Quote USGS HVO facebook post:"Scientists watch as hot, rapidly swirling air grabs and flings pieces of fresh lava during the first day of the eruption in Halemaʻumaʻu crater at the summit of Kīlauea. The HVO team maintained a safe distance on the rim of the crater, and used a telephoto lens to take the video.

Wind vortexes form due to extreme heat. Eruption temperatures were about 1150 degrees C (2100 degrees F).

Find eruption updates from the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory at https://www.usgs.gov/volcanoes/kilaue...

Video of wind vortexes taken June 7, 2023, by M. Patrick."

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Apparently this happened on day 1 of the eruption, June 7 2023. Somehow no one noticed or made any videos about it in the geophysics community online.

This video from the USGS was put out 6 hours ago on the USGS public facebook.

Video released today June 13, 2023 on USGS facebook of a rare event recorded on June 7.

https://www.facebook.com/USGSVolcanoe...

My comment below the video I think is worth sharing:

[in regards to the USGS video] "super cool to see! I'm glad they uploaded it . big credit to the USGS HVO for capturing this!!!!!!!!!!!!

While rare, its not crazy alarming or anything. But wow I've never seen lava actually picked up and tossed like that!

The closest I've seen was that distant "iceland volcano tornado" that formed over Bardarbunga a few years ago... but you couldn't see it directly, was just a thermal view.

This one.. wow!"

What is a "VOLNADO" or "VOLCANADO"

Whatever people want to call it, this is a 100+ foot across multi-hundred mph rotation of wind which picks up debris heavier than traincars and tosses them hundreds of (1000+?!) feet away.

Technically there is no term for it yet, in the past few years people started calling pyro or fire tornados "firenados" or "pyronadoes", and "pyrocumulonimbus" was classified by the National Weather Service for rotation in weather systems resulting from fires.

Volcanic tornadic vortex...

I would say "Volnado" or "Volcanado" would be a new appropriate term for these instead of "firenado", "dust devil", or the generalized "vortex" term.

Since the rotation is not from "fire", the rotation is bigger / stronger than a "dust devil", and it is more than just a random vortex of wind. A new term for these events is in order!

This "volnado" has a rotating power source / cause from below just like a mesocyclone powers a regular tornado from above. You could also call this a reverse tornado, since the rotating power source is BELOW the "volnado" instead of above it like in a regular storm.

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https://www.twitch.tv/dutchsinseofficial/clip/BlatantComfortableYakSMOrc

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