June 27 lava flow 0.8 miles upslope of Pahoa intersection

The June 27 lava flow advanced about 130 yards between Thursday and Friday, Hawaii County Civil Defense Administrator Darryl Oliveira said Friday.

The leading edge of the flow was 0.8 miles upslope of the Pahoa Village Road-Highway 130 intersection. Based on the flow’s advement of 130 yards during the past 24 hours, the lava could reach the marketplace within eight days, Oliveira said.

“It was still moving in an east-northeast direction, still moving in a direction that would indicate it is moving toward the vicinity of the Pahoa Marketplace,” he said. The flow front was about 1,000 yards or a little more than a half-mile upslope of the perimeter of the marketplace.

An evacuation advisory has not been issued, however, some merchants in the area have already closed or are preparing to close while others plan to remain open until the last minute, Oliveira said. There is currently no immediate threat to the community.

“Every single one of the businesses has stated that they are committed to returning and restoring all business operations as soon as possible,” Oliveira said.

The U.S. Geological Survey Hawaiian Volcano Observatory on Thursday said it appeared the flow front had split into two branches, one following the steepest descent path and another following a “tributary” path to the north that intersected the main descent path a few hundred yards downslope. The branch heading south along the steepest descent path appeared to have stalled Friday morning, said Steve Brantley, acting scientist-in-charge at the observatory.

It was unclear Friday the exact impact the stalled southern branch may have on the north branch, however, “it could lead to more lava being funnelled into that north branch,” Brantley said. The north branch is expected to eventually make its way east-northeast back to the line of steepest descent that leads toward the intersection and the southwest side of the marketplace.

Upslope of the leading edge, breakouts remain scattered along the edges and interior of the flow. The breakouts are located between 1.5 and 2.5 miles upslope of the flow front, Oliveira said.

“Nothing really aggressive and moving away from the pad, but definitely active along the north margin,” Oliveira said.

Those breakouts may be having some affect on the volume of lava reaching the flow front, which could be causing the slow down, Brantley said.

“As Darryl (Oliveira) mentioned, there are a number of breakouts just upslope and those may be starving the flow front a bit of lava and may have resulted in the slowdown that we have seen in the past several days,” Brantley said. “At this time it doesn’t look like Puu Oo is erupting any less lava into the tube … that has been the case for the past several weeks — and so the main control here would be the breakouts that are occurring along the breakout of the lava tube.”

Smoke conditions were reported as moderate to heavy Friday morning with a light trade wind blowing the smoke in a south-southeast direction. Smoke conditions may increase in some areas and individuals who may be sensitive or have respiratory problems are advised to take necessary precautions and to remain indoors.