Images

Preview image for video: The lava lake in the Overlook Crater, within Halema‘uma‘u Crater at the summit of Kīlauea Volcano, has been rising over the past few days. Today the lava was as high as 14 meters (46 feet) below the Overlook crater rim. Several areas of spattering were active along the lake margin.

Breakouts on the June 27th lava flow remain active northeast of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō. A new, small, breakout appeared recently from the tube adjacent to Pu‘u Kahauale‘a, the small forested cone near the center of the photograph. The new breakout is the light-colored curved flow in the left portion of the photograph. Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō is in the upper right portion of the photo.

The farthest active breakout on the June 27th flow reached about 8 km (5 miles) northeast of the vent on Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō. The tip of this breakout was narrow and burning forest. Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō is at the top of the photograph.

A small breakout from an inflated portion of the June 27th flow. Large gas bubbles reach the surface near the source of the breakout, and are then carried and deformed as the surface advances and cools.

Over the past week small flows have filled the bottom of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō Crater. These flows originated from vents in the south portion of the crater, and one of the flows can be seen near the center of the photograph.

The June 27th flow covers much of the top of the photograph, and recent expansion of the flow margins has sent lava cascading into one of the ponds on the 2007 perched lava channel. This 2007 lava fills the bottom of the photograph, and is covered with yellow alteration.

The Overlook crater lava lake, within Halema‘uma‘u Crater at Kīlauea's summit, has been rising over the past few days, and today reached the highest point yet measured for the current summit eruption. The lava lake this afternoon was 20 meters (66 feet) below the Overlook crater rim.

Another view of the lava lake, with several areas of spattering active.

The lava level was high enough at the lava lake this evening that bits of spatter were reaching the rim of the Overlook crater.

This map shows recent changes to Kīlauea's active East Rift Zone lava flow field. The area of the flow on April 9 is shown in pink, while widening and advancement of the flow as of April 23 is shown in red. Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō lava flows erupted prior to June 27, 2014, are shown in gray.

This satellite image was captured on Monday, April 20, 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.

Active surface flows on the northeast flank of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō on March 12, 2015. The activity is a continuation of a breakout that began on February 21, which diverted lava from the tube system and helped to starve the supply of lava to the June 27th flow front near Pāhoa.

Breakouts continue northeast of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō in three main areas: 1) at the northern base of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō cone, 2) north of Pu‘u Kahauale‘a and 3) about 6 km (4 miles) northeast of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō. This photograph looks east and shows the breakout about 6 km from Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō.

A closer look at the leading tip of the farthest downslope breakout. The tip of the breakout was burning forest, and was 6.9 km (4.3 miles) northeast of the June 27th vent on Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō.

This map shows recent changes to Kīlauea's active East Rift Zone lava flow field. The area of the flow on April 3 is shown in pink, while widening and advancement of the flow as of April 9 is shown in red. We were not able to map some parts of the flow field with breakouts today due to poor weather, and these areas are denoted in boxes.

This photograph looks upslope and shows another narrow lobe on the breakout that is roughly 6 km (4 miles) northeast of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō. This lobe was moving along the south margin of the June 27th flow.

Breakouts remain active in three general areas near Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō: 1) at the northern base of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō, 2) just north of Kahauale‘a, and 3) the most distal breakout, about 6 km (4 miles) northeast of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō. This photograph shows much of the most distal breakout, a portion of which was burning forest. Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō can be seen near the top of the photograph.

In the time since our last overflight (March 24), a new collapse pit has formed in the western portion of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō Crater. This circular pit can be seen in the lower left portion of the photograph, and measures about 27 m (roughly 90 ft) in diameter. Numerous hot cracks were observed in this general area during previous visits on foot.

A closer look at the new pit in the western portion of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō Crater. Views inside the crater with the naked eye were obscured by thick fume, but the thermal images (right) revealed two areas of ponded lava, separated by a pile of collapse rubble, deep within the pit.

Plot of earthquakes in Mount Shasta region greater than M1.0 from April 3, 2010 to April 3, 2015.

This map shows recent changes to Kīlauea's active East Rift Zone lava flow field. The area of the flow on March 24 is shown in pink, while widening and advancement of the flow as of April 3 is shown in red.