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Breakout (shiny) from Okita shield, uppermost rootless shield along Mother's Day flow. In background is Pu`u `O`o and West Gap shield, on western flank of Pu`u `O`o. Cones atop West Gap shield are barely visible in large image. In foreground is ground coated with tephra--in this case pumice and scoria--from high fountaining episodes between 1983 and 1986. Note cracks, some steaming, cutting the tephra.
Sources/Usage: Public Domain.
Pieces of tephra picked up by moving lava and stuck on upper crust. As lava wells out from front of flow, it picks up small pieces of tephra. As flow inflates, the pieces are lifted up onto top of flow. The pieces have only moved up, not backward.
Sources/Usage: Public Domain.
Active spattering from nearer (eastern) of two cones at East Pond Vent, viewed from air.
Sources/Usage: Public Domain.
View of East Pond Vent from eastern rim of Pu`u `O`o. Not long ago, one looked down onto top of cones. As crater filled, cones grew upward until now they tower above eastern crater rim.
