Images

Lava fragments ejected by lava fountains are called tephra, a general term for all fragments, regardless of size, that are blasted into the air by explosive activity. A variety of terms are also used to describe specific types of fragments, including Pele's hair, Pele's tears, scoria, spatter, bombs, and reticulite.

Lava production from these "2,900-m vents" began to decrease in late March but declined most rapidly between April 7 and 9 from about 300,000 m3 per hour to less than 100,000 m3 per hour. Photo taken at 9:09 a.m.

Lava flows from the 1984 eruption of Mauna Loa loom above the town of Hilo. Photograph taken near the Hilo airport on April 4.

Pohaku Hanalei cinder-spatter cone (upper left) is located about 3.2 km (2 mi) NE from the north edge of the caldera rim. Eruption rates were as high as 2.9 million m3 per hour during the first 6 hours of the eruption, then diminished to about 0.5 million m3 per hour for the next 12 days.

Aa lava flows erupting from Mauna Loa.

Low fountain, approximately 50 meters high, from Pu'u 'O'o on Hawai'i Island's Kilauea Volcano (viewed from the north). Lava issuing from the breach in the northeast rim of the crater produced an 'a'a flow that extended more than 4 kilometers. Eruption episode 8.

Pu'u 'O'o fountain approximately 100 meters high during eruption episode 8 on Hawai'i Island's Kilauea Volcano. Dark clots of spatter land near the base of the fountain, contributing to the growth of the cone. Less dense cinder, visible in the upper right, is carried downwind of the cone.

Accretionary lava ball comes to rest on the grass after rolling off the top of an 'a'a flow in Royal Gardens subdivision on Hawai'i Island's Kilauea Volcano. Accretionary lava balls form as viscous lava is molded around a core of already-soldified lava.

View at dusk of the young Pu'u 'O'o cinder-and-spatter cone, with fountain 40 meters high, on Hawai'i Island's Kilauea Volcano (episode 5).

Arching fountain of lava approximately 10 meters high issuing from the western end of the 0740 vents, a series of spatter cones 170 meters long, south of Pu'u Kahaualea on Hawai'i Island's Kilauea Volcano (episode 2). Episodes 2 and 3 were characterized by spatter and cinder cones, such as Pu'u Halulu, which was 60 meters high by episode 3.

Forest of lava trees resulting from eruption of a 1-km-line of vents east of Pu'u Kahaulea on Hawai'i Island's Kilauea Volcano. The bulbous top of each lava tree marks the high stand of the lava flow as it spread through the trees.

Lava fountains erupt from fissures during the first week of the Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō eruption south of Pu‘u Kahaualea, approximately 2.4 km (1.5 miles) northeast of where subsequent eruptions built the Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō cone. The early fissures cut through old forested lava flows in a remote section of Kīlauea's east rift zone.

The September 25, 1982, Kaluapele eruption was a brief but vigorous event that followed nearly two hours of seismic unrest and rapid summit inflation. Lava erupted from a 1,150-foot-long fissure near the southern end of the caldera, producing fountains up to 220 feet high.

Left: Horseshoe-shaped crater of Mount St. Helens in 1980, formed by a landslide that removed the top of the volcano. The crater is about 2 km (1.2 mi) wide and the floor is about 600 m (1,970 ft) below the crater rim. Right: Halema‘uma‘u nestled in the summit crater of Kīlauea Volcano on August 1, the day before the last collapse event.

Measuring tilt in Timberline parking lot in early April 1980 during lightly falling snow.

The November 16, 1979, eruption near Pauahi Crater was a brief, one-day event on the upper East Rift Zone. It was preceded by two months of increased seismic activity, summit inflation, and lava erupting from fissures west of, within, and east of the crater.

The September 1977 eruption of Kīlauea began after nearly two years of dormancy, with activity breaking out on September 13 along a 3.5-mile-long fissure system between the prehistoric cones of Kalalua and Puʻu Kauka.

(Left) Aerial photograph of the Pāhala area, on the southern side of the Island of Hawaiʻi, taken on December 11, 1976. (Right) The backside of the same photo showing labeled field locations, marked with a pinhole through the photograph, which correspond to the geologist’s field notes. 

A USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory geologist measures a scarp that formed on the south flank of Kīlauea during the magnitude-7.2 earthquake in 1975. In this area, near Poliokeawe Pali in Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park, the scarp is about 1.5 meters (5 feet) high. USGS photo by P. Lipman.

A M 7.7 earthquake on November 29, 1975, was located beneath the south flank of Kīlauea.

The submerged coconut grove at Halapē, in Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park, marks the former coastline that was submerged during the ground movement associated with the November 29, 1975, magnitude-7.7 earthquake. USGS image.