new pit in the western portion of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō
Detailed Description
A closer look at the new pit in the western portion of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō Crater. Views inside the crater with the naked eye were obscured by thick fume, but the thermal images (right) revealed two areas of ponded lava, separated by a pile of collapse rubble, deep within the pit. Measurements using the thermal camera images indicated that the lava pond surface was roughly 24 m (about 80 ft) below the rim of the pit.