Images

View looking southeast along the long axis of the lava lake in Halema‘uma‘u at Kīlauea's summit. The lava lake is about 260 m (285 yd) long and 200 m (220 yd) wide.

Steep aerial view of the Kamokuna lava delta.

View of the Kamokuna lava delta and the lava structure encasing the lava stream where it emerges from the mouth of the lava tube in the face of the sea cliff.

Spattering is common in the summit lava lake, and this photo shows spattering in the southeast corner of the lake. Spatter accumulation on the lake margins has built up several small peninsulas that extend a few meters (yards) out from the crater wall.

Spattering on the summit lava lake within Halema‘uma‘u is ever-changing, but on Sunday (May 28), two sources could be seen—one on the north side of the lake (bright area at left) and one on the southeast side (right). A close-up view of the southeast spattering source is shown in the adjacent photo.

Sluggish pāhoehoe breakouts remain active on the coastal plain, near the base of the pali. Over the past week, these breakouts have not advanced any significant distance. There were also several small lava channels on the steep section of the pali today (May 27).

A close up of one of the typical pāhoehoe toes.

Numerous fumaroles are present near the rim of Halema‘uma‘u Crater, and are evident by the bright yellow sulfur deposits. In recent years these fumaroles have been covered by a thick carpet of Pele's hair produced by the lava lake. Moisture emitted by the fumaroles collects as tiny water droplets on the fine hairs, resembling a thin dusting of snow.

The eruption began about 18 minutes prior to this image and the cloud rose to an altitude in excess of 40,000 ft above sea level. The white color of the eruption cloud is due to the large amount of water that is incorporated into the eruption column as the vent is located in shallow water. Image data provided under the Digital Globe NextView License.

USGS air photo of the Mud Creek landslide, taken on May 27, 2017

View from an airplane looking at the Mud Creek landslide on the Big Sur coast that occurred May 20, 2017.

View of headscarp of Red Bluffs landslide (adjacent to the Bonneville landslide), looking northwest and showing the bedded volcaniclastic sediments (gray layers) that are dipping about 7 degrees toward the viewer and in which sliding has occurred. The slightly darker gray and orange-brown unit in the top quarter of the scarp face is Columbia River Basalt.

Zooming in even closer, the top of the crusted-over firehose flow can be seen. Cracks in the hardened tube surface reveal incandescent lava flowing though the tube. Fume from the degassing lava also escapes through these cracks.

A telephoto view of where the 61g lava tube exits the sea cliff. The upper portion of the firehose flow, visible from early January to late March 2017, is now crusted over, but lava within the tube continues to feed the growing lava delta.

Image of the chirp 512i sub-bottom profiling system towed behind a research vessel during a seafloor mapping research effort. USGS staff, Alex Nichols, is in the foreground of the image.

The March 5 breakout of the 61g flow is producing active surface flows on and at the base of the pali (cliff). The slow-moving pāhoehoe flow front (foreground) was approximately 400 meters (yards) beyond the base of the pali on the afternoon of May 23.

The lava delta at Kīlauea Volcano's Kamokuna ocean entry continues to grow. On May 23, activity was concentrated near the southeastern tip of the delta, creating a thick steam plume that afforded only occasional glimpses of lava entering the ocean. Small littoral bursts were common as molten lava interacted with the cool seawater.

USGS staff are preparing to deploy the Edgetech 512i sub-bottom profiling system from the stern of a research vessel.  The sub-bottom profiling system was used to map the geologic structure and sediments beneath the seafloor.

A comparison of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory homepage in 1998 (left), the year the website was originally launched, and in 2017 (right), following an extensive makeover to create a website that is more interactive, mobile-friendly, and easier to maintain.

Still-image from video camera atop the Dream Inn looks eastward over Main Beach and boardwalk in Santa Cruz, CA.

Frame from video of Cowells Beach in Santa Cruz, California, showing “pixel instruments” measured continuously during the video and used to estimate different coastal processes. The blue dots represent an array of pixels used by a computer program called cBathy to estimate seafloor depths (bathymetry).