High lava stands at Halema‘uma‘u

The lava lake in Halema‘uma‘u has been at a relatively high level over the past week, and several rise-fall cycles (short term increases in lava level immediately followed by spattering and an abrupt drop) pushed the level even higher over the past day. This Quicktime movie is a timelapse sequence taken from the Halema‘uma‘u thermal camera, showing the rise-fall cycles and lava spilling out over the deep inner ledge during the high stands. For scale, the inner ledge is about 70 m (about 230 ft) below the vent rim. Also, note the "bathtub ring" left by the high stands after the lava level drops. The realtime view from this thermal camera can be found with the Webcams link above.