# Has the Kilauear eruption flow increased?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-kilauear-eruption-flow-increased/818446>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 23, 2018, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-kilauear-eruption-flow-increased/818446 "2018-07-23T16:40:10Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\
**Post date:** [July 23, 2018, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-kilauear-eruption-flow-increased/818446/1 "2018-07-23T16:40:10Z")

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Kilauea has been in an open state of eruption since 1983, but has the site of the eruption change resulted in a flow increase, or is it more or less the same, just from a different area?

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**Author:** ![rat\_avatar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rat_avatar/32/255_2.png) [@rat\_avatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rat_avatar)\
**Post date:** [July 23, 2018, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-kilauear-eruption-flow-increased/818446/2 "2018-07-23T16:45:32Z")

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Kilauea is a bit of an odd duck, it is actually the top of a mushroom cloud style explosion and lavaflow and all of the islands were produced from the same “hot spot”. If you look at the globe you can actually trace that _single_ volcano all the way back up to Siberia, but it was actually the plates that moved.

The point being that there is actually a highly likely extinction event that was produced by that hot spot when it originally exploded, and it has always been moving after that event. If you look at a mushroom cloud from an atomic bomb, Kilauea is basically the shaft left over from the volcanic equivalent, and it stays in place as the plates move. It is very different from the more common plate edge volcanoes that are along the ring of fire.