Images

On December 30, 2015, an HVO geologist wore protective gear during collection of a fresh lava sample for chemical analysis from a pāhoehoe breakout along scattered Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō lava flows. Inset image caption: Metadata is written on a bag that holds a sample taken from pāhoehoe that was collected on August 18, 2006.

This view shows the north rim of Kīlauea Caldera, with the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory and Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park's Jaggar Museum perched at the rim for ideal views of summit activity. Mauna Kea is in the distance, partially obscured by clouds, and Mauna Loa's Northeast Rift Zone extends off the left edge of the photo.

Black and white phreatomagmatic deposits blanket the white and orange layers of metasedimentary country rock that was blasted into a crater 2100 years ago during the eruption of Ubehebe Craters in Death Valley National Park.

Kīlauea Volcano's summit lava lake was just one of many topics that USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory scientists talked about at the recent American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco.

This is a view of the new vent from the ground, showing the thin roof that caps the brightly incandescent cavity below. Views from the air show the cavity to be much larger than the current opening, probably extending at least as far as the sulfur staining in the foreground and back under the mound to the right.

A bubbling lava surface could be seen about 5 m (16 ft) below the opening of the new vent when viewed from the air. The size of the opening will likely grow with time, as the narrow septa between the individual holes collapse.

A new vent opened on the northeast flank of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō during the first week of December. This is the incandescent, fuming trio of holes just below and to the left of center in the accompanying image.

The breakout that began as a rupture from the tube supplying the June 27th lava flow continues to advance slowly to the northeast and has reached the forest.

Lava, like this typical pāhoehoe flow on Nov. 12, 2015, continues to breakout northeast of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō (in background) on Kīlauea Volcano. Current activity is within about 6 km (4 mi) of the vent and poses no immediate threat to Puna communities.

During a kona wind, fume from Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō (foreground) and Halema‘uma‘u Crater (background), both on Kīlauea, blows northward, with towering Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea on the horizon. USGS photo.

The cover of USGS Professional Paper 1806, one of three recent books on Hawaiian volcanism. USGS photo.

A closer look at the breakout point where lava emerged from the tube on November 25. A few skylights provide views of the lava in the new lava tube that formed over the past week on this flow.

A very close view of the active pāhoehoe toes on the margin of the November 25 breakout. A fresh lava sample was collected from this spot with a rock hammer today. Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō is in the distance.

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 on November 12 is shown in pink, while widening and advancement of the flow as mapped on December 3 is shown in red. The yellow lines show the active lava tube system.

This map shows recent changes to Kīlauea's active East Rift Zone lava flow field. The area of the flow on November 12 is shown in pink, while widening and advancement of the flow as mapped on December 3 is shown in red. Changes shown at near the east edge of the map extent reflect updated ground mapping, not new flows.

All that remains of Pu‘u Kahauale‘a can be seen in this photograph, with only the peaks of the formerly prominent forested cinder cone visible. This cone has been buried by lava from the June 27th flow over the past year. In the upper left a small hornito can be seen.

A few small vents are active in the southern portion of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō crater. These erupted a small flow onto the crater floor recently.

A fascinating cross section of a hornito was revealed recently, when a partial collapse provided a window into a portion of an abandoned lava tube. The void space behind the geologist was filled with lava at some point, with lava and gas forced through the narrow crack in the center of the photograph.

Scattered breakouts persist northeast of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō, and the farthest reach of active breakouts today was 5.9 km (3.7 miles) from the vent on Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō. A minor change on the flow field occurred last week, with a breakout from the tube on November 25 that created a small flow that remains active today.

This satellite image was captured on Monday, November 30, 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.

Mount Fuji, or Fuji-san as the Japanese address the mountain, is 3,776 m (12,389 ft) tall and towers above the surrounding communities. USGS photo.