Refilling of Pu'u 'O'o Crater (July 13, 2007)

On June 17-19, 2007, and intrusion into Kilauea's upper east rift zone led to the cessation of eruptive activity at Pu'u 'O'o and the collapse of the Pu'u 'O'o crater floor. This is chronicled on these two HVO Web pages: http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/archive/2007_06_19.html; http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/archive/2007_06_26.html. The quiet did not last long though, and lava began to erupt on the floor of the Pu'u 'O'o crater by July 2 (http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/archive/2007_07_23.html) from an eastern and a western vent on the crater floor. The crater floor was quickly buried and the crater began to refill with lava. This video, from July 13, 2007, shows the flows ponding behind and over-topping self-made levees as well as flowing westward toward the center of the crater.

The images that comprise this video were acquired by a time-lapse camera positioned on the northeastern rim of the Pu'u 'O'o crater about 125 meters (410 feet) from the erupting eastern vent. The image acquisition rate was 1 frame per minute, and the resulting video is played at 15 frames per second.