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Map of area around front of Kīlauea’s East Rift Zone lava flow

January 19, 2015
Map of area around front of Kīlauea's East Rift Zone lava flow...
This large-scale map uses a satellite image acquired in March 2014 (provided by Digital Globe) as a base to show the area around the front of Kīlauea's active East Rift Zone lava flow. The area of the flow on January 13 is shown in pink, while widening and advancement of the flow as determined from satellite imagery and aerial photography on January 19 is shown in red. The most distal active portion of the flow at that time was approximately 600 meters (0.4 miles) from Highway 130. Overall the activity has been sluggish and comprised of scattered breakouts and oozing pāhoehoe toes.​​​​​​​The blue lines show steepest-descent paths calculated from a 1983 digital elevation model (DEM; for calculation details, see http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2007/1264/). Steepest-descent path analysis is based on the assumption that the DEM perfectly represents the earth's surface. DEMs, however, are not perfect, so the blue lines on this map can be used to infer only approximate flow paths.

 

Title Map of area around front of Kīlauea’s East Rift Zone lava flow
Record Source USGS Publications Warehouse