Images

Void spaces within the cooled lava channel and along the channel margins create hazardous conditions on the fissure 8 flow field. Here, part of the void is visible, but a fragile veneer of lava hides other parts of it (upper right).

The caldera floor near Halema‘uma‘u is a jumble of down-dropped blocks and surface cracks. HVO field crews hiked along the roadway to verify the location of benchmarks (lower left) and prepare for additional geophysical work to document the changes. The road provided access to the Overlook parking area, closed since 2008.

This morning, USGS scientists flying over fissure 8 noticed a change in the vent from yesterday. Gas jets were throwing spatter—fragments of glassy lava (light gray deposits)—from small incandescent areas deep within the cone. This activity is an indication that the lower East Rift Zone eruption may be paused rather than pau (over).

USGS and Washington State Department of Ecology scientists are geared up and ready to start a topographic survey at the mouth of the Elwha River, using handheld computers and backpack-mounted GPS equipment. From left to right are Owen Warrick (USGS Volunteer), Jon Warrick (USGS), Andy Ritchie (USGS), Heather Weiner (WA State Dept.

View from the bank of the cooling lava channel near the Leilani Estates subdivision. The height difference between the channel (right) and upper bank (left) is about 8 m (26 ft). Although lava is not flowing from fissure 8, the lava flow field includes large areas of still-hot, rugged, and unstable lava surfaces.

Data from continuous GPS stations indicate how the ground is moving over time. Station WLWY, near White Lake on the Sour Creek resurgent dome in Yellowstone caldera, has been operating since 2001. This plot shows vertical ground motion recorded at the site.

View from this morning's helicopter overflight of the Pohoiki boat ramp at Isaac Hale Park shows black sand, transported to the southwest by longshore currents, blocking the entrance to the small boat harbor.

Lava continues to ooze into the ocean at scattered entries along the Kapoho (pictured) and Ahalanui lobes.

Temperature record from Echinus geyser outflow channel for October 17–20, 2017. The plot captures a time when the geyser went from occasional eruptions to semi-regular eruptions (signified by temperature spikes after about 12:00 on October 18) occurring about every 2 hours.

A sand bar has built up at the end of the Pohoiki boat ramp, but the ramp itself remains intact and there has been no significant lava advance toward the ramp in recent days.

Fissure 8 may have slowed down, but HVO scientists are still on the ground in Leilani Estates, monitoring old ground cracks and marking ones that haven't been surveyed before. Monitoring these cracks over multiple days could detect any new signs of magma movement beneath the ground, one of the indicators that fissures might reactivate.

Today's morning overflight saw no new activity at any of the fissures in the lower East Rift Zone. Fissure 8 had only a sluggish lava puddle remaining in the cone, and other fissures, though steaming, showed no signs of reactivation.

This thermal map shows the fissure system and lava flows as of 6 am on Saturday, August 11. Residual lava in the Fissure 8 flow continues to drain, feeding numerous small ocean entries (shown in main map). In the Fissure 8 cone there were two small lava ponds (shown in small inset map). The black and white area is the extent of the thermal map.

The UAS team (Unmanned Aircraft Systems) flew a mission over fissure 8 to assess conditions within the cinder cone. As shown, fissure 8 contains two small ponds deep within its crater. One pond slowly circulates with an incandescent surface while the other pond is stagnant with a crusted top.

Clear weather this afternoon afforded a stunning view of Kīlauea's summit, which has been "quiet" since August 4, with no significant subsidence or collapses. The flat ledge shown here (center) is part of the former Halema‘uma‘u crater floor, which dropped precipitously between mid-May and early August.

As the Halema‘uma‘u Crater has collapsed, geologists have been able to see older volcanic deposits and features buried beneath decades of lava flows. For instance, two lava tubes were spotted in the southwestern wall of the collapse crater.

Map as of 2:00 p.m. HST, August 9, 2018. Given the dynamic nature of Kīlauea's lower East Rift Zone eruption, with changing vent locations, fissures starting and stopping, and varying rates of lava effusion, map details shown here are accurate as of the date/time noted. Shaded purple areas indicate lava flows erupted in 1840, 1955, 1960, and 2014-2015.

The carcass of a large silver-tipped grizzly bear, which succumbed to poisonous gases in the area known as "Death Gulch" in Yellowstone National Park in 1897. Image from Popular Science Monthly Volume 54, Public Domain, accessed from https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15271684.

Geologist taking a cold pāhoehoe lava sample of a August 2 overflow near Noni Farms Road.

There were small active ooze outs near the coast on the Kapoho Bay and Ahalanui lobes but the laze plume was greatly diminished. Active lava is close to the Pohoiki boat ramp but has not advanced significantly toward it.

USGS scientists produced an animated GIF in coordination with the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) re-opening of State Highway 1 through Big Sur on July 18, 2018. In 2017, the massive Mud Creek landslide buried a quarter-mile of the famous coastal route with rocks and dirt more than 65 feet deep.