Images

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.

When Matt measured the lava lake level this morning, the lake surface was 89 feet (27 m) below the Overlook crater rim. With the lava lake at that level, spattering on the lake surface could be seen from the Jaggar Museum overlook in Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park today.

On March 14, HVO's webcam [MLcam] captured this image of a double rainbow, which seems to end in Moku‘āweoweo, the caldera at the summit of Mauna Loa. No pots of gold were observed—only patches of snow from recent winter storms.

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.

HVO's HMcam also captured an image of today's rockfall and subsequent explosion (upper right) as it occurred.

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).

Within Kīlauea Volcano's summit lava lake, vigorous spattering was occurring on the southern margin where a ledge of solidified lava has built out from the vent wall. The vigorous spattering site was active in an indentation in the ledge.

A photo of the ledge that is building on Halema‘uma‘u lava lake's southern ledge. Small collapses of the unstable ledge are also common.

Another ledge along the eastern margin has been building out from the vent wall, showing the recent high lava lake level mark (new black lava).

Photo caption: USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory field engineers upgrade a tiltmeter on Kīlauea Volcano's East Rift Zone. The upgrade consisted of switching the old analog instrument to a newer digital model. This tiltmeter is used to track magma movement within the volcano. USGS photo by K. Kamibayashi.

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.

A bursting bubble on the surface of a lava lake produces an impulsive signal on an infrasound recording. This photo shows a group of bubbles about 5 m (16 ft) across bursting on the Halema‘uma‘u lava lake at the summit of Kīlauea Volcano. The blue line is an infrasound recording of 50 seconds of similar activity.

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.

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