August 29, 2025 — Kīlauea summit observations and monitoring site maintenance

A USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory scientist empties water and volcanic glass particles from a tephra collection bucket on the western rim of Halema‘uma‘u. The buckets are used to collect tephra from the eruption episodes for geochemical analyses. Strong winds around the crater rim can resuspend older tephra, pele’s hair, and volcanic glass, which fall back into the buckets. Scientists empty the buckets between eruptive episodes to try and make sure there’s no contamination of materials from older episodes. USGS photo by L. DeSmither on August 29, 2025.