Videos

An overview of the Core Science Systems Mission Area that asks, "What should Core Science Systems focus on in its strategy?"

An overview of the Natural Hazards Mission Area that asks, "What should Natural Hazards focus on in its strategy?"

Video showing low fountaining from the dominant vent, near the southwest end of the fissure system adjacent to Nāpau Crater, active during the day on March 7.

Video showing the collapse of the Pu'u 'O 'o crater floor on March 5. The video starts at 4 am and ends at 11 pm. The floor of the crater dropped about 115 meters (377 ft) in just a few hours.

Video showing low fountaining from the dominant vent, near the southwest end of the fissure system adjacent to Napau Crater, active during the day on March 7.

This Quicktime movie shows a sequence taken from a thermal camera looking into the Halema‘uma‘u vent cavity between March 5 and 7. Tremor and deflation began at about 1:42pm on March 5, and this was shortly followed by draining of the Halema‘uma‘u lava lake.

Video showing the collapse of the Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō crater floor on March 5. The video starts at 4 am and ends at 11 pm. The floor of the crater dropped about 115 meters (377 ft) in just a few hours.

This video shows lava pouring from the fissure into a seemingly bottomless crack. Napau Crater in the background. Helicopter for scale.

Video showing spattering from the most persistent vent of the day just west of the base of Pu'u 'O 'o near the northeastern end of the fissure system.

Video clip shot from the air looking SW at the fissure eruption between Pu'u 'O 'o and Napau Crater. The fissure segment in the tephra in the foreground opened seconds earlier, and only about 10 minutes after the eruption as a whole started. The cracks through the tephra are in the process of opening, though this can't be picked out at this distance.

Video clip shot in front of the propagating fissure, showing low spattering that started moments earlier. Thick white steam from the crack in the foreground indicates that lava is about to reach the surface, and is seen doing so seconds later.

Spattering near the front of the propagating fissure.

There was a series of vent wall and rim collapses on March 3, much like those than occurred in January and February. This video, compiled from the Webcam on the rim of Halema‘uma‘u above the vent, is one of the larger collapses, and shows the northwest rim of the vent falling into the lava lake.

This video, compiled from the Webcam on the rim of Halema'uma'u, shows the north rim of the vent collapsing.

There was a series of vent wall and rim collapses on March 3, much like those that occurred in January and February. This video, compiled from the Webcam on the rim of Halema'uma'u above the vent, is one of the larger collapses, and shows the northwest rim of the vent falling into the lava lake.

Booming sounds from the vent in Halema‘uma‘u have been audible around the summit area of Kīlauea for the past several days. Some of these sounds are caused by rocks striking the surface of the lava lake, but most are actually the sound of the vent walls cracking due to heating and expansion of rock.

The level of the lava lake sometimes changes abruptly. These cycles of rise and fall, which amount to a vertical change of around 15 m (about 50 ft), are occasionally triggered by rockfalls. Here, a small collapse from the vent wall triggers degassing and a drop in the lava level.

As the spattering shown in the previous video intensifies, the walls of the vent heat even more, causing the cracking of the rocks through thermal expansion to speed up, creating the cacophony of popping noises apparent in this video.

This clip, captured by a video camera on the rim of Halema'uma'u to the southwest of the vent, shows a small slice of the western rim of the vent collapsing into the lava lake.

-predicting the impact of extreme storms on the California Coast

By Patrick Barnard, USGS Pacific Coastal & Marine Science Center

The level of the lava lake sometimes changes abruptly. These cycles of rise and fall, which amount to a vertical change of around 15 m (about 50 ft), are occasionally triggered by rockfalls. Here, a small collapse from the vent wall triggers degassing and a drop in the lava level.