Large-scale map of Kīlauea's ERZ lava flow

This large-scale map shows the distal part of Kīlauea's active East Rift Zone lava flow in relation to nearby Puna communities. The area of the flow on December 9 at 2:30 PM is shown in pink, while widening and advancement of the flow as mapped on December 16 at 11:15 AM is shown in red.

Most change on the flow field is due to advancement of the relatively narrow lobe of lava continues to advance downslope toward the Pahoa Marketplace. The tip of the flow at the time of mapping was about 1.5 km (0.9 miles) from the upslope edge of the Pahoa Marketplace, as measured along the path of steepest descent that the flow has been following. This particular flow branch, which started from the crack system near the True/Mid-Pacific well site on November 19 (27 days ago), is now 8.0 km (5.0 miles) long. This equates to an average advance rate of 300 m/day (330 yd/day) over that period.

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.