Images

Pool of lava filling a basin 150 m (500 m) wide at the summit of Mauna Ulu on July 29, 1969. This image and the next two illustrate a process called gas pistoning. The pool is fed by lava rising 50 m (160 ft) in 15 minutes up a fissure 3-7 m (10-25 ft) wide. Bubbling is just starting above the fissure, leading to draining shown in the next image.

Close-up of right side of lava pool shown in previous image a few seconds later, showing early stage of gas-piston draining. Pond level has already dropped several meters. During the next 30 seconds the pond level dropped 25-30 m (80-100 ft) as gas escaped from the pond, creating a void immediately filled by the draining lava.

Same view as in previous image, but about 20 seconds later. Now lava is now falling into the fissure, destroying sheets of crust in the process. When the draining was over, lava level had dropped about 50 m (160 ft). Once draining was complete, lava level again began to slowly rise as it was pushed upward by expanding gas bubbles.

It is a good example of what many volcanologists term a Hawaiian fountain.

‘Ālo‘i Crater (top) chokes in fume rising from new lava. A slightly sinuous line connecting Mauna Ulu and ‘Ālo‘i is row of spatter cones formed on May 24. View looks west, with trade wind blowing.

A series of wide fractures cut across Chain of Craters Road in Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park during an eruption of Kīlauea in February 1969. These fractures were related to a "slump block" that developed on the southwest rim of ‘Alae Crater on the volcano's East Rift Zone.

Shoestring Glacier on Mount St. Helens, viewed from the southeast. Photo from May, 1965.

Photograph taken in 1964 of the main part of the Chenega village site in Alaska. Pilings in the ground mark the former locations of homes swept away by tsunami waves. The schoolhouse on high ground was undamaged.

Aerial photo of Mount St. Helens taken from the northeast in September 1964.  

Aftermath of the 1960 Chilean tsunami in Hilo, Hawaii, where the tsunami caused 61 deaths.

‘A‘ā flow has just reached the barrier built between KUKi‘i and Kapoho.

The high front of an advancing ‘A‘ā flow forms the ridge between the papaya orchard and the fountain. The defoliation had occurred by January 16, 1960.

House belonging to the Hongo family set fire by advancing ‘A‘ā in the foreground, 1800 January 16, 1960. Note fountain behind tree near right edge of view.

A river of ‘A‘ā is pouring from the far side of the cone and moving to the right, hemmed in by the scarp along the Koa‘e fault, visible between the fountain and the right edge of the photo.

Incandescent lava particles can be seen above the fountain between the light and dark steam clouds. Photo looking uprift toward area of vent C, taken at 1000 January 14 by D.H. Richter. Left-hand lava fountain may be vent B.

View westward along the Kapoho fault scarp in the village of Kapoho following a swarm of earthquakes in the area. The ground cracking was caused by subsidence of a graben (down-dropped block) that spanned the community.

Fractures along the Kapoho fault hours after an earthquake swarm began in the area early on January 13, 1960. Residents in and near Kapoho village reported feeling the earthquakes, and HVO scientists on the scene described "the ground beneath our feet in almost constant motion" and hearing "low-pitched booming sounds" accompanying the largest earthquakes.

Coconut palms were stripped by heavy tephra fall during the Kapoho eruption. These lie north of the fissure with volcanic bomb craters indenting the tephra on the flank of the new cone, Pu‘u Laimana.

This house fell into Hebgen Lake during the 1959 earthquake and floated along the shore until it came to rest here. The owner of the house, then-70-year-old Mrs. Grace Miller, escaped only after kicking out her front door and leaping a 5-foot-wide ground crack as her house dropped into the lake.

Great quantities of lava pour from the base of a 480-m-tall (1,575 ft) fountain about 65 minutes after the start of episode 16. Lava discharge at this time was about 1.3 million cubic meters per hour (1.7 million cubic yards), which sent lava over the entire lake by 4:05 a.m.

Lava drains back into the vent about 70 minutes after the 16th episode ended. This episode covered the entire lava lake with new lava; only part of the smaller west crater is visible in this view of the vent area. As the lava poured into the vent, large sections of the dark lake crust were pulled apart by the differential movement of the molten lava below.