Images

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.

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.

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.

Photo taken at 7:00am from Byron Ledge.

By March 20th activity near the Nii farm on Kalapana road had ended. As magma drained from the area an explosion opened a new pit crater directly across the road from the home of Mr. Nii. This was the first time that HVO scientists had opportunity to document the formation of pit crater.

On March 16th, a small fountain opened near Iilewa Crater, west of the Pahoa-Kalapana Road. By March 20th fountains near Iilewa had increased shooting to heights of 700 feet sending lava flows downslope toward Iwasaki Camp.

This image shows the spatter cone 16 hours after lava first appeared in the fissure. The cone ultimately grew to a height of 75 feet and became a popular tourist attraction.

On March 4th fountains up slope coalesced into a large 'a'? flow which was named the Kii Flow.

This aerial view of the initial outbreak shows lava fountains erupting en echelon (staggered) fashion. Automobiles are parked along the Pahoa-Pohoiki Road. These fountains spawned a lava flow which quickly blocked the highway.

The Ka‘apuna flow traveled from the Southwest Rift Zone vent (7,800 ft elevation) to the coast in just 17 hours.

Photograph taken from sea aboard a ship.

Aerial photograph shows the Ka‘apuna lava flow erupted from Mauna Loa in 1950 as it advanced through the forest at about 3,000 feet elevation on the morning of June 2. This rapidly moving ‘a‘ā lava flow traveled from the Southwest Rift Zone vent to the ocean in about 17 hours. Earlier flows from this same eruption reached the ocean in as little as three hours.

Fissure of lava fountains erupting from Mauna Loa's upper southwest rift zone, June 2, 1950. Plumes of volcanic gas rise high into the air. Aerial photograph taken by the Air National Guard.

The glow of an erupting fissure of lava fountains is seen in a fume cloud high on Mauna Loa's southwest rift zone at the start of the June 1, 1950 eruption, Hawaii.

Aerial photograph of the 1942 Mauna Loa lava flow spreading downslope toward Hilo; smoke from burning trees in center of flow. Scattered cinder cones at the summit of Mauna Kea, top of photograph.

Aerial view by the Naval Air Service of the 1933 Mauna Loa eruption from a fissure across the rim and floor of Moku‘āweoweo Crater.

View of John Muir School on Pacific Avenue in Long Beach, California, showing damage from the March 10, 1933 Long Beach earthquake. Photo taken 8 days after the earthquake, on March 18, 1933. Photo by W.L. Huber, USGS.

The image on the left shows the road near Koa‘e on April 23, 1924. Motion was in progress as the men tried to touch hands. The image on the right shows the same scene on May 1. The crack had widened and the left side of the roadway had dropped substantially.

On April 23, 1924, scientists from the observatory followed one of the large cracks towards the ocean and rested under a cluster of coconut palms where they refreshed themselves from coconuts that had been shaken to the ground by the earthquakes.