Images

Columnar jointing in the basalt cliffs at Latourell Falls, Oregon. The basalt columns formed when thick lava flows cooled after emplacement.

Flood basalt lava flow in stacked layers viewed eastward across the Columbia River from Rowena Crest Viewpoint, Oregon. Basalt in the lava flows has formed columnar jointing.

The Kahauale‘a 2 lava flow, as of April 18, 2014, is shown in pink, with a yellow line indicating the active lava tube. The most distant active front of the flow retreated over the past week, probably in response to a DI event. The area covered by older lava flows erupted from Kīlauea in 1983-2013 is shown in gray.

Another view of the Kahauale‘a 2 flow front, with a normal photograph at the left and a corresponding thermal image on the right. The thermal image shows the distribution of active pāhoehoe lobes clearly, with active flows shown by the white colors.

A closer view of the lava lake in the Overlook crater, within Halema‘uma‘u Crater at Kīlauea's summit. The lake is now about 160 m by 200 m (520 x 700 feet) in size. The lava rises to the surface in the northern part of the lake (right side in this photograph) and flows towards the south (left).

Map showing the Kahauale‘a 2 flow in relation to the eastern part of the Island of Hawai‘i as of April 18, 2014. The most distant active front of the Kahauale‘a 2 flow had retreated slightly, probably in response to a DI event which occurred at Kīlauea's summit over past week, and was 7.5 km (4.7 miles) northeast of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō.

The Kahauale‘a 2 lava flow remains active northeast of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō, and is still moving slowly through thick forest. The active flows retreated a short amount over the past week due to a deflation-inflation cycle at the summit, with the farthest active flows today at about 7.5 km (4.7 miles) northeast of the vent on Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō.

In Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō crater, a small lava pond (about 5 meters, or yards, wide) continued to be active and was still "gas pistoning" today. Gas pistoning is a cyclic rise and fall of the lava pond surface due to gas buildup and release. During the fall phase, intense spattering disrupts the lava pond surface and releases the accumulated gas.

This portable "power" platform is designed to be slung by helicopter to temporary monitoring sites on Hawaiian volcanoes. The platform is being used at Webcam sites and at Kīlauea's summit to measure activity of the lava lake in Halema‘uma‘u Crater—a continuously recording gravity meter and an experimental camera for measuring sulfur dioxide gas (shown here).

Lava flow from SP Crater viewed toward the north from the rim of SP, San Francisco Volcanic Field, Arizona.

Map showing the location of magnitudes 8.2 and greater earthquakes along Peru-Chile trench from 1900 to present.

The Kahauale‘a 2 flow remains active, with scattered pāhoehoe breakouts driving slow advancement of the flow field through the forest. Breakouts at the flow margins trigger forest fires, and numerous plumes of smoke. Today, the flow front was 8.2 km (5.1 miles) northeast of the vent on Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō.

A closer view of the lava pond in the northeast portion of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō crater. The lava pond has partially closed over the past several weeks, and today was about 5 meters (yards) in diameter - about half of the diameter from two weeks ago. The pond was spattering, with small bits of airborne spatter visible in this photograph.

Map showing the Kahauale‘a 2 flow in relation to the eastern part of the Island of Hawai‘i as of April 7, 2014. The active front of the Kahauale‘a 2 flow was 8.2 km (5.1 miles) northeast of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō and advancing very slowly through thick forest.

A comparison of a thermal image (left) with a normal photograph (right) of the Kahauale‘a 2 flow front. Brighter colors in the thermal image depict hotter surface temperatures, with white and yellow areas showing active pāhoehoe breakouts. These breakouts are distributed in a scattered fashion across this portion of the flow field.

A view of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō crater from the north, looking southeast. In the foreground, the crater rim has red hues due to oxidized cinder and spatter from the early days of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō in the 1980s. In the center of the photograph, the black crater floor consists of lava flows erupted in the last several years, with several spatter cones built upon these flows.

Scanning Electron Microscope images, collected at UH Hilo, showing a fragment of lava collected from the Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō lava pond in November 2013. The bar scale at the right is 300 microns (0.012 in). The mostly uniform light gray is basalt glass and darker gray crystals are olivine (left) and pyroxene (right).

The left axis shows the number of earthquakes per week. The right axis is the total cumulative number of earthquakes, which means it has to always increase. It increased a lot in the period 1996-2003 when there was a period of uplift near Norris.

Catastrophic landslide near Oso, Washington, March 22, 2014.

Oblique aerial photograph of the Oso, Washington landslide, showing the entire extent of the landslide source area and path.

Location: State Route 530, Oso, Washington