Images

This photograph was taken from the western pit at Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō, and shows the small lava pond (roughly 20 m in diameter) contained within the pit.

Colorful sulfur deposits have formed recently around one of the cracks on the floor of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō Crater.

A hornito has recently formed over the lava tube on the north flank of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō, at the spot of the breakout that occurred on November 25.

Viewing conditions into Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō Crater were exceptional today, providing clear views of the crater floor. This view is towards the northwest. The inner, deeper crater formed in mid-2014 following the opening of the June 27th vent, and occasional small flows on the crater floor are evident by their dark color.

A view of the western portion of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō Crater, with the small circular pit that contains the active lava pond. HVO's cameras are on the rim at the right side of the photograph.

Incandescence was visible in the small pit that formed recently on the upper northeast flank of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō.

A closer view of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō, just above the center point of the photograph. View is towards the southwest. In the foreground, the circular lava pond that was active in July 2014 is visible. The lava tube feeding the active flows on the June 27th lava flow is evident by the line of white fume sources extending off the right side of the photograph.

In this shaded relief and bathymetric map of O‘ahu, which comprises two volcanoes (WAIANAE and Ko‘olau), colors indicate water depth, from shallow (orange and yellow) to deep (purple), with shades of gray indicating the island area above sea level. From: U.S.

This satellite image was captured on Sunday, January 10, by the Advanced Land Imager instrument onboard NASA's Earth Observing 1 satellite. The image is provided courtesy of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Although this is a false-color image, the color map has been chosen to mimic what the human eye would expect to see.

Though the park celebrates its 100th anniversary on August 1, 2016, its main attractions-Kilauea and Mauna Loa volcanoes-have been adding to the land mass of Hawaii’s “Big Island” for at least 400,000 years.

Zoomed-in view of the spattering at the southeast corner of the lava lake. The vent wall is overhung in this area.

Preview image for video: A rockfall on the east rim of the summit vent within Kīlauea Volcano's Halema‘uma‘u Crater triggered a small explosive event at 3:51 a.m., HST, on January 8, 2016. Explosive events like this occur more frequently when the lava lake level is relatively high, as it has been this past week—around 30-35 m (100-115 ft) below the vent rim.

This satellite image was captured on Thursday, January 7, by the Advanced Land Imager instrument onboard NASA's Earth Observing 1 satellite. The image is provided courtesy of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Although this is a false-color image, the color map has been chosen to mimic what the human eye would expect to see.

In recent days, the lava lake in Halema‘uma‘u Crater has been at a relatively high level. This view, looking roughly north-northeast, shows typical behavior, with lava rising into the lake at the distant end opposite the photographer, and sinking all along the base of the crater wall in the foreground and at right.

The rim of Halema‘uma‘u Crater was covered in a nearly continuous blanket of tephra following today's early morning rockfall and subsequent explosive event. Tephra is the general term for volcanic rock fragments exploded or carried into the air during an eruption, and can range from dust-size particles to fragments more than 1 m (3.2 ft) in diameter.

Preview image for video: When large rockfalls impact the lava lake, they trigger explosive events that propel volcanic rock fragments (tephra) upward. This morning's event was vigorous enough to hurl incandescent fragments onto the rim of Halema‘uma‘u Crater, about 110 m (360 ft) above the lava lake surface.

The January 8, 2016, rockfall and subsequent explosive event littered the rim of Halema‘uma‘u Crater with fragments of molten lava. In this image, you can see what remains of the Halema‘uma‘u Overlook wooden fence, which has been repeatedly been bombarded by spatter and rock fragments since 2008.

The 10 cm (4-inch) pocket knife in this image provides scale for one of the larger fragments of molten lava that was thrown onto the rim of Halema‘uma‘u Crater at 3:51 a.m., HST, on January 8, 2016. So much spatter was ejected to the crater rim this morning that it is hard to discern one lava fragment from another.

This small-scale map shows Kīlauea's active East Rift Zone lava flow in relation to the eastern part of the Island of Hawai‘i. The area of the flow field on December 3 is shown in pink, while widening and advancement of the flow field as mapped on January 5 is shown in red. The yellow lines show the active lava tube system.

In this shaded relief and bathymetric map of Ni‘ihau and Kaua‘i, colors indicate water depth, from shallow (orange and yellow) to deep (purple), with shades of gray indicating island areas above sea level. From: U.S.

This map shows recent changes to Kīlauea's active East Rift Zone lava flow field. The area of the flow field on December 3 is shown in pink, while widening and advancement of the flow field as mapped on January 5 is shown in red. The yellow lines show the active lava tube system. Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō lava flows erupted prior to June 27, 2014, are shown in gray.