Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Photo and Video Chronology - Kīlauea - December 18, 2014

December 18, 2014

Active flow front continues downslope towards northeast

 

 

The leading tip of active lava on the June 27th flow continues downslope, through thick vegetation, towards the northeast. The active front this morning was 1 km (0.6 miles) upslope of Pahoa Marketplace, as measured along the line of steepest descent.
This photo looks downslope towards Highway 130. The leading tip of the flow has widened over the past few days, and branched into two fingers - both of which are heading in the same general northeast direction.
This shows a comparison of a normal photograph looking downslope with a thermal image. The white box shows the rough extent of the thermal image. In the thermal image, white and yellow pixels show active surface lava, which is focused along the leading edge of the flow.
In addition to active surface lava at the leading tip of the flow, breakouts were active about 2 km (1.2 miles) upslope of the leading tip. These breakouts were scattered and feeding several small lobes.
Even farther upslope, in the area of ground cracks, there were two small breakouts burning vegetation on the north margin of the flow. This photograph looks west, and Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō can be seen on the horizon.
Still farther upslope, about 3 km (roughly 2 miles) northeast of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō, scattered breakouts were active.
A comparison of a normal photograph and a thermal image showing an HVO geologist collecting an active lava sample. The lava is quenched in the bucket of water. Lava samples like this are routinely collected for chemical analysis, which provides insight into the magmatic system feeding the eruption.
Preview image for video: provides a brief aerial overview of the active flow front.

Get Our News

These items are in the RSS feed format (Really Simple Syndication) based on categories such as topics, locations, and more. You can install and RSS reader browser extension, software, or use a third-party service to receive immediate news updates depending on the feed that you have added. If you click the feed links below, they may look strange because they are simply XML code. An RSS reader can easily read this code and push out a notification to you when something new is posted to our site.