`a flow field that formed on the north side of the shield in the spring of 1987 remained quiet, but a new domal laccolith (150 x 100 m) grew 15 m high on the south side of the shield. Repeated extrusions from this structure in early July built an apron of `a`a that extended 0.5 km to the base of the shield. On July 27, a 1.5-km-long `a`a flow erupted from the north laccolith, and four days later it subsided 3-4 m. This sequence of events ended the growth of Kupaianaha shield. Beginning in September 1986, well before shield-building activity diminished, tube-fed lava flows had been progressing slowly away from the shield. During the first year, flow activity alternated between the shield and the advancing flow field, as immature lava tubes formed and failed. By the end of 1987, most of the flow activity was located on the coastal plain, terminating at ocean entries 10-12 km from the vent. This was the status quo for the remainder of Kupaianaha era. The end of Kupaianaha came slowly. The pond remained unchanged until early 1990, when repeated pauses in the eruption caused the pond to crust over. Through 1991, the lava output diminished, and, in early February 1992, Kupaianaha stopped erupting. Within 10 days, the ongoing eruption returned to Pu`u `O`o.
DE: 8414 Eruption mechanisms and flow emplacement
DE: 8419 Volcano monitoring (7280)
DE: 8429 Lava rheology and morphology
SC: Volcanology, Geochemistry, Petrology [V]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting