Mauna Loa Eruption

[wildbears]

One of my cousins and her husband live on the southern slope and are currently out of the danger zone.

Not for me, but they are ex-military so what's a little lava.

View last night:

[955i]

We need to sign the Paris Accords so that this sort of stuff stops happening!

[justjoe]

Oh boy....

[wildbears]

More pics from a neighbor...

[Victory]

Wow that last photo is awesome ?

[Capnrip]

Great pictures Wildbears, especially that last one!

[wildbears]

My cousin lives in the lava field in the southern part of the island and her home location is marked on the map with a green dot. She has a great view of the ocean and the beach is not far away. All vegetation is recently introduced by planting (see pic above). Their lava flow field appears to have been created by the 1950 eruption (see map).

[955i]

Wildbears, is your cousin able to obtain insurance? is it subsidized by the government? Just curious, really, and not trying to start a political discussion on this thread. Your photos posted are interesting. I have always wanted to see this volcano.

[wildbears]

Don't know about insurance but I doubt it's available. We have friends here in town and the wife does real estate investing. They lost a property to a lava flow on the big island a couple of years back. The government claimed the property without remuneration.

My cousin and her husband run a B&B with cottages on their property. They also do hydroponics and have a small craft brewery on site. Their last project was a wood fired pizza oven.

[955i]

Well that sounds nice, Wildbears. I hope this lava keeps heading north. Sounds like their place is secure enough this time.

[wildbears]

A bit of "vog" higher up.

[Capnrip]

Again, great photo!

[wildbears]

Current lava flow in red....

[wildbears]

Today's update...

[955i]

It might be slow . . . but, at least it is persistent.

[wildbears]

And now snow at elevation....'

[955i]

It's weird to consider that if this volcano was in Colorado, it would be one of the '13ers.' It would be impressive, though. The mountains in Colorado get a "head start" by rising from a plateau that averages about 5500' MSL. These Hawaiian volcanoes start essentially at sea level and soar upwards from there.

[Pete_Tallahassee]

They start at 18, 000 feet below the sea.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaiian_Trough

[955i]

Good point, Pete.

[wildbears]

My cousin and her husband just celebrated their anniversary at the Place of Refuge....Their home is up the hill from there.

[Pete_Tallahassee]

In 1980 I spent 2 weeks in a hippie house on the coast near the Place of Refuge during my 4 month jaunt around the islands. Nobody wore any clothes and none of the rooms including the bathroom had doors on them. I love Hawaii

[wildbears]

That hippie settlement was still there when we visited in the late 80's. We had lunch there but everyone was clothed.

[wildbears]

[955i]

[wildbears]

Yes. My cousin sent the pic to us. It's kind of like the route maps with elevation charts for the Tour de France.

[wildbears]

Heating up again...

[955i]

We live on a spectacular planet, don't we?!