Images

The summit lava lake is contained within the Overlook crater, which is about 160 m (520 ft) by 210 m (690 ft) in size, and set within the larger Halema‘uma‘u Crater. The lava lake this week has been about 50 m (160 ft) below the rim of the Overlook crater.

This fissure eruption on Kīlauea's East Rift Zone in March 2011 reminds us of how exciting it can be to live on or near active volcanoes, but also why we need to be aware of the hazards they pose.

This image was captured on Tuesday, December 10 by Landsat 8, a new NASA Earth-observing satellite that was launched in February of this year and entered service in May. The image shows the Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō lava flow field on Kīlauea's east rift zone. Although this is a false-color image, the color map has been chosen to mimic what the human eye would expect to see.

Mount St. Helens and North Fork Toutle River Channel.

Pele's hair (thin strands of volcanic glass drawn out from molten lava) is abundant around Halema`uma`u Crater (Kīlauea, Hawaii). It originates from the active, spattering lava lake and in some areas, makes a nearly continuous carpet, highlighted here in the afternoon sun.

A close-up of Pele's hair at Halema‘uma‘u.

This thermal image looks northeast from Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō, and shows how the subsurface lava tubes feeding the active breakouts on the Kahauale‘a 2 flow are clearly visible as lines of slightly higher temperatures on the surface.

This thermal image looks northeast from Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō, and shows how the subsurface lava tubes feeding the active breakouts on the Kahauale‘a 2 flow are clearly visible as lines of slightly higher temperatures on the surface.

Continuing the same trend of activity observed over the past few weeks, the active breakouts on the Kahauale‘a 2 flow are still slowly advancing into the forest northeast of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō, creating small vegetation fires.

The popping and cracking of ice in lakes within the Newberry Volcano caldera is picked up by local seismic stations, such as Central Pumice Cone. The lake-ice quakes do not resemble standard volcanic low-frequency or high-frequency events and are sporadically observed in the winter at other ice-covered lakes in Yellowstone, Long Valley, and elsewhere.

The flow front of the Kahauale‘a 2 flow has cut a narrow swath through forest northeast of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō. The narrow lobe at the front is now inactive, with the main area of surface flows about 2km (1.2 miles) behind the end of this lobe. Some of these surface flows are slowly expanding northward into the forest, creating vegetation fires.

The Kahauale‘a 2 flow remains active, and continues to slowly expand into the forest northeast of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō. The photo shows the main area of vegetation fires, along the north margin of the flow. Mauna Loa can be seen in the distance in the upper right.

It was remarkably clear during today's overflight of Kīlauea's east rift zone. This photo is taken from Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō, and looks northwest. Mauna Kea is at the right, and Mauna Loa is at the left. In front of the summit of Mauna Loa, the degassing plume from the lava lake at Kīlauea's summit is rising vertically.

This thermal image shows Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō (see visual photograph at left for equivalent view). Recently, the southeast and northeast spatter cones have produced small overflows out of the crater, shown clearly here by their warm temperatures.

This thermal image shows the front of the Kahauale‘a 2 flow. A narrow lobe at the very front is now inactive (evident by the slightly lower surface temperatures), while the main area of active surface flows (shown by white areas) are farther back from this leading edge.

This photo looks southwest, and shows Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō. The northeast spatter cone on the east rim of the crater is near the center of the photo, and is the vent area for the Kahauale‘a 2 flow.

This photo looks southwest, and shows Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō. The northeast spatter cone on the east rim of the crater is near the center of the photo, and is the vent area for the Kahauale‘a 2 flow.

The flow front of the Kahauale‘a 2 flow has cut a narrow swath through forest northeast of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō. The narrow lobe at the front is now inactive, with the main area of surface flows about 2km (1.2 miles) behind the end of this lobe. Some of these surface flows are slowly expanding northward into the forest, creating vegetation fires.

This thermal image shows Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō (see visual photograph at left for equivalent view). Recently, the southeast and northeast spatter cones have produced small overflows out of the crater, shown clearly here by their warm temperatures.

Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō looms in the background in this photo taken from about 4 km (2.5 miles) away. The source of the Kahauale‘a 2 flow—a spatter cone at the northeast edge of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō's crater floor—forms the knuckle-like bump just above the center of the photo. The Kahauale‘a 2 lava tube is marked by the fuming areas that extend to the right down the flank of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō.

Lava erupted a few times from two different spatter cones on Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō's crater floor over the past few weeks. These show up as the lighter-colored flows on the near (southeast) flank of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō. The larger spatter cone to the right, with the obvious fume trace leading away from it to the right (marking the lava tube), is the source of the Kahauale‘a 2 flow.