A comparison of perched lava lake and lava channel levees—Kīlauea

This figure shows a comparison of ongoing activity in Halema‘uma‘u, at the summit of Kīlauea, with a 2007 lava channel on Kīlauea's East Rift Zone. On the left, a photo shows the levee that is containing the active perched lava lake in Halema‘uma‘u. The levee is formed in part from rafted pieces of surface crust that are pushed onto the levee by the lake circulation, with the slabs of crust piling atop one another in a chaotic manner. On the right is a close-up of a portion of a levee from a large perched lava channel that formed northeast of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō, on Kīlauea's East Rift Zone, in late 2007. The levee here formed in a similar manner, and was composed, in part, from pieces of rafted surface crust. Glove for scale. USGS photos by L. Desmither and M. Patrick taken on March 26, 2021.