The volcano watcher.[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]Matt Patrick's office is perched not far from the summit of Hawaii's busiest volcano: Kilauea. When it erupts, he has a good view. Of course, it's his job to see every possible vista of the peak, whether it's flying over in a helicopter, hiking to fissures and along lava fields or checking webcams, seismometers and satellites. Working at the U.S. Geological Survey's Hawaiian Volcano Observatory A volcano observatory is an institution that conducts research and monitoring of a volcano. Each observatory provides continuous and periodic monitoring of the seismicity, other geophysical changes, ground movements, volcanic gas chemistry, and hydrologic conditions and activity , Patrick is part of a team that monitors the volcano's every tremor, eruption, burp burp n. Noisy expulsion of gas from the stomach through the mouth. v. 1. To expel gas from the stomach through the mouth. 2. To cause a baby to expel gas from the stomach, as by patting the back after feeding. of gas and lava path. This diligence helps researchers track potential danger and understand the details of a volcano's inner workings. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "Working on an active volcano is a pretty special opportunity," Patrick says. And for the first time in at least 200 years, there's major action at two different places on Kilauea. "We've had eruptions going on at the summit and East Rift Zone rift zone n. A large area of the earth in which plates of the earth's crust are moving away from each other, forming an extensive system of fractures and faults. , going on for years," he says. "And with the quality of data we're collecting, it gets better every day." One of Patrick's specialties is the use of thermal cameras, which see through eruption fumes and can show clearly where a lava field is newest and thus most likely to continue flowing. Before joining the observatory in 2007, he used thermal images to spot signs of upcoming eruptions on Alaskan and Russian volcanoes and to track eruptions at Italy's Stromboli. Now he spies on Halemaumau, the eruption crater resting at Kilauea's summit. The work is revealing that the crater's lava lake and the East Rift Zone may be physically connected. He remembers one evening in 2011 when data pointed to an imminent eruption in the rift zone. A helicopter flight confirmed a fissure fissure /fis·sure/ (fish´er) 1. any cleft or groove, normal or otherwise, especially a deep fold in the cerebral cortex involving its entire thickness. 2. a fault in the enamel surface of a tooth. opening. Patrick and a colleague had hiked to the eruption site by midnight. Nothing happened, so they started hiking back. An hour passed. "Suddenly we saw the sky turn bright orange. We heard a jetting sound. We were able to see the spot we were just at had become a fountain." One busy volcano Matt Patrick Matt Patrick may refer to:
Kilauea is one of the most active volcanoes on Earth today and can be active for decades at a time. Eruptions have been persistent along the volcano's flank since 1983, and at the summit since 2008. The observatory also monitors Mauna Loa Mauna Loa (mou`nə lō`ə), mountain, 13,680 ft (4,170 m) high, in the south central part of the island of Hawaii, in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. Its many craters include Kilauea and Mokuaweoweo, two of the world's largest active craters. and four other Hawaiian volcanoes that are quiet now but could erupt again. Mauna Loa eruptions can produce lava flows that move kilometers within hours--much faster than Kilauea's lava streams. "You could even outcrawl the lava," Patrick says of Kilauea. |
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