Images

USGS researchers collect repeat geophysical data from the nearshore at Fire Island, NY to study bathymetric change over time.

A crew of USGS scientists prepares equipment, including personal watercraft, to collect nearshore bathymetry and sub-surface geology data to assess the impacts of Hurricane Sandy.

Summit deflation in May resulted in a decrease in lava supply to the Kahauale‘a 2 flow, with the flow front becoming inactive and stalling. Breakouts behind the flow front, however, remain active. The thermal image on the right shows these breakouts clearly as the yellow and white regions.

The lava pond in the northeast portion of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō crater remains active, and has built up a slightly elevated rim following several overflows over the past week. Today the pond was gently gas pistoning - a process that involves the cyclic rise and fall of the lava level due to gas buildup and release.

An HVO geologist shields his face from intense heat as he dips a rock hammer into an active pāhoehoe toe. After scooping out the lava it is placed in the water to quench it. HVO routinely collects lava samples for chemical analysis, which can give insight into changes in the magmatic system.

Thin fume allowed good views of the lava lake in the Overlook crater, which is set within Halema‘uma‘u Crater at the summit of Kīlauea. The lake is roughly 150 meters (490 ft) wide by 200 meters (700 ft) long. Although spattering is commonly present along the margin of the lake, during our overflight no spattering was occurring.

Gas bubbles rising through the lava pond create small blisters in the thin flexible crust near the pond margin.

A volcano monitoring “spider” was deployed by helicopter to the Oso landslide to track ground movement and seismicity while search-and-rescue operations were ongoing.  The spider was equipped with a seismometer (mounted on the far left leg) to track ground shaking and GPS (a dome-shaped instrument on the upper mast) to track subtle ground movement.

A site where volcanoes used to be active in the Chinati Mountains near Presidio, Texas. 

The lava lake remains active in the Overlook crater, which is nested within the larger Halema‘uma‘u Crater. The Overlook crater today was filled with thick fume, making visual observations of the lava lake difficult.

A lone time-lapse camera, perched on a mound of solidified lava spatter, withstands thick volcanic fume and brutal weather to provide a record of lava pond activity in the northeast portion of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō crater. This spot is also the vent area for the Kahauale‘a 2 lava flow.

Kawah Ijen, a hot, acidic crater lake in East Java, Indonesia, with active gas release around its shoreline, will be the location of a September 2014 workshop studying "wet volcanoes." This view looks toward the northwest in December 2013. Photo credit: Okkisafire, Wikimedia Commons, January 2014.

As of 7:00 a.m. HST, July 25, 2018, the lava flow margins had not expanded since the previous map, so no red areas (indicating expansion) appear on this map.

Another view of the Overlook crater, comparing the visual photograph with a thermal image taken from a similar position. The thermal camera can "see" through thick fume, providing an unobstructed view of the crater and lava lake.

A closer view of the Kahauale‘a 2 flow front. The leading tip of the flow, inactive today, is in the upper right portion of the photograph. The small smoke plume is caused by active breakouts on the flow margin.

Another look at the margin of the Kahauale‘a 2 flow. Small vegetation fires triggered by the active lava spread a short distance out from the flow margin.

The Kahauale‘a 2 flow, which began just over a year ago, remains active northeast of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō. Activity on the flow seems to have diminished slightly over the past two weeks, following deflation at the summit.

On the left, a normal photograph shows the front of the Kahauale‘a 2 flow. On the right, a thermal image shows a similar angle but in the infrared. Warm, but inactive, portions of the flow are shown by the purple and red colors, while the white and yellow areas shows active breakouts.

A near-vertical look at the margin of the Kahauale‘a 2 flow. Numerous trees surrounded by the slowly moving pāhoehoe lava were burned through at their base, causing them to eventually fall over onto the flow itself.

Smoke from the Slide fire, a major wildfire near Flagstaff, Arizona, is apparent in this hemispheric, natural-color image of sky conditions.  The image was acquired at the USGS Flagstaff Science Campus at 3:00 p.m.

Oso Landslide