 Okay. We're back. We're live. We're here for researcher Manu with Andrea Gabrielli of the School of Ocean and Earth Science, Hawaii Institute of Geophysics and Planetology. He's a scientist, PhD scientist, okay? And we study the volcano. We study Kilauea. We learn things about the eruption that nobody outside of HIGP in southwest, nobody knows. Welcome back to the show about the eruption, Andrea. Thank you very much, Jay. Thank you for having me here. It's an ongoing issue, isn't it? Still happening? Still happening. And we see the still ongoing subsidence at the summit. More volume is being lost at the summit. And this magma, this volume goes and feeds the very lively Fisher-8 on the East Reef Zone and feed this well-established channel, which hasn't changed much since we talked about last time. What does that mean when you say well-established channel? That's a new thought for me. So okay, the channel's changed in the past few weeks. And the main depression depressed further, okay? And now the lava is exiting through this channel, which is going downhill to the ocean. So what does that channel mean going forward? Is that a permanent channel now? Well, it seems that it's pretty well-established. It's pretty permanent, because right now the lava that is being poured out, Fisher-8, has this very well-established path that brings the lava from the Fisher, from this vent, all the way down to the ocean entry. And this is because of very high discharge rate of this lava. Because usually we're used to this molten material pouring out and flowing slowly and eventually forming lava tube. But this, it's really like a river, a river of molten lava. And we saw pictures thanks to the USGS of sort of islands in the channel, in this river of molten lava that don't move. But also we saw boats. And this was very interesting because these are pieces of solidified rocks which are being, which roll down into the channel and are transported down slope, basically. So we had these sort of boats flowing down, and it's very interesting. But as I said, the path itself is not changing much. This is a well-established river, a well-established channel as they would call it, the volcanologists would call it, that brings the lava down to the ocean entry. And so lava is still entering the ocean, it's creating new land. And the fisher, the height of this lava being discharged at the Fisher is pretty much stable as well. We're talking about 80 to occasionally 150-200 feet height bursts. Really, right now? Yeah. But, and again, we see this subsiding in the summit, the Halema'uma'u crater which doubled in size. So we're looking at this phenomena right now. So when you see this channel, this well-established channel, this tells you some stuff. This tells you that the likelihood is that new lava is going to go right down the same path. If nothing abstracts it, because the fusion rate, for example, could change it. And so in that case, more lava could enter the channel and then it might eventually break on the sides, create new breakouts, or it could be abstracted by some solidified lava and change path, or it could decrease. Nobody knows what's happening, but what's going to happen. But right now it's pretty much well-established. But today I wanted to talk to you a little bit more about different styles of volcanic eruptions. We, everybody, witnessed this ongoing episode, the Kilauea Volcano, but also the tragedies that unfolded when more viscous lava erupted, for example, in Guatemala. And now we have another volcano which is erupting in the Galapagos Islands. Oh, no kidding. So we have all these activities. So let me ask you, though, is that we're in a certain special time now? Is there something troubled in the mantle? No, no, no, don't worry. Has all these volcanoes going off? There's like a five- July 4th. That's what it is. We have fireworks and activity. No, but it's nothing particularly related with the mantle, or so we can stress this. It's really different volcanoes that might come up, come active. It happens. Yeah. And there is also another one in Indonesia, which is currently active. But people don't talk about these things in the news, and so you don't hear it. And then you hear it all the time happening all at once. And it seems they're happening all at once, but it's just really how the earth really works. The natural process. The natural processes. But so here, for example, I brought you today two tiny models of volcanoes. And you can see the shape is very different of these two. This one is very flat. And you can see it looks sort of like a shield. There is a crater on top, but this is what, for example, volcanoes like Mauna Loa or Kilauea really look like. And they're called shield volcano, and you can see because of the warrior's kind of shape. That's right. And you can see these volcanoes are created by very lavas that have a very low content in silica. So very low silica content. And they're called mafic lavas. So here we're talking... Can you smell that? M-A-F-I-C mafic. So here we're talking about the content of silica, which is about 50% in terms of the weight of the lava itself. And the gases is about 1 to 2% of one particular blob of lava. So this lava is very runny, if you want. It can flow down the hills. So that's why it creates these very gentle shields of volcanoes. Is it hotter or colder than the lava we see now and you're coming down the hillside? It's about 1,000 degrees Celsius. That's standard for... The material is called basalt. And again, it's a mafic material. Whereas on this other one, you can see it's much different. The slopes, the angles here are much more pointy, if you want, the slopes are less gentle. And this is what we call composite or stratovolcano. So for example, you can think of volcanoes like Mount St. Helens or Vesuvius or Fuji or Merapi in Indonesia. So these are created by intermediate or felsic lavas. So here we're talking about, for example, underside, about 60% of silica dissolved into this material. And also a little bit more gases. So maybe 2% to 4%. For felsic lavas, such as rhyolite, for example, this is like for volcanoes that you would see in Chile or along the Ring of Fire. I saw that material in Iceland. Well Iceland is a little bit different because these are basalt. But we could relate it to the first kind of volcanism. It's more explosive because of the interaction with the ice. But we don't want to talk about that. But for this one, the rhyolite, so we said basalt or mafic magmas, 50% silica, felsic magma, it's a little bit more 70% to 80%. And we have more gases. We have 4% to 6% gases dissolved into this. And so the shape of this volcano is more steep, if you want, because the magma is viscous. It can't travel far. So it accumulates. And so that's why it forms this steeper, if you want, edifices. Does this reflect a number of eruptions? Each eruption forms a separate ring around the volcano? No, no, no. This is just for the sake of the demonstration. Let's see some pictures, actually. So you can see how these two volcanoes look like in real life. So here, this one is Mauna Loa on the big island. It's sunrise. So you can really see how the edifice stands out. And you can see this shape, this really gentle shape, which we illustrated in the first case. And if we move on to the next picture, we can see, OK, this is a picture I took of the lava lake, the former lava lake, which was in Halema'uma'u crater on Kilauea. This is February 2018. And you can see how this lava, this is a spattering fountain. But you can see it's a very runny lava. And the gases can easily escape from this runny lava just because of the viscosity, which is very low. So it's not difficult for these gases to escape. Let's see another picture. OK, this is Mount Hood in Oregon. And this is a beautiful lake, so you can see the image. I took this picture when I was in Portland for a meeting at the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth Interior. But you can really see the shape, how different it is, how more pointy. And it looks more like the model that we have here in the studio, this kind of eruptions. And so let's maybe have a small demonstration of how... I'm not afraid. You're not afraid. No, we're not afraid. We're not going to blow up the studio. No, but yeah. So here, this volcano, it's a shield volcano, we said. And this is the summit caldera. This is the main crater. Such as, for example, the Kilauea Caldera or Mokuha Veo Veo, which is the main crater on the summit of Mauna Loa. And inside here, there is a magma chamber, which contains vinegar. And this is even balsamic vinegar, because this was the only one I could find. It's got to make a salad there. It's got to make a salad. But now the vinegar does not actually appear in a volcano, though. Of course not. It's a great source of salad dressing. So as a salad dressing, it can work, of course. But this is what we call an analog experiment, if you want. We simulate what happens with the real volcano by using vinegar and also this one, which is not something very expensive, but this is really baking soda or bicarbonate of sodium. So by pouring this bicarbonate of sodium into this volcano, we're going to create a chemical reaction. So some gases are going to be produced. But because the vinegar is not very viscous, you're going to see these gases are going to come out very easily of this material. And we're going to simulate an effusive eruptions. So here, let's pour some of this into this, into the main vent. And now you're going to see some bubbles are going to form as the gases expand within this magma chamber. And this is what an effusive eruption looks like. You can see this is what a lava fountain would look like. And now it looks like we're going to have, I'm going to turn it so the camera can see. But this is what a basaltic lava flow looks like. You can see how the gases escape. And you can see how gently this lava is pouring out the vent and it's flowing down the hills of this volcano. Because it's highly liquid. It's highly liquid. And these bubbles, you can see, they can escape really, really gently from the volcano. This is really a basaltic. This is exactly what we're looking at on Kilauea right now with the fissure eruption. You can see how gently these gases exolve. Yeah. That's fabulous, right here on TinkTek. Live, live. You can see TinkTek Hawaii, everybody. This doesn't happen on other media. And now, and then we're going to see what happens if more viscous materials come up to the surface and erupt. So we're going to see a more explosive eruption. As you can see, the eruption here is still going on. And bubbles, but you can see the gases really, you see a big bubble here. That's what really is driving this vinegar to pull out and create the shield, basically. This is not going to solidify like real lava is going to do. But you can see really how it gently shape this volcano. And the gases were striving it up. The gases is exactly what's driving it. You can see all these bubbles. The bubbles are expanding. Yeah. Oh, you can see a big one right there. But the bubbles expand, but you see how they pop. That's what happens with the real lava fountain. These are big bubbles that pop, and that's what we see in real eruptions. Now it's stopping. It's slowing down. But now you're looking. It's receding. It's receding. That's right. And so as the magma recedes down because there's not enough gases, you can see a caldera is formed, the main crater. As the magma goes down into the summit, then the edifice is here, trying to tend to collapse inside, and it forms this big crater, which is called a caldera. This is exactly what we're looking at at the summit of Kilauea right now, with a subsiding lava lake and the collapse of Halemaomao. Very, very interesting. We're looking at the caldera formation. Very interesting. That's right. This is so interesting. Thank you, Andrea. What I also say, and you can't catch this on video, is that as the receding takes place, you can smell the vinegar, and it makes me want to have a small salad with roquefort and the vinegar dressing all together. Let's have a break and have a salad with this vinegar. We're going to have a short break for our salad. We'll be right back with Andrea Gabrielli. I'm Jay Fidel of Think Tech. George Santayana said, if you don't study history, you're doomed to repeat it. And we have a history professor who is wonderful to have him, John David N. H.P.U., and we do this thing, a history lens. We see the world through history. Very important, critical to understand our world around us. We do this on Tuesdays at 2 p.m. whenever we can get him. Right. John, what would you add to that? Right, Jay. Just tune in, folks, because we're talking about incredibly important issues, and we're projecting backwards into history, looking through the lens of history to add to our knowledge about these very important current issues, like white supremacy, trade, and tariffs, impeachment, all of these important issues that we've been addressing on this show. Yeah, it runs all the way from terrifying tariffs to historical history. John David. That's it. Thanks a lot, John. Well, we're back refreshed, and the smell of vinegar pervades the studio, and if you like vinegar, that's good. Come here. It was very interesting to see that flow off the top, and to imagine it on a larger scale. That's right. That's not the only experiment we're doing today. No, this was only the first one. Now we're going to do a second one. So here we have, we said, this steeper volcano, and now we're going to simulate what an eruption of a very felsic, very viscous material, such as rhyolite or undecide, is at a volcano. Now you're going to understand, you're going to see that this magma will not flow like we saw this one, and will stay next to the summit. So when basically this magma is poured out with explosions because it's very viscous, the gas has to escape, the magma is going to stay next to the summit, and it's not going to travel far. And this is the reason why eruption after eruption, it builds the volcano steeper than the other one. And so here, for example, we have this globe here, which is a cryogenically tested globe, because we're going to use something very cold here. We're going to use solidified carbon dioxide, which is very cold. And so to touch this carbon dioxide, we need a glow such as this one, which protects the hands. But first of all, that's... I'm going to let you do that part, Andre. Absolutely. So here I'm going to open this volcano, and you see, it's really a plastic container in here, which simulates the magma chamber. Okay. What's in there now? Nothing. And right now it's empty. So now here we have some dry ice. Where did you get that, 7-11? Well, this one is really... See, this is what it looks like. It's really solidified carbon dioxide. And you can get it at the Pier 38, there is a nice store where you can get it. It's very cold, but see, we're going to put it into the volcano, one. And then I'm going to... This is really just cold, very cold carbon dioxide. It's nothing that harms anything. What would happen if you had your bare hands on it? Well, if you touch it for a very short amount of time, nothing. You can actually touch it, and it's not particularly dangerous. But if you keep it for a long time, then you may start to freeze. That's basically what I mean. It's frostbite. So it is very cold. It's about 100 minus 100 degrees Fahrenheit. So you can see, this is actually the carbon dioxide, this gas, as you can see. I don't know if you can see it, but it's basically a sublimation. So it's really turning... The carbon dioxide, it's turning into air. So you can really see these gases in the camera. But now we're going to put this one as well. And now I'm going to... I'm done with this very nice glove, so I can put it in here. So we added basically just two pieces of carbon dioxide, frozen carbon dioxide in here, so dry ice. And then here, this one is a little bit of soap that you can use to wash your hands, for example, or your dishes. Soap. Soap. Really soap. Well, I like my volcanoes clean. The volcano is really... It really is clean, so I'm going to just close this cover, and then I'm going to close the volcano again. So you can't do this in nature, only with analog experiments. Yeah. Mount hood and otherwise. Mount wood, yeah. And then I'm going to pour this tiny bit of soap in here. This is liquid soap, yeah? And then at that point, we need some water. This is a little bit of water, and I'm going to add the water into this. And now, as I pour in the water, you're going to see some steam coming out, yeah? From this... This is going to be... You're going to have to explain this reaction to me. You can see the steam here coming out. Okay. But then soon, you're going to see some bubble coming out. So this you can see is very, very viscous material that sticks basically to the summit, you see. And this is what happens with a really high viscosity magma. So basically, the gases you can see, they are trying to escape from this very viscous material, which in this case is represented by the soap. But you can see in the video as well that these gases don't really travel far away from the summit. They tend to gather here, and the gases are not as peaceful as the other volcano. These are trying to escape. And so here, you can see a very nice plume right now. Oh, I like that one. Look at that, right? But you can see how this... You can see some of these bubbles occasionally bursts and collapse down. These are very... Like a little explosion. These are very, very strong avalanches of gases and hot material, which are called pyroclastic flows. And you can see one with... Don't hurt yourself now. When these pops, oh yeah, this is lava. And now you can see very well that the material accumulates here at the summit, but doesn't really travel far, you know? And so this is what happens when a really high viscosity magma basically comes out to the surface. We have a variety of explosions and occasionally plume. But sometimes this magma can even complete... Right now, there is still a way from the gases to come out. And so that's why you can see this plume basically. But occasionally... And now we add a little bit more water. You get some more then, huh? Yeah, you can see the bubbles. You're just missing water. Yeah, you can see more bubbles coming out. That's a big one. And you can see... You can really see these flows, these avalanches that are created from. So this structure that is growing at the top, it's like a protuberance. It's magma that can't flow far and accumulates at the summit. This is what volcanologists call a lava dome. This magma is so viscous, so viscous that can't travel away from the summit and sticks all the way there. And this is the reason why these volcanoes basically grow taller. Now, I was mentioning here, besides all this material, all this rhyolite being erupted, the gases can still find a way out. And you can see occasionally we have this burst. But sometimes this material can completely obstruct the volcano. And in that case, and to simulate this, we have a cover, yeah? So if we place this here, we're going to simulate what happens with a really high pressure inside this volcano. And you can hear the pressure building up. And now we've got a cover, we've got a, let's see, there. This is what happens when these gases can escape easily from a volcano. So we have this very, very explosive eruptions. That was exciting. So let's see one last picture. Let's see. I showed you what a lava dome looks like in this simulation. This is basically material that they accumulate at the summit. But this is what it looks like in real life. This is mount wood. This is a close-up of the volcano. And then if we see the next picture, that structure that I am encircling with, that red circle, that's basically a lava dome. That's what a- Blue off the top. One, this is basically very high viscosity magma that has been extruded from the summit. And it's still there right now. Very high viscosity lavas can produce this kind of structures, this kind of lava domes. And when these things, they grow very slowly as more magma is accumulated and they accumulate and they're very hot with a lot of gas like we saw here. But then when they collapse, as we saw in the model here, we saw all these gases coming out. They really create very deadly flows of rocks, very hot rocks, and also gases which are called pyroclastic density currents. Now pyro means fire from Greek and plastic means again rocks, fire and rock. So they are avalanches of molten material and gases. And they usually travel down the summits of the volcanoes at incredible speeds, even 700 kilometers per hour. So really we're talking about something extremely, extremely dangerous. That's not what we have in Kilauea now. That's not what we have in Kilauea, but that's what we have at volcanoes. For example, Gunung Merapi in Indonesia, or Vesuvius in Italy, or Fuego in Guatemala. And actually I brought you a picture of these pyroclastic flows. So let's see maybe, okay, this is a diagram of what happens when one of these explosions, one of these plumes of very hot, ashy materials fall down. You can see the gravity brings it down and so it falls down and it starts to travel along the sides of the volcanoes incinerating everything on their path, basically. But here we have more explosions from this volcano here in this model. So honestly, as a volcanologist and a geologist and a geophysicist, whatever, which is your favorite one? In terms of eruptions, you like the drama, you like the pyro plastic. Well the drama is often associated with death because you can somehow run away from a lava flow. Of course houses are going to be destroyed or properties as we saw here, very sad happening on the big island. But you can survive. However, you can't run away from a pyroclastic flow. So in terms of life and value of life, I would probably choose the basaltic effusive eruptions that we have. It's kinder and gentler. As explosives that we saw here, it's very dangerous and they can really blast. This is a great demonstration. Thank you for coming down. This is very important. We understand the difference and happily that we have this kind, the kinder and gentler kind. Looks like we have some more eruptions here. Yeah, well we're going to do that after the show ends. But for now we're going to kindly and gently slip into the afternoon. Thank you so much for coming down on here. Thank you Jay. Thank you. Thank you. So interesting.