Hawaii lava flow inches ever-closer to homes

[timquinn]

I’m thinking the 3d printers nuts in the crowd could figger out a way to use this to build new homes as it goes. Come on. you don’t like a challenge?

[Drew_G]

Kill two birds with one stone: make the 3D printer use lava as its printing material.

[PhasmaFelis]

@Claire_Hummel

Along with that, you also have cultural sensitivities around what the flow represents- diverting the flow could be seen as pretty blasphemous.

So people’s homes must be sacrificed to preserve someone else’s religious sensibilities? I’m surprised this hasn’t gotten more comment here on BoingBoing. I’d expect to go over about as well as, say, the Ten Commandments in schools.

[Brainspore]

@PhasmaFelis

So people’s homes must be sacrificed to preserve someone else’s religious sensibilities?

More like: Hawaiians have a deep cultural respect for the natural forces and geological processes that created their island home and are hesitant to disrupt them. It’s more analogous to a community choosing not to dam or reroute a local river even if that meant nearby buildings would be more susceptible to flooding.

[Aloisius]

@jeff_fisher

There was a town in Denmark, Heimeay, that built a wall by spraying water on the lava. It worked… just.

The lava flow in Denmark was incredibly slow moving, happened to be right near the coastline and the eruption lasted just 5 months. Kilauea has been erupting since 1983 and has produced over a cubic mile of relatively fast moving lava. This particular flow is still 10 miles from the coast line.

It is no small engineering task to divert that. In fact, it has been tried several times in Hawaii with everything from walls to bombs and has always failed.

[VoxInSpatium]

People need to not think of this as a river of lava. It’s gravity driven, of course, but it goes where it feels like, both above and below the surface. The rock is incredibly porous and the lava is unyielding.

There is no channel that it flows in, and if you try to create one it will only succeed for a cosmic heartbeat. The Hawaiian beliefs may seem puzzling at face value, but they are founded on a deep appreciation of nature and a respect for a very powerful self made woman. Although you have to go a long way down to find the common source, Kiluea is, in one sense, just a blister on the largest (not highest above sea level) mountain on Earth.

Pele does what she damn well pleases.

[karl_jones]

“If you ever drop your keys into a river of molten lava, let 'em go, because man, they’re gone.”

– Jack Handey

[anon68952647]

@PhasmaFelis

So people’s homes must be sacrificed to preserve someone else’s religious sensibilities?

No, they must be sacrificed to the volcano. Argue it with the volcano. And Physics.

[jeff_fisher]

Yea, they were pumping seawater and spraying it right onto the lava. Basically anywhere but right by the sea you probably couldn’t get enough water to even make a serious attempt.

And they were saving a whole town (by saving its port).

And it barely worked.

There was some PBS documentary 20 years ago with film of the operation.

[Smithchrist]

I am thinking of a completely different HELCO:
http://www.burningman.com/art_of_burningman/helco_gallery.html

[winkybber]

@VoxInSpatium

The Hawaiian beliefs may seem puzzling at face value

I’m not puzzled by Hawaiian (or other religious) beliefs. I just think they’re wrong.

[wrecksdart]

@VoxInSpatium

Pele does what she damn well pleases.

Capable of scoring with either foot, too.

Pele - 20 Best Goals