Images

A masked Tim Orr, on his last day of field work as a USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory geologist, collected a sample from Kīlauea Volcano's active lava flow on May 31, 2017. The face mask and heavy glove on his left hand provide protection from the intense radiant heat of molten lava.

In 2017, the massive Mud Creek landslide buried a quarter-mile of the famous coastal route, California’s Highway 1, with rocks and dirt more than 65 feet deep. USGS monitors erosion along the landslide-prone cliffs of Big Sur, collecting aerial photos frequently throughout the year.

In 2017, the massive Mud Creek landslide buried a quarter-mile of the famous coastal route, California’s Highway 1, with rocks and dirt more than 65 feet deep. USGS monitors erosion along the landslide-prone cliffs of Big Sur, collecting aerial photos frequently throughout the year.

In 2017, the massive Mud Creek landslide buried a quarter-mile of the famous coastal route, California’s Highway 1, with rocks and dirt more than 65 feet deep. USGS monitors erosion along the landslide-prone cliffs of Big Sur, collecting aerial photos frequently throughout the year.

USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory broadband-seismic stations located at the summit of Kīlauea have been significantly upgraded over the past three years. During the upgrades, HVO field engineers (inset) complete the wiring connections of the solar power and telemetry systems at each site, which are about 10 m (33 ft) from the seismometer.

This satellite image was captured on Friday, June 2, by the Sentinel-2 satellite operated by the European Space Agency. Although this is a false-color image, the color map has been chosen to mimic what the human eye would expect to see. Bright red pixels depict areas of very high temperatures and show active lava. White areas are clouds.

Steaming Pavlof volcano and Pavlof Sister as viewed from the west shore of Unga Island, Alaska. View is to the west.

Photograph taken June 7, 2016, one day after Tropical Storm Colin, on Sunset Beach in the town of St. Pete Beach, Florida. Storm waves eroded the beach and dune, producing a cliff-like feature called a beach scarp.

The activity in the summit lava lake in Halema‘uma‘u has been typical in recent weeks, with the normal fluctuations in lava level. The low sun angle during the late afternoon provided good views of the different surface textures on the lake.

Subtle folds are common on the lake surface, suggesting that the crust on the lake surface is thin and flexible. In addition, small "blisters" cover large portions of the lake surface. HVO geologists have seen these blisters form, and they appear to be small bubbles that rise and push up the thin crust, without breaking it.

Photograph taken during Tropical Storm Colin, June 6, 2016, on Sunset Beach in the town of St. Pete Beach, Florida.

A clearer picture of the folding on the lake surface, which resemble folds in a piece of thin fabric. The field of view in this photo is roughly 50 meters (yards) wide.

A view of the northern Overlook crater wall, through passing fume. The lake surface (lower left in photo) was about 22 meters (72 feet) below the crater rim (upper right in photo). The uppermost section of the crater wall is formed by stacks of thin overflows from mid-2015.

Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) images of Kīlauea (left) and Mauna Loa (right) spanning the past several years. Concentric patterns of colored fringes indicate magma accumulation centered near the summit calderas of both volcanoes.

An animated GIF of lava spattering at  Pu'u 'O 'o crater pulled from the Pu'u 'O'o Producing Spattering video.

Kīlauea Volcano's Kamokuna ocean entry is fed by lava that erupts from the east flank of the Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō cone, visible on the skyline at upper left. It travels from the vent to the ocean via a lava tube, marked in places by fume emanating from the tube roof.

Imagery shows topographic point clouds from photos, first from September 11, 2015 courtesy of California Coastal Records Project, second from March 8, 2017 (USGS photo), third from May 19, 2017 (USGS photo), and fourth from May 27, 2017 (USGS photo) 7 days following the catastrophic Highway 1 landslide.

This map shows recent changes to Kīlauea's East Rift Zone lava flow field. The area of the active flow field as of May 3 is shown in pink, while widening and advancement of the active flow as of May 31 is shown in red. Older Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō lava flows (1983-2016) are shown in gray. The yellow line is the trace of the active lava tube (dashed where uncertain).

View looking northeast at Kīlauea's summit lava lake.

This video clip shows HVO geologist Tim Orr sampling lava from an active pāhoehoe breakout on the episode 61g lava flow. The chemistry of these lava samples provides information on the magma plumbing system. Sampling has been a regular part of monitoring Kīlauea Volcano's ongoing Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō eruption.

Mauna Loa looms in the background behind the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory and Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park Jaggar Museum complex, perched at the summit of Kīlauea Volcano. The cliff in the foreground is Kīlauea's caldera rim.