Volcanocafe and the GDPR

/ 02/06/2018

You may found your inbox filled with emails over the last month or so, from companies begging you to re-subscribe to their service and with page after page of updated privacy policy documents.  This is because of a new piece of European Legislation called the GDPR, or the General Data Protection Regulation, aimed at giving everyone much better control over what data is held by companies and the purpose of the data retention.  The new regulations also allows severe penalties for any company that handles data of anyone, and miss-handles that data through deliberate action, or simply being careless with how the data is handled.

I thought I would create this little post to explain what data we hold for all our visitors and what we actually do with it:

Firstly, what data does Volcanocafe hold for each user?

We hold virtually no data for each of our users, save the email address used for registering and the IP address that was used when the account was last accessed.  Should anyone decide to visit their profiles and fill in the blanks (Name and such) then obviously, that data is stored in our database.  


Who has access to this data?

We have a limited admin team with the necessary permissions to be able to see any personally identifiable information.  As part of the WordPress environment, user’s email address and IP address are logged whenever a comment is made, this allows us to take care of troublemakers by banning IP addresses and email addresses.

There is also a security log that keeps our back end secure and to trace any problems encountered.  This logs any activity on the site, so when you log in an entry is made in the log with your ip and email address are logged along with the time and date you accessed it, for accounts with higher privileges (Carl, Albert, Geolurking, et al), this data includes any activity done behind the scenes.  

Our database is stored outwith our WordPress installation, in a password protected MySQL database held by our webhost.  User’s passwords are held encrypted in this same database.

Access to this database is extremely limited, even most of the admins  are unable to access it.

What do we use the data for?

NOTHING!

Volcanocafe does not serve advertisements to our audience nor is the user database sold or used in any other way.  The only reason we insist on users being registered at all, is to help combat the unnecessary chatter by spam bots and to distinguish between users.

 


I found a helpful website that takes us through the 10 Key GDPR requirements, so let me go through these 10 points and address them one by one.

 

1) Lawful, fair and transparent processing

  • Lawful means all processing should be based on a legitimate purpose.
  • Fair means companies take responsibility and do not process data for any purpose other than the legitimate purposes.
  • Transparent means that companies must inform data subjects about the processing activities on their personal data.

As I have stated above, we don’t use or process our user data in anyway other than the logging of email addresses through registration and commenting on the site.

2) Limitation of purpose, data and storage

  • forbid processing of personal data outside the legitimate purpose for which the personal data was collected
  • mandate that no personal data, other than what is necessary, be requested
  • ask that personal data should be deleted once the legitimate purpose for which it was collected is fulfilled

None of our team will use this data to contact anyone.  If a user has a requirement for contacting an admin directly for any reason, then initial contact is made through our official email address volcanocafe@gmail.com and we will forward the email onto the admin required.  This gives traceability that there is a genuine reason for the admin to be given your contact information.


3) Data subject rights

  • The data subjects have been assigned the right to ask the company what information it has about them, and what the company does with this information. In addition, a data subject has the right to ask for correction, object to processing, lodge a complaint, or even ask for the deletion or transfer of his or her personal data.

Our security system automatically deletes users that have created an account, and never commented (after 30 days), this ensures we don’t keep records of all our visitors and anyone who HAS commented and has an account with us, can request that we delete all the data we have.
NOTE: anyone who requests this, please be aware this will remove ALL data from our site, including posts and comments.

4) Consent

  • As and when the company has the intent to process personal data beyond the legitimate purpose for which that data was collected, a clear and explicit consent must be asked from the data subject. Once collected, this consent must be documented, and the data subject is allowed to withdraw his consent at any moment.
  • Also, for the processing of children’s data, GDPR requires explicit consent of the parents (or guardian) if the child’s age is under 16.

As previously mentioned, we don’t process any data in anyway except the logging of IP addresses and Email addresses.  We don’t serve advertisements on the site, should this ever change (it won’t) then permission for use of this data will be sought.

5) Personal data breaches

The organisations must maintain a Personal Data Breach Register and, based on severity, the regulator and data subject should be informed within 72 hours of identifying the breach.

We maintain a security log on site, which allows us to monitor the database and any accessing of it.  Should we ever discover a breach in the site, then this will be logged, and users notified.

6) Privacy by Design

  • Companies should incorporate organisational and technical mechanisms to protect personal data in the design of new systems and processes; that is, privacy and protection aspects should be ensured by default.

Only admin and moderators can access our database or comment logs, this ensures that user details are kept from the general public, we also maintain a firewall and security suite to protect the site.  

If anyone suspects that their data has been accessed without their permission, then you must contact us at volcanocafeorg@gmail.com ASAP, so we can investigate.

7) Data Protection Impact Assessment

  • To estimate the impact of changes or new actions, a Data Protection Impact Assessment should be conducted when initiating a new project, change, or product. The Data Protection Impact Assessment is a procedure that needs to be carried out when a significant change is introduced in the processing of personal data. This change could be a new process, or a change to an existing process that alters the way personal data is being processed.

As it stands, no major reworking of the way our site is run is planned and should this occur, we will undertake this assessment and notify users in advance.

8) Data transfers

  • The controller of personal data has the accountability to ensure that personal data is protected and GDPR requirements respected, even if processing is being done by a third party. This means controllers have the obligation to ensure the protection and privacy of personal data when that data is being transferred outside the company, to a third party and / or other entity within the same company.

No user data is used in anyway outside of the Volcanocafe environment.

9) Data Protection Officer

  • When there is significant processing of personal data in an organisation, the organisation should assign a Data Protection Officer. When assigned, the Data Protection Officer would have the responsibility of advising the company about compliance with EU GDPR requirements.

We do not do significant processing of personal data, so it seems a bit overkill for us to appoint someone specifically in this task.


10) Awareness and training

  • Organisations must create awareness among employees about key GDPR requirements, and conduct regular trainings to ensure that employees remain aware of their responsibilities with regard to the protection of personal data and identification of personal data breaches as soon as possible.

I suppose this will also constitute awareness and training for the admin team also.  

 

I hope this was not too dry for everyone.  I realise everyone will be getting sick to death of hearing about the GDPR, but we felt it was necessary for us to try and explain how this legislation applies to us and how we run the blog.  If you have any questions or concerns regarding your data, then please don’t hesitate to contact us via our email address and we’ll get back to you.

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Now some non GDPR related news regarding Volcanocafe and the Volcanocafe Facebook group:

During the recent Hawaiian activity and as happens with any large volcanic activity, we have seen a large jump in users visiting.  

Our Facebook group recent hit 2500 members and as I write this we stand at 2600 members.  We could have had many more, but each member is vetted prior to being allowed access and if the profile doesn’t fit our normal sort of visitor, then they are politely declined.

See if you can spot when Hawaii started heating up…

Staying with Facebook, we have a new member of our moderation team with Jonet Greene helping us keep the place clear of unwanted comments and making sure the members adhere to Rule #1 (be nice).

Moving to our Twitter account, we continue to slowly grow our audience with an unsettling 666 followers, whilst this might not seem a large amount, our last 28 days activities has seen our posts appear in the newsfeed of 12k users, through retweets and people liking our posts.

The main site has also seen a jump in visitors, jumping from around 3.5k weekly unique visitors to around 5k and a peak of over 13k on the 14th of May.  This increase in traffic also seen us reach a large milestone on the blog, with over 2 million views of the blog and over 300k unique visitors to the site.

The main blog stats figures up until then end of May…

You may have noticed we have had a couple of outages on the website, this was caused by a security hole that allowed someone to upload a piece of malicious software to the site, which took pleasure in taking us offline.  I feel this was not a targeted attack, but one that scanned for security holes and unfortunately found one.  This hole has now been plugged and our back end security beefed up somewhat.

the secured https version of the site as seen on Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge: Always look for the secure padlock and the “https://” when visiting any site you need to enter data into.

During this process, we have also moved to an entirely HTTPS (secure browser protocol), which provides another layer of protection to the site with traffic now encrypted.  Prior to this, the landing page was the old HTTP (unsecure) format, but secured for any links clicked after the initial landing page (log in has always been secured).

Tom.

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234 thoughts on “Volcanocafe and the GDPR”

  1. Great explanation. I am fully ok with your §§§§§.

  2. The real beauty is that I can simply not resubscribe to the host of sites I never subscribed to in the first place.

    By doing absolutely nothing! RESULT!!!

  3. Wait! You are on FB and Twitter? i knew the twitter but i never get any tweets but didn’t know about the FB. i can’t do everything….. which would be the best port of information??? Best!motsfo

    • We generally only tweet the release of new posts on Twitter so they are few and far between.

      The FB group is convenient for people to share content to and we try and repost it here. The blog is always the best port of information. It’s on my list of things to do to feed FB comments into the blog, but my young family sap all energy and sanity from me on a daily basis and I’m a dribbling wreck by the end of the day.

      • By gum, I know that feeling so well. And my kids are 20 and 22.

  6. Thanks Tom for the information! I’ve always felt welcomed by this ‘homely’ community and the amazing tolerance members have of my inane observations. Like many I’ve had a deluge of e-mails about this GD thingy, often from companies I’ve not dealt with for years. Interesting. Your summary has been really handy.
    Now, back to volcanoes…

    • They had to leave because the house was put under mandatory evacuation when the flow from fissure 8 went near highway 132. Civil beat was smart and brought their cameras with them, CNN forgot to bring them and will get arrested for going back… Shame too as they all would have had a perfect view of the flow going down to kapoho.

      There also isn’t really anywhere they can actually see the eruption from that they are allowed to go either 😐

  8. What’s the status of PGV? I haven’t read anything about it in the last couple of days. Did it get overrun?

    • They have no access, the main access road is very deeply buried under a 40 meter wide lava channel, so the only access is through four corners which will probably get covered in a few hours.

      I think really the threat is a bit exaggerated, the wells won’t explode and endanger the surrounding area (the explosions from fissure 17 were probably much bigger than the wells would be), and while H2S has an equivalent toxicity to cyanide it will just blow away in the wind and become harmless very quickly. It also reacts with SO2 to make elemental sulfur and water, and can just burn directly to SO2, both of which are very likely in the environment the wells are in right now.
      What probably is a much bigger health hazard is all the combustion products from burning houses… At 1000 C pretty much everything will react with oxygen including things used as fire retardants that react to make chemicals that wouldn’t look out of place in a war zone… Teflon degrades at 400 C to hydrofluoric acid and carbonyl fluoride, which is the fluorine analogue of phosgene. PVC degrades at 250 C to hydrochloric acid and a bunch of chlorinated carbon compounds, and self reacts in the presence of copper to create dioxins, which I think is the same stuff used in the Vietnam war that was called agent orange… Yeah I don’t think anything in the wells is going to be nearly that bad…

      • Thanks TBM. The PGV officials I saw speaking about the situation seemed confidant that the caps would hold, and I’m assuming no news is good news, even given the lack of access …..

      • I agree, I am not concerned about the wells. Obviously the company will want to re-use them after the eruption: most of the cost of geothermal is in the installation. But the only real risk now is economic. In hindsight, maybe they should have asked more questions about why this location was so good for ground heat flux!

        • I’m not sure how likely it is that they can get to buried wells, it looks like if the channel does break on its southern side then there is nowhere for the lava to go so it will just fill up that area like a dam, probably destroying all of PGV. If it breaks out on the northern side it will probably flood over lava tree state monument but again get trapped behind earlier lava a short distance later. That means basically it could just back up into a massive lava lake that covers about half of the webcam including all of lower leilani and nearly all of PGV, which would probably secure the fate of kapoho as their would probably be enough lava stored in something like that to keep the flow alive for days after the vent stops erupting. I wonder how thick the lava is now, it is really filling in the low area pretty well, and the cinder cone will probably be a lot bigger by the end of the eruption than it is now (about 40-50 meters at current).

          Also at the rate of advance the lava has been going, it is probably within 100 meters of four corners now if it hasn’t already crossed it.
          1960 deja vu… RIP kapoho #2, probably best not to build kapoho #3 😉

        • That is a legal quagmire in the US. If the manage to divert the lava and it flows over someone else’s property (perhaps) as a result, the lawyers will have employment for years. HVO can’t take sides.

          • There are even rules here in Florida about “malicious” diverting of water flowing on your property if it adversely affects your neighbors.

        • Because it is illegal to divert lava in Hawaii, even government officials cant do it (well they probably can but wont). Partly because of the cultural significance of the lava through Pele, but probably more directly through the fact that in the act of diverting the lava it would probably go onto someone elses house that wasn’t otherwise in danger at that time. From what I have read, a lot of people in the area weren’t exactly massive fans of PGV, as evidenced by the amount of comments of people saying it caused the eruptions, so doing something like that would probably cause a riot.

          There are also a disturbing number of people who think mauna loa is going to erupt because ‘a certain person who probably isn’t dutch’ said so, all because of 4 earthquakes in a week that USGS took down to re-evaluate…
          If my theory of how kilauea will behave in the next 50 years is correct, then mauna loa will stay mostly dormant for basically the rest of this half of the century (until around 2050). It will almost certainly erupt, probably more than once, but it wont be erupting every few years like it was from 1843-1950. I guess that an eruption in the next 5 years is pretty plausible though, but it will very likely be like the 1975 and 1984 eruptions, a small eruption wakes it up, and then some months or years later it finishes the job and erupts bigger. Mauna loa is basically in the same sort of activity period now as kilauea was from 1840-1952.

        • After the eruption, the islanders used heat from the cooling lava flows to provide hot water and to generate electricity. They also used some of the extensive tephra, fall-out of airborne volcanic material to extend the runway at the island’s small airport and as landfill on which 200 new houses were built

          (From the same infallible wiki source. [no, I did not write that article])

    • Some PGV buildings are visible on the PGV cam (lower left of the image):

      Source:

    • Looks familiar except it is about 10 times smaller and not in an inhabited area 😉

      There was almost a repeat of that on April 30, but it got cut just after starting once the magma started intruding downrift. It was the last lava to erupt from pu’u o’o. If that happened instead, then the eruption probably would have gone similarly to 2011, and the eruption likely would have resumed. With the recent events though I think pu’u o’o is over, and with it probably all flank activity full stop for at least a few years.

    • Thanks Karulei! Very informative…… i think You should get an A++ too… (mod says Motsfo stop with the chitchat…. ) (motsfo says “make me” no, wait… mod CAN do that 😉 ) Best!motsfo

  11. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NU0F0003JKw

    Really clear view of fissure 8 at 9 am. I really hope they actually do something useful with this eruption site, like turn it into a park or something to show people what happened here, if it all just gets quarried away it would be a real shame.
    I would doubt that lava tree park will survive this eruption given how close it is to the lava channel and that lava has already advanced that direction several times, so maybe a replacement could be made by preserving the area around fissure 8. In the video there are some new lava trees so it would be sort of fitting.

    Really I think if people will still by land in this area in the future then they are sort of asking for it when the next eruption happens. 1960 can be considered somewhat removed from the modern day, but this event will never be forgotten in today’s interconnected world, so anyone who wants to build there really wont have any excuse next time.

    • someone showed a reproduction of an ad by developers urging folks to “buy now while prices are cheap!”in the flow zone from Kilauea
      . I do feel sorry for those that didn’t think it through. We had a similar situation and listened when the government said it was safe to buy next to the river because they had built a dam up stream, we now pay thousands in flood insurance each year.

  12. Something changed on May 8 on the Kona side of Mauna Loa that caused an on-going change in the tilt. Can’t find any significant EQ’s that day near there.

  13. If you look at at the satellite maps, the 1955 and 1960 flows are still very visible. Now Puna had the reputation of being green and densely grown (so dense that you can’t even see the lava approaching, judging from the video). But after this eruption and Pu’u’O’o, that is now what most of Puna is now like. So was the reputation just an accident of time, because Puna became settled after more than century without eruptions? What is Puna’s normal state?Maybe the best thing to do with the entire district is turning it into a national park. It is not suitable for housing.

    • That is what I said before in an earlier comment.
      I think really the area at least around fissure 8 and its cinder cone should be preserved. The amount of media coverage this eruption has gotten means it is really someones own stupid fault if they decide to quarry away the cinder cone and build a house there only for it to be destroyed some years in the future again. I read that the 1977 eruption was erupting from an intrusion emplaced in 1955, so the area around highway 130 could erupt in 10-20 years or any point before that, and likely endanger the upper part of leilani that has survived this eruption so far. The area isn’t out of the woods yet, as they say.

      I would quite like to see the area turned into something like lava tree state park, a reminder that this is still part of an (extremely) active volcano and that things can change quickly. It took only 1 week to go from an overflowing summit lake and fairly standard conditions at pu’u o’o, to eruptions starting in a residential area 25 km away in the lower east rift, and similarly only a few weeks to go from small spatter cones active for a few hours to lava flooding to the ocean then high fountaining in the town and now lava threatening kapoho. It could similarly take only 1 week (or much less) to go from silent to erupting again when the summit re-inflates to a level where it can erupt, some time in the near future.


      It looks bigger now.

      • Actually I just looked at a picture from the same time yesterday and the fountain isn’t really bigger, however I did notice something very strange.
        By hovering over both pictures quickly, I could see that the ground in front of the vent has risen, not only the lava flow but the entire middle of the screen. The areas further away are unchanged, so I think the area is inflating significantly, probably because all the magma is going through one hole now. This could mean the fountain at fissure 8 is about to get a lot bigger, or other parts of the fissure could reactivate.
        I dont know if I am just seeing things, but I made a gif of the two pictures.

        https://imgflip.com/gif/2bhjhu

        • If that doesnt work then there is also this one but it isnt as good quality.

          • Doesnt it have something to do with the second image being darker due to the clouds? Because the trees just in front of the camera are also affected and that doesnt make sense to me. And also such a strong deformation should have already affected the height of the fountain or earthquake activity in a noticeable way . The fountain probably looks a little higher in the second one because of the darkness too.

          • Don’t think it has changed. the light is different. The lava on the right is advancing and there is something new left of centre

  14. So you’re not secretly plotting to find and kill us all, that’s good to know! 😛

  16. Multiple quakes at about 35km

    1.8
    2km N of Pahala, Hawaii
    2018-06-02 15:12:48 (UTC)
    35.1 km
    2.2
    0km SE of Pahala, Hawaii
    2018-06-02 04:18:42 (UTC)
    35.7 km
    2.2
    0km E of Pahala, Hawaii
    2018-06-02 01:55:38 (UTC)
    35.1 km
    2.2
    1km NE of Pahala, Hawaii
    2018-06-02 01:03:46 (UTC)
    35.0 km
    2.8
    1km SE of Pahala, Hawaii
    2018-06-02 00:39:34 (UTC)
    38.0 km
    2.4
    1km E of Pahala, Hawaii
    2018-06-01 23:13:38 (UTC)
    35.2 km
    3.1
    1km ESE of Pahala, Hawaii
    2018-06-01 23:09:48 (UTC)
    34.3 km

  17. It looks like the tilt on Kilauea might be leveling off (2 day graph) and it looks like the last GPS reading might have actually gone up a little (it is only one bit of data).

  18. An official smart person needs to do an indepth study of why people don’t leave……. i find it very interesting and puzzling…… i remember one older couple interviewed at the very beginning of the first ground crack; they packed up everything and moved out…. Said they could feel the ground ‘breathing’ (i think) and they thought major changes were in store… they moved back to the main land. What awareness makes people do the right thing??

      • You see it here in Florida all the time. Hurricane comes through, obliterates all the expensive housing on the beach, they simply rebuild because insurance pays for it, meanwhile those of us with the common sense to NOT live on an ephemeral island (ex sand bar) have to pay for it with highly inflated insurance rates because we have a Florida postal code. Right now they are pissed off because there is legislation in the works that gives them the property that they are built on, (currently in an ultra low rate federal lease program) because that will force them to pay property taxes like the rest of the state residents.

        So, whenever Hurricane season starts, I don’t really give it much concern. I’m not the idiot. (or am I?) Short of an asteroid plopping down in the GOM, there is no real tsunami threat that can get me. My main concerns are the occasional high powered hurricanes and the parasitic leaches living on the beach.

        If the insurance companies pooled the revenue specific to the high threat properties and only used that to pay those claims, the “free ride” that those owners have would force them to build in less hazardous areas because the insurance premiums would bankrupt them.

        To give you an idea of the logic of Pensacola, we have one of the only natural deepwater ports on the Gulf Coast. The people that run the city have gone out of their way to drive off industry so that they can try to make it into their own little Destin Florida and score the big bucks off of real estate. It doesn’t matter that in order to get to “Pensacola Beach,” you have to leave the city and drive through a completely different county to get to it. Following Ivan, ‘downtown’ reeked of fish and feces for three months. So, they got some FEMA bucks to move the sewage treatment plant north of the Crist Plant so that it would not get inundated in the next direct strike. Now the fun part… to deal with the sewage production rate, they need to put in a holding tank to buffer the flow so that their pumping infrastructure can handle needed transport. Where do ya think the holding tank is gonna be? Yep. Near ‘downtown’ in the storm surge inundation area. That means that there is a very real chance that the next direct strike we get (just a matter of time) will make downtown reek of fish and feces yet again.

        As for the disdain for industry, Mobile Alabama is the preferred shipping port for the area. Yeah, they have to constantly dredge their channel to keep it open, but the open hostility that Pensacola has for actually bringing jobs here make Mobile the logical choice.

    • ‘official smart person’, difficult to find, like almost extinct

    • One thing I read in one group mostly comprised of locals is simply looting – they want to deter looters. Now the PD and CD have access into the area fairly well controlled, but the fact is there is also a subset of bad local people **already living in Puna** who apparently have been making merry… ‘rippers’ appears to be the local slang, because they’ll show up at an abandoned evacuated house and rip out everything of value.

      I also heard locals in the area at risk of being (well now, is) entirely isolated that they weren’t worried, when the time came if they had to move due to imminent lava at their house, no worries, they have plenty mates with boats who would take them out by sea; they don’t need a road to get out.

  19. Via radio chatter, magma is 80 feet from road and 100 feet from 4 corners.

  20. 3 corners or 2 corners are also nice names. One corner sounds a bit weired but still ok. Could become zero corners there…

  21. From USGS: ‘Kīlauea Message Sat, 02 Jun 2018 10:18:32 HST: Lava flows from F8 have crossed HWY 137 south of Four Corners. Hawai‘i County Civil Defense has issued new policies for areas south of the junction.’ So lava has now passed Four Corners and appears to be following the path of steepest descent.

  22. If 4 corners is entirely cut off, can a 4×4 or super jeep be used to cross the 1960 lava?

    I’m reading on FB’s Hawaii Tracker webpage (with many, many locals) that some ppl are staying because they think they can a) use their farm to give them what they need, food-wise (as if acid rain doesn’t come into the equation) and b) use a boat to get out (as if lava ocean entry wouldn’t affect anything.)

    There are also those who worry a lot about looters. I’ve asked on that list “what am I missing” as far as looters vs. lava and looters vs. no access to the home. … Am awaiting a response …

    • 4×4 to cross the 1960 Lava? Only if they are of the Icelandic variety. Icelandic 4x4s seriously out match anything put together in the US. They drive over old flows for fun. All we do is play in the mud. I find it embarrassing, but truth is truth.

      Friend of mine used to piss off his brothers. All he had was a 2 wheel drive F-150, yet he could navigate and go through treks and trails that his brothers 4x4s would become hopelessly mired in. 90% of off road driving is knowing what your vehicle can do and driving to match that.

      Of course, what also helped is that he had an inline six. Those tend to have a lot more bottom end torque than a comparable 8 cylinder. Years later I had an F-150 with a 5 liter V8. It’s only real claim to fame was that it could get me to the fire station in short order. I had a modified driving lights that illuminated the road almost to the level that a locomotive does. Quite handy at 3 am trying to get to the station.

      • The last lava map I saw shows the lava took a sharp southerly turn right at 4 corners and, although it covered all 4 corners, it only went a tiny bit past the intersection. I’m guessing that it wouldn’t be too hard to create a road track to allow people from northern Kapoho to get out. (Not southern because my guess is that fissure 8 is going strong enough to keep pushing the lava until it reaches the sea — through the middle of Kapoho 🙁 )

      • Only on marked tracks; it’s strictly forbidden (and the law is widely obeyed) to drive off-road in Iceland – except during winter when there’s enough snow cover to protect the delicate plants and lichens.

    • Funny you mention looters. About a quarter of the calls I am hearing usually concern a “suspicious person” or a “black van” parked in the middle of the road. The one that weirded me out was about a “shadowy figure” at the bottom of a set of stairs that someone spotted at their home. I think in that situation I would literally come unglued. (Also why I have a dog to allow me to get a reality check on what’s going on around me. If the dog isn’t going nuts, it’s probably nothing. On the other hand, if it is something, the dog is gonna buy me time to arm myself)

      • For general information in the Uk its a “white van” that is the generic vehicle of choice for n’er do well’s of all types.

        • Funny that. One of our ex-Sheriff’s typically had a run-in with a “white pickup” that forced him off the road. One night, the pickup turned out to be a real pizza delivery vehicle. FHP arrested the ex-Sheriff for DUI.

          (This was many years ago, our current Sheriff is quite above board and is doing a really good job in my opinion.)

      • There seems to be a LOT of concern about looters, some of whom are accused of being “meth heads”.
        From what I can tell, there absolutely are Hawaiians in that area who value property over health, especially if said property might go into the hands of a looter. They can handle the lava taking it, but NOT a looter. So they wish to stay until the bitter end.
        I’ve read in that group that authorities have talked about (or implemented?) a $15,000 USD fine for needing to be rescued after the mandatory evacuation order has gone out.

        (FWIW, my actions were the opposite. I tossed 98% of my stuff because of extreme mold toxins in my house. Health trumps possessions. I understand it is very hard to let go, but I do not understand those who will risk health rather than let a “meth head” get their stuff — especially if said meth head also has no way to get out of the area!)

        • The fine is a bit draconian, but sometimes you have to be “over the top” to get an idiots attention.

          One old saying is that ‘you have to use a 2×4 to get a mules attention.’

          I don’t know if it ever happened, but I have heard talk of implementing a similar ‘fee’ for the idiots that typically get stranded on some of the Cascade mountains almost every year. While quite handy, a helo is not a cheap thing to operate. 100LL aviation gasoline currently runs from $5.46 to $7.47 per gallon at Seattle-Tacoma. ($4.85 at Kona Intl) I don’t know what the fuel consumption is for the rescue helo they have on standby, but it can get pricey fast… and that’s not including paying for the pilot and flight crew. Better the idiot pay for it rather than the local government.

          • Helos can run from$2000/hr to $5000/hr real easy-if you are doing SAR.
            $8000+ if it is something like a Blackhawk or Huey(UH-1)..

      • when I got my ‘watchdog, a Great Dane, Labrador, Mastif cross, I took him inot town for a walk, didn’t get anymore ‘funny’ calls after that, who he is dangerous big black dog, yep

        • All the more reason to not let people get to know your dog. A dogs greatest deterrent factor is not knowing what he can or will do. That way all he has to do is make an announcement that he is there.

          Due to circumstances beyond my control, I would up with a couple of “yappers” that are part of my ad-hoc “pack.” The cool bit about small dogs is they tend to alert on pretty much anything and can draw attention to something that the other dogs may have missed. I don’t have the resources or patience for it, but I have heard tell of a large group of “yappers” being a more effective set to take down an intruder. Seeing as all dogs are really really close to their pack hunting cousins, wolves, pack behavior and tactics come to the forefront in how they operate.

          One breed that I absolutely love is the Doberman Pincher. I don’t have one because I don’t have a large enough yard for him to properly exercise. “Bull,” my first dog, would lap the yard several times before wanting to come back in during his morning “leg stretch.” Anything less than a full acre and you are hindering his exercise. BTW, he got his name since he would stand at the crest of the hill in back and dare you to come up out of the garden if he didn’t know who you were. My current dog is a Lab-Pit mix. Roan coat, virtually invisible in the dark. Turn on the light in back to call him in, all you see are teeth and eyes coming at you. I generally refer to him as my “Tooth Monster” in casual conversation. He currently weighs in at 92 lbs. Not overly huge, but he has enough mass to easily wrestle someone to the ground.

        • One event that I remember about “Bull.” His brother had gotten loose one day and got tore up by the neighborhood mongrel “Linus”. Each and every day, “Linus” would come by and mark the gate right in front of Bull. One day, while my dad was in the hospital, Bull got out. He spotted Linus and hit him at full speed, going for the neck. It took me forever to untangle those dogs as they were tearing into each other. From then on out, Linus steered clear of the gate.

          Ya see, Bull was the Alpha of the pair of brothers, Linus had tangled with Bull’s beta in a previous confrontation.

          Just about every morning Bull and his brother would go down into the back yard and work out their pecking order. (Oddly, they never drew any blood) Linus was a different story. He was a mess afterwards.

          • I breed dogs, the smaller variety now, had staffies a while back, alpha is in females as well, when they come on heat they fought to the wire and then likced each others wounds, so I had to board one of them when they came on heat.The Bichon Frise are the ideal watch dogs and let Marvin know what is going on, perfect

    • I think haze is also going to become a hazard since Kapaho is downwind from the 1960 ocean entry more or less.

  23. Here is a nice compilation of the reporting of the usgs on the eruption.

    https://www.usgs.gov/news/k-lauea-volcano-erupts

    GL Edit: I assume you didn’t mean complication. I can change it back if you like. 😀

    (The complication bit is going to be making observations with-out winding up a casualty.)

  24. I watched a report that they are closed to opening the old chain of craters road to allow an option of evacuating people to the west through the park. Not sure how they would manage the traffic if there was explosive activity at the summit. They broke up the top part of the lava, crushed it and then compacted it like we use crush and run to prepare a road bed. I think they stated that it was around 26 feet wide and the project is under budget.

    There was a new video but I can only find the starting video

      • That’s just sooo cooool and so american!
        Oz, back from california, nevada, utah, arizona and colorado.

        Did a tad of driving…

        • I feel for ya. I did the San Diego to Pensacola trip in a 38 hour run that wore me out. (I did have a couple of hours break in there when I began having mental fatigue.) And this was after they had snatched my arse off the ship with a helo and transhipped me to North Island via the carrier. [It was an Emergency Leave thing] Dangle on a line off of a helo? You can keep it. H-2s are already spooky as hell.

          (Tiny and they don’t look like they should fly. Sort of the aviation equivalent to a lawn mower.)

        • “..so american!”

          {With enough horsepower, a rock can fly} (2 x J-79)

          Though this particular “rock” flew exceptionally well… even if it was effectively a delivery truck. “What can gray do for you?”

          • With enough power (2 x RR Avons) an over-and-under double barrel shotgun with two bits on tin on the sides can fly: Witness the English Electric Lightning:

            (Interestingly the F35 is known as the ‘Lightning 2’ in the UK – but people who remember the *real* Lightning aren’t buying it!)

    • Dunno, but one highly excited officer was concerned about two of his compadres who were working a call getting cut off by the advancing magma. They completed their activity and got out just fine.

      Meanwhile, USCG has been periodically broadcasting a “be on the lookout” for an overdue sail boat from Hilo that was headed to another island. The last place I would want is to be → somewhere ← on the open Pacific in a 21 foot sailboat. Years ago, when active duty, we ran across a small sail boat in the open ocean that was “storm sheeted” {rigged for heavy weather} and the only thing the occupant wanted was a “whiskey.” I hadn’t learned yet that it is actually radio pro-word for position. Essentially he wasn’t after a stiff drink, he just wanted to know where he was at.


      Note: That request for a “whiskey” makes perfect sense. It allows you to validate your estimated position from stellar navigation. Any time you can refine your location, the better off you are.

  25. An interview with Kyle Anderson with the HVO about the changes at the summit of Kilauea. With some good video of the Overlook Vent and some interesting answers to some questions. Posted by Big Island Video News on 6/01/2018.

    And yep, I checked to be sure it was the correct link this time. 🙂

    • Wouldn’t the summit show inflation and pressurization if it were building to a major explosion?

  26. What is going on at erz1 from around 19:55 utc til 20:20? With the lava getting close I would guess it is the lava flow or heavy equipment/lots of activity (evacuations) on the road near the unit.

  27. Was looking at some news and it looks like the lava has come in to contact with the “Green Lake” causing some steaming. The activity on ERZ1 and 2 might be recording that.

      • Everything I’ve read says “Green Lake” is spring fed.

        As for Turtle pond… well, it is Hawaii, and it was written by some marketing twit.

        I can see it having lower salinity than a normal tide pool, but not fully fresh water.

        • You would be surprised at how much fresh water comes out at many of the beaches. During our snorkeling and scuba trips you could feel (very cold water in a beach at Hilo) and see in the stratified fresh and salt water at many spots (two step is another). We did not visit this area but if it survives maybe we will to support the locals.

    • The person who predicted that was clearly a divinely inspired prophet. The odd thing is I found such a refrigerator in my own backyard in South Australia, full of asparagus; and the nearest volcano is 364 km away. I guess that proves volcanos are more powerful and refrigerators are older than we thought.

  29. Someone here said the deflation at the summit could have stopped. I guess not because today was the largest one day drop since the eruption began.

    • I think …

      it might be somewhat more complicated than a blip on that chart. There is a difference between actual deflation at various locations on the caldera floor and measured deflation. The instruments are not situated directly on the caldera floor but on the rim. Radar readings would be more detailed but they would not be as close to continuous in time as the tiltmeters.

      My guess is that ‘true’ deflation is masked by temporary out-gassing evemts everywhere under the floor of the caldera as a consequence of the largest EQ’s shaking the underlying magma.

  30. The lava crossed four corner 100 meters south of the junction which is still I think on the old lava flow. I don’t know where the front is at the moment but with luck it would just follow the old route.

    Green lake is above the intersection and is apparently a 400-year old crater.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbRh_seyQB8

  33. when all else fails there always a carrier pigeon, nature at its best, a bid difficult to understand unless you are a native

    • Definitely a “mute” video.

      But, it’s hard to describe the feature as a magma lake… more of a torrent. I wonder if LucasFilms is gonna try and sue Hawaii for copyright infringement… all it needs is two dudes hopping around with glowing sticks and Disney will buy it and trash the franchise.

      … or, this is preliminary work on their new Theme Park ride.

    • You sure that’s not video from the Hadean period and not the Cenezoic?

  34. i’ve been eyeballying the height of the fountain against the mountain ridge… takes time… not often both so visible but now the height of the lava is at the highest point i’ve ever seen it…. motsfo

  35. Hi motsfo, yes looking as high as any time this arvo. and hello to all. I took some screen captures today if anyone wants to look let me know how to post here. I know very little about volcanos, but
    I love coming here to learn. Thanks Chris

    Released from the cookie dungeon and the army of GDPR goblins – Admin

    • Upload to an image host (tinypic, etc.) and post the URL into a comment to display the image(s) on the blog.

    • It is fairly important that the link to your image ends in .jpg .png .gif or one of the commonly used graphic format files. If no, WP will probably puke on it.

    • Hi Chris, glad to see You here… You will have to ask the powers that be how to do anything. Even just a general Hey, Mod! will probably get their attention… i watch a lot of FB but don’t know how to share anything from there to here…. And this is a great place to learn….. Best!motsfo

      • I am a moderator, but I’m also literally a FB Luddite → “Caveat emptor”.

        As for questions about Volcanology… well, we are not the “experts” but some experts do roll though here. Many of us are “experts” in diverse fields. There are at least two PHds that mingle here. (I am not one of them, but I can tell some mean sea stories.) I also think one or two of our regular commenters are either active or past geologists.

  36. i understand Ron Schott passed away unexpectedly…. RIP Ron, the last tweet he sent me was
    “Thanks for your kind words. I’ll do my best to keep delivering. ” i’ll miss him…. used to tease him that it was past his bedtime and he should be headed to bed…. Thanks for Your Kindness, Ron….. All the Best!motsfo

  37. “F8 flow continues – advancing into Kapoho Crater and through Kapoho Beach Lots. At 10 AM, lava entered Green Lake. By 3PM, HCFD confirmed lake filled & water evaporated. Wide flow front is moving toward ocean.”

    Are there any actual pictures of this? Sounds like kapoho is getting destroyed as we speak. I wouldn’t be surprised if it is in the ocean now and they haven’t had time to report it yet based on the way things are going.
    They also reported the lava fountain to be less high than before but I think that was temporary as it looked pretty much the same as it did yesterday when I last looked at it.

    • Radio chatter seems like normal LE action. No excited or frantic transmissions.

      The official drone operators requested flight clearance to examine the Kapoho area. Evidently military aircraft were in the area because they were told to check in with them also. (In this context, USCG would also be categorized as military aircraft, using similar flight safety frequencies.) {I didn’t recognize the freq, but it was not the standard 121.5 Mhz VHF freq that pretty much ALL aircraft monitor. (IAD)} TGMCoy likely has better data on it’s usage. All I know is that the USN uses it as a hailing frequency for aircraft of unknown intentions. (Generally with standard phraseology as directed by UN guidelines, depending on the mission.) {Yeah, I know, “safety of flight” but knowing about a potential missile shot falls into that category}

      • I think you’re spot on. There is a line of steepest decent (what looks like little creeks on the maps) that goes directly from the center of the flow front to the corner of that inlet/bay.

        • It also connected to one leading towards Vacationland. Destroying the southern parts of Kapoho aswell if it keeps flowing. Leaving only the north with some luck.

          I hope everyone got out there. This scenario has been realistic for weeks now. There really wasnt any reason for them not to be warned or be prepared.

  38. USCG just made all waters within 300 meters of ocean entry points off limits without specific permission from them.

    • And yes, they do have arrest powers. They are in fact, Law Enforcement.

    • And there is another one going a bit to the south, through the middle of the holiday home area. It seems the lava is following both of them. But the area seems quite flat and the lava is not much restricted. The tide pools were very pretty, I hear, with very good coral.

      • I read somewhere they they are an important part of Native Hawaiian husbandry (and) heritage. They were used to keep fish stocks – they built retaining walls for the pens out of lava blocks and the tides refreshed the pens, so the fish stayed healthy.

  39. This was the one from epiclava that showed the events most clearly. If anyone is still there, they left it late. It looks awful

    • That really reminds me of part of the 1960 eruption that I saw in a video. There was a new vent that opened on the uprift side of the cinder cone and because it was dammed by the cone it flowed over the town very quickly. The lava was much more fluid looking than the lava there now because it was fresh from the vent but the situation was very similar.

      I think the area covered by this eruption far surpasses both the 1955 and 1960 eruptions by now. It is probably getting close to 20 km2 in area, which is the size of the 1840 flow. The last size update was made when lava was still a few km from four corners so the area covered has probably gone up a lot since then. It is quite possible that the flow is already in the ocean looking at that picture.

    • The area covered by lava now probably exceeds both the 1955 and 1960 flows by a significant degree. It is probably still smaller than the 1840 flow but not by much and is getting bigger quickly.

      Most people are using a different map because it updates more frequently, but I much prefer to watch this one: https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?mid=11tCiLa42FId7GMtg-4UkEoAI9QozTVFD&ll=19.501090868185738%2C-154.83228839862824&z=15
      If you turn off all the layers except the most recent update and the past lava flows, you can see how big this eruption actually is compared to the other eruptions near it, including the flows from pu’u o’o. Obviously it is still small compared to pu’u o’o but 95+% of the area of this eruption is less than 3 weeks old so this eruption is relatively much bigger than a given time at pu’u o’o even during many of the 1983-1986 fountaining phases.
      I expect that the eruption rate will probably decline over the next few weeks, but the fountain will probably get higher (probably a lot higher) as the hot stuff from the summit comes down. Apparently the lava from directly in the summit reservoir still isnt erupting and all the lava so far is from pu’u o’o and the mauna ulu/makaopuhi area. I guess that the lava is probably all the same composition in all 3 places by now, but the summit magma will be much more gas rich as it is very new.

      • Maybe that is why 12 people stayed behind, there have been only 12 people on the moon, and now there have been 12 people to get stoned by a volcano 😉

    • Ah Pele. She’s a joker. She’s a smoker. She’s a midnight toker.

      Found lying in his own tears next to an empty cookie packet in the dungeon. Go, journey on to the nearest store and quell your hunger! – Adminisleepor

    • 12:34 is probably what is happening right now.

      I wonder if this is a look into the future of this eruption. Fissure 8 has only been erupting like it is now for about a week, and I think the 1960 eruption started getting really big in its second week. It is also notable how many other vents were active alongside the main fountain, on the HVO information page it mentions that at several points in the eruption there were new fissures both up and down from the main cinder cone, some of which were in that video.

  45. Wow ! So busy with work I haven’t had the time to check in here.
    It is said that that a week is a long time in politics……. Try Volcanology !

  46. I used this image in one of the previous posts. This may well be in Kapoho, as some of the houses there have privatised their local tide pool. Or rather than ‘may be’, perhaps ‘may have been’.

  48. Drone operate reports magma about 30 meters from Kapoho Kai road. No signs of trapped people at this time. A follow up flight will search again in a few minutes.

    • 15 meters. Still no sign of trapped people. Last flight of evening. est magma will cross within an hour.

      Eastern lobe going down moani st. Closest lobe to ocean with about 500 meters to go.

      • Looks like the entire town could be obliterated. Hope the 12 who remained are smart enough to leave by boat or walk out before it is too late.

  50. a lesson in history about Kiilauea, a very old footage about an eruption 100 years ago, 1918, a silent one with captions

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