Images

USGS geologist Deborah Bergfeld measures the temperature of a thermal feature near Big Boiler at Bumpass Hell in Lassen Volcanic National Park.

USGS geologist Laura Clor (right) and Rachel Teasdale (California State University – Chico, left) collect gas samples from a thermal feature at Sulphur Works in Lassen Volcanic National Park.

USGS geologist Deborah Bergfeld collects a gas sample from a superheated (hotter than the boiling point) fumarole in Little Hot Springs Valley at Lassen Volcanic National Park.

Annotated photo of air-quality particulate monitoring instruments, showing temperature and humidity sensors, air-sample inlet tube, wind sensor, power supply, and communication connections.

Kīlauea Volcano's summit eruption began on March 19, 2008, and continues today. The lava lake is contained within the Overlook crater, which is set within the larger Halema‘uma‘u Crater. In this February 28, 2016, photo, the lava lake surface was just 30 m (100 ft) below the rim of the Overlook crater. Spattering is visible in the southeast portion of the lake.

Footprints made in muddy ash during Kilauea's 1790 eruption are reminders that people experienced the largest explosive eruption in Hawai‘i in 1,000 years. More than 80, and possibly several hundred, people were killed by the eruption soon after the footprints were made.

In 1986, Lake Nyos, in the volcanic region of Cameroon, released a cloud of CO₂ into the atmosphere, killing 1,700 people and 3,500 livestock in nearby towns and villages. Since then, engineers have been artificially removing the gas from the lake through piping. This photo shows the Lake Nyos pipe in operation.

This satellite image was captured on March 2 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.

This Quicktime video shows spattering activity at a small vent in Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō Crater.

A closer look at the active flow in Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō crater, with a small vent in the distance throwing spatter.

Small vents in the southern portion of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō crater have been active recently, and erupting new lava flows onto the floor of the crater. The light-colored flow in the center of the photograph was active this morning, and slowly spreading across the crater floor.

Scattered breakouts remain active northeast of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō, with the farthest activity slightly more than 6 km (3.7 miles) from the vent. Some of the breakouts were active along the forest boundary, creating small brush fires. Other breakouts, like the one shown in this photograph, are covering earlier portions of the flow field.

An HVO geologist carefully approaches a skylight on the June 27th lava tube. The skylight provided a view into the lava tube, and revealed a swiftly moving lava stream.

A vent in the southern portion of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō Crater contained a small lava pond and was throwing spatter a short distance. The accumulated spatter has built a small cone around the opening. A thick layer of Pele's hair covers the far side of the cone.

During a 2015 field trip with Franklin and Marshall College students, Don Swanson, a geologist at the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, demonstrates that reticulite (frothy basalt, less dense than pumice, explosively erupted in lava fountains) sinks, rather than floats, in water due to its high permeability.

Don Swanson talks about Kīlauea Volcano's 1969-1974 Mauna Ulu eruption with geology students from Franklin and Marshall College during their 2015 field trip to Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park. The Mauna Ulu lava shield, which formed during the eruption, is visible in the background. Photo courtesy of Stan Mertzman, Franklin and Marshall College.

This movie, created from a sequence of HVO webcam images, shows lava erupting from a spatter cone within the south embayment in the Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō crater (see February 24 image below for location). The activity started around 8:15 a.m., HST, on Wednesday, March 2, 2016, and covered part of the crater floor before ceasing at about 3:00 p.m.

This photo looks west toward the West pit on Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō.

This photo looks north-northwest at the northeast embayment at Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō, showing the vent (a spatter cone) on the floor of the embayment. The heavy fume on the rim of the embayment is another vent.

This photo, also of the northeast embayment at Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō, is interesting because it shows the lava tube for the Kahauale‘a 2 flow, active during 2013 and 2014, exposed high on the crater wall. The Kahauale‘a 2 flow is the lava flow that preceded the currently active June 27th lava flow, which began June 27, 2014.

Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō has changed dramatically over the years. This map shows the configuration of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō's current crater (outlined in yellow) and vents (marked in red). The base image is a mosaic created from photographs captured during a helicopter overflight on January 19, 2016.