Halema'uma'u Gas Plume Variations (November 17, 2008)

The erupting vent within Halema'uma'u Crater at Kilauea's summit (see http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/kilauea/timeline/ for links describing eruptive activity at the summit of Kilauea Volcano) typically produces a white to gray gas plume dominated by steam. While ashy plumes released by collapses and explosive events are exciting, even the behavior of the ""typical"" gas plume is interesting and occassionally undergoes rapid changes in plume vigor. This video, from November 17, 2008, shows a day in the life of the gas plume rising from the informally-named Overlook vent. On this day, the plume was especially dynamic with the plume becoming very small several times throughout the day.

The images that comprise this video were acquired by a webcam in the observation tower of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory about 1.8 kilometers (1.1 miles) north of the vent. The image acquisition rate was roughly 1 frame per minute and the resulting video is played at 15 frames per second.