Images

As shown in the May 21 field photos, the small forested cone of Pu‘u Kahauale‘a has been slowly buried by flows over the past several months. All that remains today are narrow portions of the rim standing above the lava.

Scattered breakouts remain active northeast of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō. On today's overflight, breakouts were active as far as 8 km (5 miles) northeast of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō. Some of this activity was at the forest boundary, burning vegetation.

Halema‘uma‘u Crater, looking west. The dark area on the crater floor consists of recent overflows from the Overlook crater. The Overlook crater is near the left edge of the photo, and a portion of the active lava lake surface can be seen below the rim.

A wide view of the northern portion of Kīlauea Caldera, on an exceptionally clear day. HVO and Jaggar Museum can be seen as the light-colored spot on the caldera rim. Mauna Loa is in the distance.

This satellite image was captured on Saturday, May 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.

Earthquakes at Mauna Loa from June 2013 to June 2015. Green circles are 0-5 km (0-3 mi) deep and similar to ones prior to 1975 and 1984 eruptions, but cluster of 5-10 km (3-6 mi) deep quakes missing.

This map shows recent changes to Kīlauea's active East Rift Zone lava flow field. The area of the flow on April 23 is shown in pink, while widening and advancement of the flow as of May 21 is shown in red. Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō lava flows erupted prior to June 27, 2014, are shown in gray.

Kīlauea Volcano's summit lava lake dropped from nearly overflowing on April 26, 2015 (left), to about 62 m (203 ft) below the newly created (by multiple overflows) vent rim on May 15, 2015 (right). USGS photos.

This Voyager 1 image mosaic shows a large area of Io's volcanic plains, with numerous volcanic calderas and lava flows. Loki Patera, an active lava lake 1,000 times large than Kīlauea Volcano's summit lava lake, is the black horseshoe-shaped feature in the lower part of the image. Credit: NASA/JPL/USGS

The most distant active tip of the June 27th flow, visible at the left edge of the photo, was about 8.5 km (~5.3 miles) from Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō today. This lobe of the flow intersected an old lava tube earlier in the week that transported lava a short distance downslope, where it emerged from skylights to make several small isolated pads of lava (center of the photo).

Kīlauea Volcano's summit lava lake continued to drop today (May 15, 2015).

HVO webcams captured a short-lived dusty-brown plume generated by a small rock fall from the summit vent wall at 3:24 p.m., HST, this afternoon (May 15, 2015).

This sequence of HVO webcam images of Kīlauea Volcano's summit vent, recorded between 1:28 and 1:32 p.m., HST, on May 12, 2015, captures the moment a section of the dark-colored "bathtub ring" (a veneer of fresh lava that coats the vent wall as the lava lake level drops) fell into the lava lake (center).

The summit lava lake in Halema‘uma‘u Crater has dropped significantly over the past two days, as Kīlauea's summit has deflated.

This satellite image was captured on Wednesday, May 6, 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 faint dusting of volcanic ash, produced by a small rockfall-triggered explosion in the Kīlauea summit lava lake on April 25, 2015, fell on this car parked near Jaggar Museum. Light rainfall afterward caused the ash to clump. USGS photo.

The lava lake in the Overlook crater, within Halema‘uma‘u Crater at Kīlauea's summit, remains at a high level and close to the Overlook crater rim. Overflows onto the Halema‘uma‘u Crater floor have built up the rim of the Overlook crater several meters, and recent overflows are visible in the right side of the photograph.

The June 27th lava flow remains active, with breakouts focused in several areas northeast of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō. The farthest downslope activity observed on today's overflight was roughly 8 km (5 miles) northeast of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō. This photograph shows one of the active breakouts closer to Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō.

One of several lobes on the June 27th flow that was at the forest boundary today, burning vegetation northeast of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō.

Over the past week, the summit lava lake in the Overlook crater rose and spilled out onto the floor of Halema‘uma‘u Crater, creating the dark flows in the south part of Halema‘uma‘u (left side of crater from this direction).

A closer look at the lava lake and overflows on the floor of Halema‘uma‘u Crater. The outline of the Overlook crater, and the active lake, is easier to distinguish in this view.