April 25, 2025 — View of Kaluapele from the southeast

During the course of routine monitoring equipment maintenance, on Friday, April 25 a Hawaiian Volcano Observatory geologist visited a site on the southeastern rim of Kaluapele (Kīlauea summit caldera) known as Akanikōlea—a culturally-significant place that is featured in Hawaiian oral traditions. This site offered an expansive view of lava flows from recent eruptive episodes within Halema‘uma‘u, sourced from vents in the western part of the crater (left), which were not erupting at the time but still emitting a plume of volcanic gases. Compare this photo with others taken from the same site on February 12, 2021 and April 30, 2021. These photos were taken from an area of Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park that remains closed to the public for safety reasons, but the Keanakāko‘i Overlook, just a few hundred meters (yards) to the east, offers a similar view. USGS photo by M. Zoeller.