Pre-Registration for the 2014 AGU Fall Meeting Closes 14 November. Register now: fallmeeting.agu.org News: European Agency Leader Urges Long-Term Environmental Policy, p. 410 Meeting: Strengthening a Network for Geoscience Data Sets, p. 411 Meeting: Modeling the Evolution of Polar Ice Sheets, p. 411 Meeting: Understanding How Climate Change Could Affect Tornadoes, p. 412 About AGU: Supporting Young Geoscientists at Fall Meeting, p. 413 About AGU: Two New Features for Thriving Earth Exchange, p. 413 Research Spotlight: Plasmasphere, Climate, Martian Meteorite, and More, p. 416 VOLUME 95 NUMBER 45 11 NOVEMBER 2014 Drilling a Small Basaltic Volcano NEWS to Reveal Potential Hazards Terrestrial basaltic volcanic fields consist business district (Figure 1), erupted about of tens to hundreds of single- eruptive- episode 550 years ago. It is a symmetrical, approxi- Scientists Engage With the Public (monogenetic) volcanoes. These fields are mately 6-kilometer- wide shield volcano ris- During Lava Flow Threat among the most common volcanic features ing about 260 meters above sea level with an on Earth’s surface and can cover areas up estimated dense-rock volume of 1.78 cubic On 27 June, lava from K lauea, an active volcano on the island of Hawai`i, began flowing to thousands of square kilometers. Although kilometers. This is about half of the esti- ī to the northeast, threatening the residents in P hoa, a community in the District of Puna, such fields commonly are active for hun- mated erupted magma volume of the field. ā as well as the only highway accessible to this area. Scientists from the U.S. Geological dreds of thousands of years, individual erup- Rangitoto comprises a gently dipping lava Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) and the Hawai`i County Civil Defense tions are rare (perhaps one every thousand field and several small scoria cones at the have been monitoring the volcano’s lava flow and communicating with affected residents or tens of thousands of years). The eruptions summit, although the absence of deep dis- through public meetings since 24 August. Eos recently spoke with Michael Poland, a are small and short-lived and last several days section of the volcano has prevented the geophysicist at HVO and a member of the Eos Editorial Advisory Board, to discuss how he to decades, producing a small cone or crater. development of a stratigraphic framework of and his colleagues communicated this threat to the public. Despite the low eruption frequency of each volcanic events. Volcanic ash sourced from volcano within the field, the spread of human Rangitoto and preserved in nearby lake sedi- infrastructure into these fields in many parts ments suggests that the volcano may have Eos: What is the status of the lava flow initial advance rate was quite high. The flow, of the world necessitates a better understand- been active intermittently, starting about right now? confined by older flows, was quite narrow at ing of future hazards. 1500 years ago and persisting for about Poland: As of Friday morning [31 Octo- first, which allowed it to move quite quickly. Mexico City, Mexico, is an example of a 1000 years [Shane et al., 2013]. This finding ber] local time, the flow front has stalled. It’s As we tracked the flow’s direction, and metropolitan area built close to or on basal- challenges the fundamental model for the about 155 meters from Pāhoa Village Road, once it became clear that it was mov- tic fields. Long-term storage of nuclear waste mechanisms and hazards associated with which is the main street through Pāhoa. ing quickly, we issued a press release on within a basaltic field in Nevada has been these small volcanoes, typically considered There are a lot of breakouts of lava above 22 August to alert the community to the previously proposed. These are just a few monogenetic. that point, but the leading edge of the flow is potential hazards it posed. The release examples of where future volcanic activity not presently pushing downslope. That’s not was distributed to local news outlets and would significantly impact society. Drilling Investigation likely to be the case forever, but there’s at beyond. Therefore, several major questions need least a temporary halt in the advance of the Eos: What has been the most effective to be addressed: (1) How long do such erup- The new finding prompted a new scien- flow for now. medium you have used to communicate the tions last? (2) How does the magma rise to tific drilling initiative by a consortium of We expect that it will probably change threat to the public? the surface, and does its ascent provide mea- geologists from the University of Auckland as time goes on. That’s the way this flow Poland: I think the most effective thing surable phenomena that could act as precur- and Massey University, funded by New Zea- has behaved in the past several weeks: It we’ve done is to participate in a series of sor signals? (3) How does the style of erup- land’s Earthquake Commission, to investi- advances and then stalls, which seems to be regular community meetings organized tion change during the event, and thus, what gate Rangitoto’s eruption history. The aim the normal life cycle of this particular flow and run by the Hawai`i County mayor’s spectrum of hazards would be expected? of the project was to drill through the entire and pāhoehoe flows in general. office and Civil Defense. Initially, multiple volcano edifice to recover a continuous Eos: What kind of damage has happened meetings were held each week, but the Rangitoto Island Volcano record of deposits. Hence, there is the poten- to the area? county is now holding weekly meetings in tial to develop an unparalleled insight into Poland: Thus far no homes have been Pāhoa. In addition to these large commu- Auckland City, New Zealand, is built the birth, life, and death of a small mono- destroyed. The flow has burned a farm shed nity meetings, HVO participated in other on the Auckland Volcanic Field (AVF) (Fig- genetic volcano that will have wider appli- and cattle structures, and it has traversed Hawai`i County–led meetings specifically ure 1) [Kermode, 1992]. The AVF has been cations to understanding these systems some private land, where it has destroyed for nearby residential subdivisions. the intense focus of hazard and risk studies globally. much of an orchard. There is a cemetery The meetings have reached a tremen- because of the city’s large population (~1.4 mil- The team selected a drill site at an eleva- above Pāhoa that was inundated by lava. dous number of people, with attendance lion people) and its economic significance to tion of about 120 meters above sea level Also, a few weeks ago the lava ignited brush often 300–400 people and occasionally New Zealand [Houghton et al., 2006]. The field on the western flank of the volcano (Fig- fires, but they were quickly put out by the exceeding 600. The meetings, usually Web- comprises at least 50 volcanic centers and has ure 1) to optimize the thickness (and thus Hawai`i County Fire Department. In residen- cast via local online news sources, include been active for the past 250,000 years. completeness) of the stratigraphic record tial areas, the fire department is standing by a lava flow update by an HVO scientist, as The youngest volcano, Rangitoto Island, to prevent any widespread fires. well as briefings by the civil defense direc- which is only 8 kilometers from the central Drilling cont. on page 410 Eos: How did you know it was time to tor and the mayor, who provide updates start alerting the public about the threat of a on what county agencies are doing to lava flow to their neighborhoods? mitigate the impacts. After these presen- Poland: It became fairly clear early on tations, additional HVO staff, along with based on where the flow was located and various representatives from other agen- the rate of advance that it was heading cies and organizations, are available to toward the island’s Puna District. While dif- answer questions from the public. This has ficult to tell exactly where the lava would go, been an effective way of interacting with we are able to broadly forecast the direction the community because it’s one-on-one of flows based on topography, and it was communication with the people who are clear that it was moving toward Pāhoa. directly impacted by this lava flow. What made this flow special—and we’ve had flows in this area before that have pushed in this same direction—was that its News cont. on page 410 Fig. 1. (middle) Digital elevation map of Rangitoto volcano showing the location of the drill site (courtesy of Gabor Kereszturi) and (left) the composition of basalt lavas found in the core, plot- ted in parts per million of strontium at depth. The column shows numbered lava flows and pyro- clastic ash in core. (right) Map of the Auckland Volcanic Field in North Island, New Zealand. USGS Lava from Kīlauea destroys a fence on private property near Pāhoa Village Road. 409 EOS VOLUME 95 NUMBER 45 11 NOVEMBER 2014 Drilling hazards associated with such volcanoes cont. from page 409 globally. Acknowledgments obtained while avoiding the potentially evident in the sequence (Figure 1), sug- chaotic deposits of the main vent region gesting that multiple magma batches were The drilling investigation team comprised near the summit. Drilling was completed in erupted. In particular, the youngest lavas Paul Augustinus, Tamzin Linnell, Jan Lind- approximately 3 weeks in February 2014.