An official website of the United States government
Here's how you know
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock () or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.
Flows northeast of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō and views of the lava lake in Halema‘uma‘u.
Flows northeast of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō and views of the lava lake in Halema‘uma‘u
This photo looks northeast and shows Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō crater. Recent activity has been focused around a few spatter cones on the crater floor. At the far edge of the crater, a small lava pond has been active and has been the source of flows extending northeast of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō. Those flows are visible at the top-center of the photo. Just below the horizon two small sources of smoke mark where the flow front is burning lichen and moss covering older ‘A‘ā flows.
A closer look at the flow extending northeast of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō. Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō cone is at the right edge of the photo, and view is towards the northeast. In the foreground, two sources of fume mark the path of the lava tube supplying lava to the flow front. In the top-left, a few sources of smoke mark where the flow margin is burning moss and lichen on older flows. Today, the flow front was just over 4 km (2.5 miles) from the vent on Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō.
South winds permitted clear views into the south portion of the Overlook crater, which is often obscured by thick fume. The bright orange area is the location where lava at the surface of the lake sinks back into the system, with spattering and degassing common in this area. A broad ledge of recently deposited lava occupies much of the south portion of the crater.
Spattering is common in the area where lava sinks back into the system, and this photo shows these processes are occurring in a small grotto. In the right portion of the photo, the ledge occupying much of the south part of the Overlook crater is visible. Parallel lines along the front face of this ledge might appear at first glance to be layering within the ledge, but are actually thin deposits of lava that mark recent levels of the lava lake, much like bathtub rings.
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.
