Small-scale map of Kīlauea's ERZ lava flow

This small-scale map shows Kīlauea's active East Rift Zone lava flow in relation to lower Puna. The area of the flow on December 22 at 3:00 PM is shown in pink, while widening and advancement of the flow as mapped on December 30 at 2:30 PM is shown in red. The lava flow remains active, but its overall level of activity appears to have declined over the past several days.

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. All older Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō lava flows (1983-2014) are shown in gray; the yellow line marks the active lava tube.