Images

Sandra Brosnahan (USGS) collecting water samples (Long Island, NY).

The new gas vent on the east wall of Pu`u `Ō `ō crater opening up next to an older vent (the dark opening to the right of the new gas vent) that sealed shut in the past few months. The new vent has been incandescent at night for the past few days.

Panorama (180 degree field of view) photograph of smoke rising from the Schultz Pass fire near Flagstaff, Arizona, at 1:34 p.m. on its day of ignition, June 20, 2010.  Over the following 10 days, the fire burned an estimated 15,075 acres, or more than 23 square miles of northern Arizona forest, and cost more than \$8.6 million to fight.

Data are collected every two minutes and sent by radio once per day to a server where values are plotted and released to the public internet.

Kīlauea volcano's summit eruption plume as viewed from the southeast flank of Mauna Loa on 11/30/2009 (top) and 12/20/2009 (bottom). The eruption plume's visible appearance is a complex function of physical eruptive vent conditions, meteorology and atmosp

View of the lava pond in Pu`u `Ō `ō crater, taken from the southwest rim of the cone. The pond is approximately 75 meters below the visible section of the rim in the upper edge of the photograph.

Lava fountains erupt from a fissure in the southwestern part of Moku`aeoweo, Mauna Loa's summit caldera, on April 11, 1940 (view looking to the south-southeast). Patches of white snow cling to the caldera walls as fluid pahoehoe lava flows spread across

Aerial view of Kīlauea Volcano's south flank shows new lava flows in Royal Gardens subdivision (center) and the coastal plain (bottom center). Blue smoke (center right) is from burning vegetation caused by active lava flows. The developing lava-tube sys

A NetQuakes digital seismograph with WiFi antenna and power cord attached (pencil shows scale).

Records of the April 14, 2010, M3.8 earthquake, obtained from the Honomu, Hawai`i, NetQuakes seismograph. From top to bottom, the records show ground acceleration in east-west, north-south, and vertical directions. The records show roughly two minutes of

OFF THE LOUISIANA COAST — A controlled burn of oil from the Deepwater Horizon/BP oil spill sends towers of fire hundreds of feet into the air over the Gulf of Mexico. U.S. Coast Guard Photo by Petty Officer First Class John Masson.

Should Maui residents be concerned about lava flows?

The floor of Pu`u `Ō `ō Crater, about 100 m (330 ft) below, is now partly covered by a nice new blanket of reddish rubble.

This image shows an HVO geologist sampling the lava that was seeping out of the interior of the rootless shield. The lava was placed in a bucket of water to quench the sample. The top frame is a normal photograph, while the bottom frame is a thermal image taken within a fraction of a second of the photograph.

"Rootless" lava shields are those built over a lava tube, as opposed to those which develop over the vent. This rootless shield was built over the past week, and hosted a lava pond at its summit. Overflows from the pond cascaded down the steep flanks.

An aerial view of the new lava pond inside Pu`u `Ō `ō crater. The photo was taken from the southeast.

An HVO geologist samples lava from an active lava tube. These samples are analyzed routinely to track changes in lava chemistry.

The dramatic change in Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō landscape from 1992 (top) to 2005 (bottom). Both photos are taken from the same location, looking toward the east.

This photo shows the view into Overlook vent during a relatively high level of the lava lake in 2010. When the lava was at a high stand like this, the plume became very thin and a view of the lava lake was possible.

Sunset along the Southern California coast with waves crashing along the rocks.

Sunset along a Southern California beach.