Images

Aerial view of the Kīlauea summit eruption from a Hawaiian Volcano Observatory overflight at approximately 11:20 a.m. HST. The two active fissure locations continue to feed lava into the growing lava lake in Halema‘uma‘u crater, with the northern fissure (pictured right) remaining dominant.

Kīlauea summit KW webam image taken on December 21, 2020, just after 6:30 a.m. HST. The water lake, present until the evening of December 20, 2020, has been replaced by a lava lake; fissures in the wall of Halemaʻumaʻu feed a lava lake that continues to fill the crater.

Hawaiian Volcano Observatory field crews captured this photo of the thick gas plume, produced by the Kīlauea summit eruption, obscuring the intensity of the sun.

A helicopter overflight today (Dec 21, 2020) at approximately ~11:30 AM HST allowed for aerial visual and thermal imagery to be collected of the new eruption within Halema'uma'ucrater at the summit of Kīlauea Volcano. This preliminary thermal map shows that the new lava lake is 580 m (yd) E-W axis and 320 m (yd) in N-S axis.

Example of 2D and 3D radar visualization of the December 20, 2020, Kīlauea volcanic plume. Displayed in photo (top, USGS photo), 2D radar scan from station PHWA (middle, NOAA Weather and Climate Toolkit), and 3D radar visualization (bottom, Google Earth).

Kīlauea summit KW webcam image taken on December 20, 2020, just before 6 p.m. HST. Three and a half hours later, at 9:30 p.m., an eruption began in the walls of Halemaʻumaʻu crater, vaporizing the lake.

Shortly after approximately 9:30 p.m. HST, an eruption commenced at the summit of Kīlauea Volcano. Red spots are the approximate locations of fissure vents feeding lava flowing into the bottom of Halema‘uma‘u crater. The water lake at the base of Halema‘uma‘u crater has been replaced with a growing lava lake.

December 20, 2020, Kīlauea volcanic plume shown from the Gemini Observatory on Mauna Kea (left) and a 3D radar visualization from the same perspective. The radar reflectivity isosurfaces reveal the plume’s internal and external structure.

Swath bathymetric image of the Elliott’s Crater explosion crater in Yellowstone Lake.  Inset shows location of the crater and the swath image (red box) within the northern part of the lake.

The right side of the figure is an image of a small piece of the Y-9 core from the USGS 1967-68 drilling expedition to Yellowstone National Park. The black area was analyzed using a scanning electron microscope (SEM) at the University of Wyoming to determine mineralogy and dispersion of elements.

Research drilling in Yellowstone National Park.  (A) is an image from Fenner (1936) of the drilling setup in the Upper Geyser Basin during the 1929 field season. (B) is an image from White et al. (1975) of the USGS drill rig set up in the Norris Geyser Basin in 1967-68 during a steam eruption.

A gravimeter measuring the force of gravity on Mauna Kea. These measurements are used to calibrate the instruments so they can precisely monitor changes in gravity from magma accumulation at Mauna Loa (background). USGS photograph taken on December 10, 2020.

Map of earthquakes that occurred beneath Yellowstone Lake as parts of seismic swarms in 2008-2009 (green) and 2020 (red).  Orange line is the boundary of Yellowstone Caldera, which formed 631,000 years ago.

Rate of earthquake occurrence for the 2008-2009 Yellowstone Lake swarm (green) and 2020 swarm (red).

KWcam webcam image from December 2 at 6:00 p.m. HST, immediately following a M3.1 earthquake at Kīlauea summit. Several rockfalls down the talus slope impacted the summit water lake, causing some brief localized color changes of the lake surface (circled in yellow).

ANIMATED GIF: At Kīlauea summit, the KWcam webcam recorded several small color changes along the lake margin following rockfalls which impacted the lake surface. These rockfalls immediately followed a M3.1 earthquake Wednesday evening, December 2, at 5:59 p.m. HST. This animated image file (GIF) continuously loops two consecutive webcam images from 5:50 p.m.

This photo was taken from the west rim of Kīlauea caldera at dawn, and shows the moon setting over Mauna Loa's broad Northeast Rift Zone. USGS photo by M. Patrick.

Tephra layers preserved at the summit of Kīlauea from at least three different eruptions. Deposits below the top of the scale are predominantly juvenile and deposits above it containing many lithics. Notice the larger size of the yellow pumice clasts compared to the much denser and finer grey lapilli and ash surrounding them from 7 to 18 on the scale.

Lidar hillshade map of part of the Blackfoot Volcanic Field, showing rhyolite domes and fault scarps.

Map of southeastern Idaho showing volcanic rocks related to the Yellowstone hotspot. Basalt is shown in red and rhyolite in yellow. Blue circles indicate the location of past Yellowstone calderas; caldera names and approximate ages are shown (Ma = million years old).

Year-long (August 2017 to August 2018) temperature records from two hydrothermal vents (“A” and “B”) in the Deep Hole area of Yellowstone Lake.