October 11, 2021 — Kīlauea

This zoomed-in view of the northwest side of the main island within the Halema‘uma‘u lava lake shows a "rootless lava flow" (silver) that formed in the early stages of the eruption on September 29, 2021. A rootless lava flow is one that has no physical linkage with its source eruptive vent, because the flow is fed by molten spatter falling onto a solidified surface. In this case, that surface was the main island in the Kīlauea summit December 2020–May 2021 lava lake, which is now coated with the rootless lava flow. Subsequent deformation of the island as it re-floated within the new lava lake caused cracking that fractured the rootless flow coating. USGS image by M. Zoeller.