Images

An HVO field geologist must make his way through dense forest to map the full extent of an old Mauna Loa lava flow. USGS photo.

Summit deflation over the past day was associated with the summit lava lake level slowly dropping. When this happens, collapses commonly occur within the Overlook crater. Solidified lava, attached to the Overlook crater walls, collapsed into the lake on several occasions today, triggering small dust plumes and agitation of the lake surface.

This satellite image was captured on Tuesday, October 13, 2015 by the Landsat 8 satellite. Although this is a false-color image, the color map has been chosen to mimic what the human eye would expect to see. Bright red pixels depict areas of very high temperatures and show active lava. White areas are clouds.

A Hawaiian Volcano Observatory volunteer demonstrates "Drop! Cover! Hold on!"—actions that can reduce injuries or prevent death during an earthquake.

Graphic from the Great Hawaii ShakeOut website (http://shakeout.org/hawaii/) showing the recommended actions to protect yourself during an earthquake.

Alert levels and aviation color code icons for volcanoes within the USGS area of responsibility.

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 September 11 is shown in pink, while widening and advancement of the flow as of September 30 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 September 11 is shown in pink, while widening and advancement of the flow as of September 30 (based on satellite imagery) is shown in red. The yellow lines show the active lava tube system.

This is an animated GIF, taken from a longer video, showing the moment that this geologist from the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) scoops up lava from an active flow and drops it into a bucket of water to cool it down. 

HVO geologists hike through thick fume and fog to reach the lava pond in the western portion of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō crater.

The June 27th lava flow remains active with scattered breakouts northeast of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō. The farthest active breakout today was about 6.5 km (4 miles) from Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō. This photograph shows activity along the northern flow boundary, where breakouts continue to burn vegetation.

This Quicktime video shows lava sample collection from the perspective of an HVO geologist.

This wide view shows the lava lake active within the Overlook crater, which is set within the larger Halema‘uma‘u Crater. There have been no major changes in the lake in recent weeks. This morning the lava lake was roughly 60 meters (200 feet) below the rim of the Overlook crater.

This view looks west towards Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō, which can be seen in the upper left. The most distant active breakouts today were located near the center of the photograph, at a spot roughly 6.5 km (4 miles) from Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō.

A lava pond has been active in the western portion of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō crater for several months.

A closer look at the lava lake in the Overlook crater.

Replica of a 19th century soda bottle that was sealed with a blue marble (visible in lower crimp of the bottle). Bottles like this played a part in creating the bottled soda analogy of how and why volcanoes erupt. The Halema‘uma‘u Overlook gas plume is visible in the background. USGS photo.

This panorama is from the north rim of Mauna Loa's summit caldera, Moku‘āweoweo, and shows the thermal camera watching for changes on the caldera floor.

An HVO geologist performs a routine check of the thermal camera and webcam at the summit of Mauna Loa.

USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory scientists are closely monitoring recent signs of unrest on Mauna Loa, the largest active volcano on Earth. In this 1985 aerial photo, Mauna Loa looms above Kīlauea Volcano's summit caldera (left center) and nearly obscures Hualālai in the far distance (upper right). USGS photo.

TOP: Mauna Loa weekly earthquake rates between 2010 and September 17, 2015. Blue bars indicate the number of earthquakes that were located by the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory seismic network. Earthquakes of all magnitudes are plotted. Subtle increases in earthquake rates started in mid-2013, while more obvious changes in rates started in 2014.