Images

Fissure 17 as seen from the air on Monday, May 17, around 7:00 a.m. HST, when the overall vigor of fissure appeared to have dropped from the previous two days. Twenty fissures have erupted in the lower Puna District on the Island of Hawai‘i as of May 17, and additional fissures could still open as this eruption on Kīlauea Volcano's East Rift Zone continues.

Radar image of the May 17, 2018 eruption of ash from Halema‘uma‘u Crater. This image is a slice through the cloud at an altitude of 14,000 ft (4 km) above sea level at 4:12 a.m., HST. The colors scale is radar reflectivity, a measure of the size of the particles and their concentration within the ash cloud.

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Close view of rock hurled from the Overlook crater during an explosive event last evening. The rock broke apart on impact, and was about 60 cm (24 in) before it hit the ground. The location is a few hundred meters (yards) south of the Overlook crater at the Halema‘uma‘u parking lot.

Map shows the location of the lava flow spreading from fissure 17 as of 7:00 a.m. HST, May 16. The flow is following a path of steepest descent (blue line) south of a 1955 'a'ā flow. Shaded purple areas indicate lava flows erupted in 1840, 1955, 1960, and 2014-2015.

Same area between fissures 16 and 20 at 9:33 a.m. By the time geologists reached the site on foot, the spattering had died down and they were only hearing gas rushing sounds.

Lava spattering area from an area between fissures 16 and 20 photographed at 8:20 a.m. today. 

View uprift from the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory overflight this morning at 8:25 a.m. Note sulfur dioxide plumes rising from the fissures along the rift and accumulating in the cloud deck. Winds are calm today.

Close view of rock hurled from the Overlook crater during an explosive event last evening. The rock broke apart on impact, and was about 60 cm (24 in) before it hit the ground. The location is a few hundred meters (yards) south of the Overlook crater at the Halema‘uma‘u parking lot.

Image of a Met Station at Valle de Oro National Wildlife Refuge, New Mexico, USGS - New Mexico Water Science Center (NMWSC)

Real-time flow meter installed on a center-pivot irrigation well in Mississippi County, Arkansas as part of a cooperative project conducted between USGS and the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission. The meter will measure water use for irrigation, providing data which will help improve water-use information in other locations as well.

Ash from an explosive event at Halema‘uma‘u on May 15, 2018, was blown by trade winds to the southwest, where it fell from the plume and blanketed the Ka‘ū Desert landscape. Samples of this ash were collected for ash leachate analyses as part of the assessment of hazards from Kīlauea Volcano's eruption.

Activity at Halema‘uma‘u crater increased this morning to include the nearly continuous emission of ash with intermittent stronger pulses that form occasional higher plumes 1-2 kilometers (3,000 to 6,000 feet

Incandescence observed at Fissure 14 around 10:30 a.m. HST. Pulsing, gas-rushing sounds could be heard coming from the crack. Yellow sulfur deposits appear on the crack margins.

Highly viscous (sticky) lava oozes from the edge of the ‘a‘ā flow spreading slowly from fissure 17.

Map as of 6:45 a.m. HST, May 15, shows the location of the 'a'ā lava flow spreading from fissure 17; the flow front at the time is shown by the small red circle with label. The flow is following well a path of steepest descent (blue line), immediately south of the 1955 'a'ā flow boundary.

At 11:05 a.m. HST. Photograph from the Jaggar Museum, Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park, captures an ash plume rising from the Overlook crater. Ash falling from the plume can be seen just to the right side (and below) the plume.

At 1:38 p.m. HST. A telephoto photo from the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory looking toward the southwest shows gray ash blanketing the Kau Desert landscape.

At 1:38 p.m. HST, another dark ash plume rose from the Overlook crater. During a flight earlier today by the Civil Air Patrol, the height of the ash plumes near the crater rose to more than 3 km (9,800 ft) above sea level, and downwind the plumes continued to rise to about 3.5 km (11,500 ft) above sea level.

At 11:43 HST, Civil Air Patrol flight CAP20 reported plume tops at about 9,500 ft with the dispersed plume rising as high as 11,000 ft.

Ash plume viewed from the Volcano Golf Course near Volcano, Hawai‘i. This view is nearly due north of the Halema‘uma‘u crater.