Large-scale map of flow field

This map shows recent changes to Kīlauea's active East Rift Zone lava flow field. The new breakouts from Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō that began on May 24 are shown in red, as mapped on May 25. The area of the original June 27th lava flow field is shown in pink, as last mapped in detail on May 9. Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō lava flows erupted prior to June 27, 2014, are shown in gray. Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō is at lower left.

The blue lines show steepest-descent paths calculated from a 1983 digital elevation model (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 a 1983 10-m digital elevation model (DEM).