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A procedure of lava from Saturday Might perhaps perhaps furthermore 26 at 3pm.
US Geological Explore -
From USGS: « An aerial peep, taking a search west, of the 2 energetic ocean entries on Kīlauea Volcano’s lower East Rift Zone. The large white plume (foreground) is the jap ocean entry; the weaker, western plume might perhaps honest furthermore be seen in the distance. The white plume, called ‘laze,’ is a combination of condensed acidic steam, hydrochloric acid gasoline, and little shards of volcanic glass that can irritate lungs, eyes and pores and skin.
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From USGS: « This ‘a‘ā drift, erupted from fissures 7 and 21, became as soon as roughly 3–4 meters (yards) excessive at the drift front and slowly advancing to the northeast in the Leilani Estates subdivision round 10:30 a.m. HST » on Saturday.
Hawaii’s Mount Kīlauea eruptions maintain induced atomize throughout the Island of Hawai’i, however a new dispute has been slowly building: earlier this week Reuters reported that lava is creeping onto the property of a 38 MW geothermal plant called Puna Geothermal Ventures (PGV). Lava atomize might perhaps motive complications for the plant’s operations in due direction, and a few officials are concerned that atomize to geothermal wells might perhaps discontinue in releases of hydrogen sulfide gasoline, which is toxic to folk. Even if lava had been held encourage by a natural berm for days, the day gone by Reuters over again reported that a new lava drift had entered the 815-acre PGV property.
To this point, the simplest structure that has been destroyed at the geothermal plant has been an dilapidated warehouse that became as soon as worn in the early days of the plant and had been worn for storage since, in line with a Hawai’i County spokeswoman.
Geothermal vitality, which uses the natural heat of underground rocks to impression electrical energy, is a low-carbon manner to generate a moderately fixed present of electrical energy. Nevertheless, no sleek geothermal plant has suffered lava atomize, Reuters notes, so there’s no precedent for this field.
The key fissure to enter PGV property earlier this week, Fissure 6, is 200 to 300 yards from one amongst PGV’s eleven geothermal wells. The new fissure that entered PGV property on Saturday evening is Fissure 21. In a tweet Sunday morning, the US Geological Explore tweeted that « Fissure 21 continues a slack reach eastward on PGV property. » (For a close search at why the volcano has been erupting the style it has, take a look at out our earlier story on Kīlauea’s exercise.)
In a 6 am change on Sunday morning, The County of Hawai’i issued a Civil Protection Message asserting, « The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory stories the lava drift in Leilani Estates has crossed into PGV property in a single day. County, Remark and Federal companies continue to show screen Hydrogen Sulfide levels and no Hydrogen Sulfide has been detected. »
PGV on the overall is in a map to manufacture about 25 percent of the extensive island’s vitality, however the plant became as soon as taken offline after the principle eruption of Mount Kilauea. Hawai’i Electric Light, the vitality provider for Hawai’i Island, acknowledged on Tuesday evening that there became as soon as no possibility of outages for the leisure of the island which ability of PGV’s downtime because Hawai’i’s grid had passable backup technology.
After the plant became as soon as taken offline in early Might perhaps perhaps furthermore, about 60,000 gallons of pentane, a highly-flammable chemical, had been moved from the map. Pentane is on the overall worn as a « working fluid » for geothermal vegetation—it has a lower boiling point than water so it heats up like a flash when it be reach water from a geothermal neatly, and the ensuing vapor might perhaps honest furthermore be worn to vitality the plant’s generators after which be recirculated.
In spite of the removal of the pentane, possibility remains if the lava reaches the wells. Geothermal wells on the overall liberate slight portions of toxic hydrogen sulfide all the procedure via the direction of traditional operations, on the overall neatly beneath emissions limits location by local governments. Nevertheless lava might perhaps destabilize a neatly and liberate more.
The most efficient case scenario is that the lava continues to bypass the plant. Ormat, the firm that owns PGV, urged Reuters that it goes to now not be in a map to asses any possible underground atomize to the wells (from lava or the periodic earthquakes that prolong with it) until the field stabilizes.
Since final week, staff had been attempting to de-pressurize the wells by pouring 1000’s of gallons of frigid water into them. One neatly became as soon as now not in a map to depressurize, so it became as soon as sealed with a dirt-like substance, the AP wrote. The wells are every 6,000 to eight,000 ft deep.
Listing image by US Geological Explore
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