Images

By early this morning, the front of the ‘A‘ā flow fed from the western vent had intercepted the edge of the Mother's Day flow, which was emplaced in 2002-2004. The flow advanced about 2.9 km (1.8 miles) in 30 hours.

With lava retreating deeper into the Halema‘uma‘u vent cavity over the past two days, the cavity walls have experienced more frequent collapses. At 2:23pm today, a collapse from the upper portion of the vent cavity produced a robust brown plume, but did not eject any large particles.

A close-up of the flow front in the forest.

On the west end of the fissure system, spatter ramparts are forming as the lava fallout solidifies in a mound upwind from the source.

A broad view of the Kamoamoa fissures. The fissures extend 2.3 km (1.4 mi) between Nāpau Crater and Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō. The western most fissure is just out of view in this photo.

This thermal image was taken from a helicopter above the active fountains at the west end of the fissure system. There were two adjacent fountaining areas, with one situated within a spatter cone and the other bursting through a perched lava pond. The fountains were feeding a channelized flow that can be seen in the upper right portion of the image.

This thermal image shows the channelized ‘A‘ā flow that was being fed by the fountains at the west end of the fissure system today. Near the end of the flow, the channel empties into the delta-like flow front.

A view of the spattering source from the ground.

The east rift zone eruption is currently in a hiatus. The east and west Kamoamoa fissures are still fuming, but no lava is erupting. Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō is the fuming cone in the background.

Fume from Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō has diminished enough to see a portion of the rubble-filled crater floor.

Gobs of spatter solidified in the remaining trees. The spatter was erupted from the first fissure to open on March 5.

Overview of the Kamoamoa eruption looking south. The northeastern vent is to the left, and the southwestern vent is to the upper right. A river of lava, erupting from the southwestern vent, can be seen advancing toward the southeast through forest within Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park.

The channelized flow from the western vent complex advanced significantly downslope through forest within the Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park.

The front of the advancing ‘A‘ā flow is about 4 m (13 ft) thick.

View looking down onto the northeastern vent.

Views into the Halema‘uma‘u vent have been largely obscured by fume over the past several days, and the only consistent views have been with a thermal camera, which can "see" through the fume. This thermal image was taken at a nearly vertical angle from a helicopter, in order to see the bottom of the extremely deep and narrow vent cavity.

Lava was reaching heights above the tree line.

Measuring the thickness of an ‘A‘ā flow produced by the Kamoamoa fissure eruption. The measuring stick is 2 m (6.5 ft) tall.

A massive earthquake, and subsequent tsunami, struck the northeast coast of Japan on Friday, March 11, 2011. The USGS calculated the magnitude of the earthquake as a 9.0, the fourth largest ever recorded. The tsunami that followed was over 10 meters high in places.

Map showing the extent of the "July 2007 eruption", or Episode 58, flow field relative to surrounding communities. Reddish-brown is the active flow as mapped on January 13, 2011, while bright red shows the advancement of the flow from January 13-February 4. Light red represents older flows erupted during Episode 58 of the ongoing East Rift Zone eruption.

Close-up of just-opened fissure segment at NE tip of propagating fissure. Spatter reaching 5 m into the air.