Kilauea erupts, destroying webcam [video]

I was there today. We happened to notice the smoke over Kilauea while driving to Hilo, then checked out USGS cams, and immediately drove there and spent the next 7 hours getting mesmerized.

As my first eruption encounter, I didn’t expect to experience several things like the heat even from a long distance, enough to keep me warm in my shorts at 60F, and the loud rumble, like a giant waterfall. The flow of lava was way faster than I expected too, almost like oil.

Mind blown.

Hawaii volcanism is what geologists seem to call "nice and friendly" - low viscosity lava, not prone to explosive eruptions (unlike the stratovolcanoes of the Andes or the Pacific rim in general) - this is because it's caused by hotspot volcanism in Hawaii.

It’s not nice and friendly because of the hotspot volcanism.

It’s because the hotspot has a chemical composition that is generally low in dissolved gasses and very liquid/flows well. (Lots of silicates I think?)

It tends to come out nicely and stay liquid as it leaves, so vents don’t plug up. Also, because of the relatively low dissolved gasses, pressure doesn’t spike as high when it’s flowing out of the chamber like many other magmas do, causing explosions.

Hawaii exists basically because it’s great for building up islands/mountains without blowing them up as part of the process.

I don't think hotspots can be said to have different composition. But if the hotspot is under a continent or an ocean plate makes a difference for the type of eruptions. Hawaii is in the middle of an ocean plate, no continental crust there. So we get a basaltic eruption (comparatively lower silica content, low viscosity lava).