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New USGS Professional Paper — The 2008–2018 Summit Lava Lake at Kīlauea Volcano, Hawai‘i

January 12, 2021

Three chapters of USGS Professional Paper 1867, "The 2008–2018 Summit Lava Lake at Kīlauea Volcano, Hawai‘i" were recently published online. The 2008–2018 lava lake at the summit of Kīlauea marked the longest sustained period of lava lake activity at the summit in decades and provided a new opportunity for observing and understanding lava lake behavior.

The chapter "Kīlauea’s 2008–2018 summit lava lake—Chronology and eruption insights" covers the basic chronology of the eruption and discusses how the unique accessibility of the 2008–2018 lava lake provided new observations and insights including lava lake behavior and open-vent basaltic outgassing.

"Views of a century of activity at Kīlauea Caldera—A visual essay" features a few of the many scenes recorded by early observers at the volcano, from the first visits by westerners in 1823 through the explosive eruption of 1924. As we were recently reminded, the summit of Kīlauea is part of a dynamic system that has provided countless new views to observers over the centuries.

Kīlauea Volcano, on the Island of Hawaiʻi, is surrounded and permeated by active groundwater systems that interact dynamically with the volcanic system. The chapter titled "Groundwater dynamics at Kīlauea Volcano and vicinity, Hawaiʻi" summarizes current understanding of the groundwater system of Kīlauea Volcano and describes transient changes during the decade or more preceding the 2018 eruption sequence.

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