Images

Lava, erupting from the southwestern vent of the Kamoamoa eruption, fountains above the surrounding forest.

Overview of the Kamoamoa eruption looking northeast toward Pu'u 'O 'o, in the background. The southwestern vent is in the foreground, while the northeastern vent is the distant fume at the base of Pu'u 'O 'o.

Overview of the Kamoamoa eruption looking south. The northeastern vent is to the left, and the southwestern vent is to the upper right. A river of lava, erupting from the southwestern vent, can be seen advancing toward the southeast through forest within Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park.

View looking down onto the northeastern vent.

Lava fountains from the northeastern vent of the Kamoamoa eruption. Though it is an impressive sight, the Pu'u 'O 'o cone in the background, and several hundred meters higher, puts the current activity into perspective.

Views into the Halema'uma'u vent have been largely obscured by fume over the past several days, and the only consistent views have been with a thermal camera, which can "see" through the fume. This thermal image was taken at a nearly vertical angle from a helicopter, in order to see the bottom of the extremely deep and narrow vent cavity.

With lava retreating deeper into the Halema'uma'u vent cavity over the past two days, the cavity walls have experienced more frequent collapses. At 2:23pm today (March 7), a collapse from the upper portion of the vent cavity produced a robust brown plume, but did not eject any large particles.

Lava from the erupting fissure produced a large flow that is moving southeast through the adjacent forest.

Radiograph of 3 Belding's Ground Squirrels showing the presence of lead pieces (white flecks in the bodies).

A close-up of the flow front in the forest.

A piece of spatter ejected on March 7, 2011. Handheld GPS for scale.

On the west end of the fissure system, spatter ramparts are forming as the lava fallout solidifies in a mound upwind from the source.

A view of the spattering source from the ground.

New ice formations observed forming below weir at Des Lacs River near Foxholm, North Dakota.

A broad view of the Kamoamoa fissures. The fissures extend 2.3 km (1.4 mi) between Napau Crater and Pu'u 'O 'o. The western most fissure is just out of view in this photo.

Lava was reaching heights above the tree line.

Increased activity on one of the new fissures between Pu'u 'O 'o Crater and Napau.

A small fissure eruption between Pu'u 'O 'o Crater and Napau, extending 100 m long (330 ft) and spattering 20 m (66 ft) high.

Photo taken at dawn of a fissure erupting between Pu'u 'O 'o Crater and Napau.

Lava pours from the fissure just after daybreak and cascades out of sight into a deep crack. HVO geologist near upper right for perspective.

A portion of charred, lava covered forest along the east rift zone, from the initial fissure eruption that began yesterday evening (March 5).