Could you explain the following about the Kilauea volcano: type of volcano it is, it's erupton style and rock type(s) associated with it: how these facts are explained according to plate tectonic theory, and what hazards it poses to people, and how geolog ists know all these things (their evidence). Your help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Morgan

Hi Morgan,

Kilauea is a shield volcano. Its eruptions are usually non-explosive. They either consist of lava fountains 100-300 meters high that produce fast-moving 'a'a flows, or passive upwellings of lava with little or no fountaining that produces slow-moving pahoehoe flows. The high fountains produce cinder cones. Kilauea (and all the Hawaiian volcanoes) are the product of a hotspot. We don't really know what a hotspot is or even exactly where it is, but we do know that it produces magma at the surface. The Pacific plate is moving to the northwest at almost 10 cm/year, and like a conveyor belt on an assembly line, the hotspot produces volcano after volcano. Kilauea is the second-youngest of the Hawaiian volcanoes (Lo'ihi is the youngest). Kilauea poses very little hazard to people but it does pose a hazard to non-movable structures. Even though Kilauea's lava flows are some of the most fluid and fast-moving in the world, it is still easy to avoid being covered by one. However, it is not easy to move your house, store, road, etc., so there is the chance that these things can be buried. Geologists know all these things by a number of ways. For studying the sub-surface structure of the volcanoes they rely on seismic evidence and measurements of the ground surface as the volcano swells and contracts in response to movements of underground magma. For studying actual eruptions, one of the best way to learn things is just to watch and take a few measurements of things such as fountain heights, lava flow velocities, etc. There is information on various ways to study volcanoes in the How to become a volcanologist section of the learning about volcanoes section of VolcanoWorld.

Sincerely,

Scott Rowland

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