Images

Map showing the June 27, 2014, breakout and the Kahauale‘a 2 flow in relation to the eastern part of the Island of Hawai‘i as of June 30, 2014. The Kahauale‘a 2 flow (pale orange) is no longer active — it was beheaded when the lava level at Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō dropped with the onset of the June 27 breakout.

Map showing the June 27, 2014, breakout at Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō in Kīlauea's East Rift Zone. The area of the new flow as mapped on June 27 is shown in pink, while widening of the flow as June 30 is shown in red.

Lava flow breakout from northeast flank of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō on the East Rift Zone of Kīlauea volcano.

Map showing the Kahauale‘a 2 flow (pink) in relation to the eastern part of the Island of Hawai‘i as of June 17, 2014. The most distant active Kahauale‘a 2 lava flows were 7.1 km (4.4 miles) straight-line distance northeast of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō.

As noted above, the new flows have caused withdrawal of magma within Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō and small collapses of the several cones on the crater floor.

The withdrawal of magma from within Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō, to feed the new flows, has caused minor subsidence of the Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō crater floor since this morning. This was associated with small collapses at the spatter cones on the crater floor.

A sketch by Joseph Nāwahī showing the 1881 lava flow approaching Hilo. (Courtesy of National Park Service, Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park, HAVO 394, Volcano House Guest Register 1873 to 1885, illustration by Joseph Nāwahī, February 21, 1881.)

Hawaiian Volcano Observatory Geochemist Jeff Sutton and CSAV international volcanology students visit a continuous gas monitoring site on Kilauea's east rift zone during field studies portion of the summer training course.

Hawaiian Volcano Observatory Geochemist Jeff Sutton and CSAV international volcanology students visit a continuous gas monitoring site on Kilauea's east rift zone during field studies portion of the summer training course.

Map showing the Kahauale‘a 2 flow in relation to the eastern part of the Island of Hawai‘i as of April 28, 2014. The most distant active front of the Kahauale‘a 2 flow was just over 8.3 km (5.2 miles) straight-line distance northeast of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō. Two other flows were also active on the flanks of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō, each erupting from a different vent.

The Kahauale‘a 2 lava flow, as of April 18, 2014, is shown in pink, with a yellow line indicating the active lava tube. The most distant active front of the flow retreated over the past week, probably in response to a DI event. The area covered by older lava flows erupted from Kīlauea in 1983-2013 is shown in gray.

Map showing the Kahauale‘a 2 flow in relation to the eastern part of the Island of Hawai‘i as of April 18, 2014. The most distant active front of the Kahauale‘a 2 flow had retreated slightly, probably in response to a DI event which occurred at Kīlauea's summit over past week, and was 7.5 km (4.7 miles) northeast of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō.

Map showing the Kahauale‘a 2 flow in relation to the eastern part of the Island of Hawai‘i as of April 7, 2014. The active front of the Kahauale‘a 2 flow was 8.2 km (5.1 miles) northeast of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō and advancing very slowly through thick forest.

Scanning Electron Microscope images, collected at UH Hilo, showing a fragment of lava collected from the Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō lava pond in November 2013. The bar scale at the right is 300 microns (0.012 in). The mostly uniform light gray is basalt glass and darker gray crystals are olivine (left) and pyroxene (right).

Mar 7, 2014: A close-up of the lava pond in Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō crater, with snow-covered Mauna Kea in the distance.

This image was acquired by the Earth Observing 1 satellite's Advanced Land Imager sensor on February 2, and shows Kīlauea's summit and east rift zone. Although this is a false-color image, the color map has been chosen to mimic what the human eye would expect to see.

Preview image for video: This Quicktime video shows a time-lapse sequence spanning from dawn to dusk on Tuesday, January 28, using images collected by our webcam near the summit of Mauna Loa Volcano (13,680 ft above sea level).

Preview image for video: This Quicktime video shows a time-lapse sequence spanning from dawn to dusk on Tuesday, January 28, using images collected by our webcam near the summit of Mauna Loa Volcano (13,680 ft above sea level).

During the first few hours of the Kamoamoa fissure eruption in March 2011, lava bubbled to the surface through a ground crack that propagated along Kīlauea Volcano's East Rift Zone. How it and other Hawaiian fissure eruptions work will be the topic of a talk at UH-Hilo on January 16, 2014.

Erupting vents on Mauna Loa's Northeast Rift Zone near Pu‘u‘Ula‘ula (Red Hill) on Mar. 25, 1984—just hours after the eruption began—sent massive ‘A‘ā lava flows moving toward Hilo at 4 miles per hour. By the time the eruption ended on April 15, lava flows had reached to within four miles of Hilo city limits. USGS photo.

It was remarkably clear during today's overflight of Kīlauea's east rift zone. This photo is taken from Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō, and looks northwest. Mauna Kea is at the right, and Mauna Loa is at the left. In front of the summit of Mauna Loa, the degassing plume from the lava lake at Kīlauea's summit is rising vertically.