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View of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō crater, looking south. The floor of the crater was resurfaced yesterday (August 27) by lava flows erupting from a vent at the northeast edge of the crater (fuming area to the left).
View of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō from the south side, looking north. The current crater in Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō is only about half the diameter of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō's previous crater, which is defined by the rim of the tephra cone remnants in the foreground and background. That older crater's western edge extended to about the left edge of the photograph. The current crater is 25-30 m (~80-100 ft) deep.
A tiny lava pond, about 10 m (33 ft) across, was visible within a vent near the south edge of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō's crater. Can you spot it? It's near the center of the photograph.
Yesterday's lava flows in Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō erupted from a vent at the northeast edge of the crater and added a new layer to the crater floor. This photograph looks northeast across the relatively smooth crater floor toward the vent that erupted, which is a spatter cone that appears as a faintly visible mound in the fume in the background.
A piece of the new flow on the crater floor was collected for chemical analysis. Can you spot the USGS geologist collecting the sample? He is just below the center of the photograph. The small lava pond is just above center, partly hidden by a small spatter mound.
This photo is from within the crater, looking back at the USGS scientist who took the adjacent photo.
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