Images

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.

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.

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.

From this angle, the extent of the lava lake within the Overlook crater is much easier to distinguish from the surrounding overflows. The closed Halema‘uma‘u parking lot is in the right side of the photograph.

A sequence of still images taken from the webcam positioned at the closed Halema‘uma‘u overlook, spanning about six seconds. The collapse originated from a portion of the wall directly below the webcam, but just out of view. Large pieces of molten spatter can be seen flying through the air and being deposited on the crater walls below the camera.

Following several episodes of lava overflowing onto the floor of Halema‘uma‘u Crater, the lava lake level remains high, and close to the rim of the Overlook crater. This photograph was taken from the southern rim of Halema‘uma‘u Crater, where a time-lapse camera keeps watch on the lava lake and overflow activity.

This textbook example of a perched lava lake that formed within the Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō crater in May 2011 shows what could happen with Kīlauea's current summit lava lake if overflows of the Overlook crater vent continue.

One of several webcams and time-lapse camera stations located on the rim of Halema‘uma‘u Crater to record activity of the summit lava lake (in view below camera). HVO is located on the rim of Kīlauea Caldera in upper left (note square-looking tower), located about 2 km (1.2 mi) from this camera site.

Identical to photo at left, but with labels. The dashed white line indicates the lava lake rim.

Photo of the overflowing lava lake taken from the rim of Halema‘uma‘u.

Kīlauea Volcano's summit lava lake, which was about 12 m (40 ft) below the vent rim on April 25 (left), overflowed the vent rim for the first time at about 9:40 p.m., HST, on April 28. As of noon on April 29 (right), the lava lake had overflowed the vent rim several more times. These Webcam images capture the summit vent before and after the overflows.

Photo from the rim of Halema‘uma‘u showing the lava lake in the completely filled Overlook crater. Repeated overflows are beginning to construct levees around the lake, such that the level of the lake is now perched about 2 m (7 ft) above the original floor of Halema‘uma‘u.

An early morning view of the lava lake with a recent overflow onto the floor of Halema‘uma‘u Crater.

A rockfall from the wall of Halema‘uma‘u Crater impacted the lava lake around 10:20 am, triggering an explosion of spatter and smaller particles. HVO geologists working on the far side of the crater captured the initial moments of the plume rising. The explosion deposited a large amount of spatter around the closed Halema‘uma‘u visitor overlook.

A close look at one of the large pieces of spatter thrown onto the rim of Halema‘uma‘u Crater by today's explosion (keys are for scale). The spatter hit the ground in a semi-fluid state, deforming on impact.

The explosion threw spatter that hit the remaining fencing on the Halema‘uma‘u overlook, partly burning it. Keys for scale.

Portions of the Halema‘uma‘u overlook fencing were knocked down by previous explosive events, and also by the wind over the past several years. The downed fencing, shown smoldering here, was then ignited by hot spatter from today's explosive event.