Strange but true – volcano stops flowing same day of mega earthquake

Madam Pele, goddess of Hawaii’s volcanoes, took a break on the same day as the mega earthquake off of Japan. Her vacation lasted around three weeks and there are now signs at Halemaumau that she has come off vacation. The mega earthquake by Japan and the resulting tsunami hold large lessons for Hawaii. We have the possibility of huge locally-generated tsunamis due to mega landslides of our volcanic islands. Kilauea is the current suspect and its southeast slope is actively moving very fast in geological time. The major city of Honolulu, with much of its important infrastructure near the coastline is very vulnerable to a large locally-generated tsunami. One coming from the collapse of Kilauea would probably hit in less than one half hour, giving residents and visitors little time to get to higher ground. Of course, no one knows when such an event might take place, but it is something to think about. The images of the destruction in Japan should be a large wake-up call.

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