This set of thermal maps shows activity near the beginning and just after the end of episode 16 lava fountaining at the summit of Kīlauea. On April 1, lava fountaining was reaching over 200 meters (660 feet), and was beginning to produce a lava flow covering the western portion of the crater floor. At noon on April 2, the lava fountains ended and the helicopter overflight occurred just an hour later, showing the still-active lava flows across the crater floor. These lava flows included ponded lava and channelized lava coming directly from the vent, as well as secondary ooze-outs that emerge through the solidified crater floor in the eastern portion of the crater.

This close-up thermal map shows the crater floor at the summit of Kīlauea just an hour after the end of episode 16 lava fountaining on April 2. This map provides a good example of the different zones of lava flow activity on the crater floor that have been observed in many of the eruptive episodes. Lava fountaining at the vent normally feeds a short, channelized lava flow that often supplies lava to a perched pond in the western portion of the crater. Overflows and levee breaches from the pond then supply lava to secondary lava channels that carry lava towards the eastern portion of the crater floor. Interestingly, there are also "ooze-outs" of lava in the eastern portion of the crater floor that represent lava squeezed out from beneath the solidified crater floor, indicating a large volume of still-fluid lava beneath the solidified crust on the surface.