Overflight Video: ‘Phenomenal Fissure’

Videographer Mick Kalber released this video of an overflight of the East Rift Zone he took with Paradise Helicopters on Saturday, June 23, 2018.

Kalber stated:

We finally accessed Fissure 8 a.m. today, and oh my God, what a sight! The volume of lava is at least as much as it has been, and quite possibly more.

Her [Pele the volcano godess] activity is truly phenomenal!

Pele is continually erupting hot liquid rock into the channelized rivers leading to the Pacific Ocean.

Most of the fountaining activity is still confined within the nearly 200-foot-high spatter cone she has built around that eruptive vent. Her fiery fountains send 6 to 9 million cubic meters of lava downslope every day, a volume difficult to even wrap your mind around!

A small overflow from the perched pond at the Northeast corner of the beleaguered subdivision was approaching several houses nearby, we’ll soon know if she destroyed them, stopped short, or skirted by.

The ocean entry has gotten even bigger. and her flow front now about a half mile across.

The entries have become established near where the beach community of Vacationland stood just two weeks ago.

Tons of hot liquid rock are entering the water there, some from a lava river and more in many smaller fingers of lava that slowly drip into the water.