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Map of Flow Field

January 5, 2018

 

Map of Flow Field...
This map shows recent changes to Kīlauea's East Rift Zone lava flow field. The area of the active flow field as of December 12, 2017 is shown in pink, while widening and advancement of the active flow as of January 5, 2018 is shown in red. Older Puʻu ʻŌʻō lava flows (1983-2016) are shown in gray. The yellow line is the trace of the active lava tubes; based on the lack of activity in the lower reaches of the flow field, a portion of the main lava tube leading to the ocean may contain little or no moving lava, but it is still quite hot to the thermal camera. The Kamokuna ocean entry is inactive.The blue lines over the Puʻu ʻŌʻō flow field are steepest-descent paths calculated from a 2013 digital elevation model (DEM), while the blue lines on the rest of the map are steepest-descent paths calculated from a 1983 DEM (for calculation details, see http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2007/1264/). Steepest-descent path analysis is based on the assumption that the DEM perfectly represents the earth's surface. DEMs, however, are not perfect, so the blue lines on this map can be used to infer only approximate flow paths. The base map is a partly transparent 1:24,000-scale USGS digital topographic map draped over the 1983 10-m digital elevation model (DEM). (see large map)

Citation Information

Title Map of Flow Field
Record Source USGS Publications Warehouse