Images

Beginning around midnight on Saturday, April 21, Kīlauea Volcano's summit lava lake rose high enough that lava briefly spilled onto the floor of Halema‘uma‘u. Since then, additional overflows occurred in four pulses on April 22-23. The largest one occurred during the fourth pulse, which started at 6:30 a.m.

Overflows from the perched lava pond within west pit, a small crater adjacent to the main Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō crater on Kīlauea Volcano's East Rift Zone, continue to build up the levees around the pond. The rising level of the perched lava pond during the past month is a sign of the increasing pressure within the magma system beneath Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō.

Over the past month, HVO monitoring instruments have recorded a sharp inflationary trend at Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō (see https://volcanoes.usgs.gov/volcanoes/kilauea/monitoring_deformation.html, scroll to bottom of page).

The active lava lake within Halema‘uma‘u crater about 3 weeks before magma began to withdraw from beneath the crater. Visible in the middle left of the photo behind the plume, is the old Overlook parking area, closed since 2008. The parking area slumped into the crater by June 21. View is toward the southwest.

This light gray block of rock (backpack for scale) is part of the approximately 830-year-old explosion deposit on the northwest rim of Moku‘āweoweo, the summit caldera of Mauna Loa. USGS photo by F.A. Trusdell.

Video: Clear skies and sunshine provided a spectacular view of Kīlauea Volcano's summit lava lake this morning. Spattering on the north side and center of the lake surface—a departure from its more common location on the southeast side of the lake—occasionally happens when the surface flow direction reverses.

Most of the lava flow (dark black) produced by the April 1868 Mauna Loa eruption can be seen in this aerial photo on the west (left) side of the prominent fault scarp, known informally as the Kahuku pali (formal names are Pali o Mamalu for the upper half and Pali‘okūlani for the lower half of the scarp).

A volcano-monitoring station "health monitor" developed by CJ Moniz at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO). It consists of three programmable circuit boards (bottom row), voltage sensors (top row), a current sensor (top right corner), and a custom-made voltage sensor for a 48VDC system (tan circuit board on the bottom right).

Dr. Nial Peters from the University of Cambridge sets up the prototype radar on the rim of Halema‘uma‘u at the summit of Kīlauea in January 2018. Microwave pulses are transmitted from one dish towards the lava lake surface. Some of the microwave energy is reflected back and is received by the other dish.

Today marks the 10th anniversary of the eruption within Halema‘uma‘u at the summit of Kīlauea Volcano. When the vent first opened on March 19, 2008, it formed a small pit about 115 feet (35 m) wide. Over the past decade, that pit (informally called the "Overlook crater") has grown into a gaping hole about 919 feet by 656 feet (280 x 200 m) in size.

For the 10th anniversary of Kīlauea Volcano's summit eruption, USGS–Hawaiian Volcano Observatory research geologist Matt Patrick talks about his work monitoring the lava lake in the Halema'uma'u Crater. Dr.

Just before noon today, HVO's summit webcam (KIcam) captured this striking image of Kīlauea Volcano's ongoing summit eruption. A small rockfall on the north side of the Overlook crater triggered a small explosion in the lava lake, sending a dark-colored ash plume skyward.

On November 5, 1967, a line of vigorous lava fountains erupted on the floor of Halema‘uma‘u at the summit of Kīlauea. Lava soon covered the entire crater floor as volcanic gases billowed skyward (aerial view). Near the center, a pool of molten lava repeatedly overflowed a levee of crusted lava, spilling flows onto the lava-covered crater floor (inset).

On November 5, 1967, a line of vigorous lava fountains erupted on the floor of Halema‘uma‘u at the summit of Kīlauea. Lava soon covered the entire crater floor as volcanic gases billowed skyward (aerial view). Near the center, a pool of molten lava repeatedly overflowed a levee of crusted lava, spilling flows onto the lava-covered crater floor (inset).

Black arrows indicate the amount and direction of motion measured by GPS stations in HVO's monitoring network during the October 2015 slow slip event. Arrow lengths correspond to the amount of motion at each station (see scale at bottom of map); arrow points show the direction the stations moved.

Mauna Loa, Earth's largest active volcano, has erupted 33 times since 1843, producing the lava flows shown in black. All of these historic eruptions started at the summit of the volcano. From there, the eruptions either stayed in the summit area or migrated down the volcano's Northeast or Southwest Rift Zones.

Mauna Loa tends to erupt large, fast-moving lava flows. About 36 hours after the 1984 eruption began on March 25, lava flowed downstream (toward bottom-right of photo) through this ‘A‘ā channel down rift from the main vent. For scale, note the USGS scientists at work on the left side of the 70-m- (77-yard-) wide lava channel.

(Left) False-Color Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager scene of Saunders Island and Mount Michael on January 31, 2018. This image is composed from red and shortwave infrared light detected by the satellite sensors. Blue represents the high temperature ground surface that includes the lava lake.

Early evening view of the lava lake within Halema‘uma‘u crater at the summit of Kīlauea Volcano on January 30, 2018, when the lake level was 27 m (88 ft) below the crater floor. The bright yellow area of spattering marks the location where the circulating lava descends into the lake, thereby releasing gases trapped beneath the solid black crust on the lake surface.

Kīlauea Volcano divided into lava-risk zones

Earthquakes swarm beneath Kīlauea Volcano