Loading ...“GeoEngineering” lava flows has been tried in the past with virtually no success. They’ve tried bombing the flow to stop or divert it, with no success. While it generally flows downslope following what would be water-runoff low areas, it has a lot of unpredictability. Walls and tall berms do not work, either. The lava will ‘pile up’ and climb right over the wall. Nothing contains ‘molten earth’ when it can melt through or tunnel-melt under areas. A lot depends on the relative temperature and viscosity, and how much mass is pushing it down from upslope areas that are more hot and liquid.
The State has opined that it would be wrong to divert a flow and cause property damage to a neighboring area, even if it could be done. It’s generally accepted now that diversions cannot be accomplished, and one must simply let Pele take her course.
In the last flow that threatened Pahoa village, they tried encasing critical power poles in concrete culvert tubes filled with cinders, and piled yards of more cinders around the poles up to half their height to protect them. The lava piled up against the mound, then melted UNDER the pole and burned the pole from the underground root all the way up.