Image of area around flow front

This map uses a satellite image acquired in March 2014 (provided by Digital Globe) as a base to show the area around the front of the June 27th lava flow. The area of the flow on October 15, 2014, at 10:30 AM is shown in pink, while widening and advancement of the flow as mapped on October 17 at 7:40 AM is shown in red. The flow front advanced about 50 m (55 yd) since our October 15, 2014, overflight. The flow front is still about 1.1 km (0.7 mi) upslope from the closest point along AP‘A‘ā Street (Cemetery Road), as measured in a straight line, and about 1.3 km (0.8 mi) measured along the path of steepest-descent that the flow has been following.

A 10-day flow projection is not included because of the very low flow advance rate over the past several days. The flow, however, could speed up again at any time (or slow down even further); it could stall, and a new active flow front could start again farther upslope; or the flow could stop altogether.

The dotted blue line shows the steepest-descent path, calculated from a 1983 digital elevation model (DEM; for calculation details, see http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2007/1264/), that the flow is projected to follow. 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 dotted blue line can be used to infer only an approximate flow path.