Images

A closer look at some of the activity at the breakout on Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō.

After serving as Scientist-in-Charge of the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory for more than 10 years, Jim Kauahikaua, shown here at HVO's Centennial Celebration in 2012, steps aside on March 8, 2015. Kauahikaua will remain on HVO's staff as a research geophysicist, the position he originally held starting in 1988. USGS photo.

This large-scale map uses a satellite image acquired in March 2014 (provided by Digital Globe) as a base to show the area around the front of Kīlauea's active East Rift Zone lava flow. The area of the flow on February 19 is shown in pink, while widening and advancement of the flow as of February 23 is shown in red.

The leading tip of the June 27th lava flow remains stalled, but breakouts persist upslope of the stalled tip. Today, one of these breakouts (marked by the arrow) had advanced a short distance towards the north, reaching one of the fire break roads.

A small lobe of pāhoehoe on the new breakout on Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō.

This map overlays a georegistered mosaic of thermal images collected during a helicopter overflight of the distal part of Kīlauea's active East Rift Zone lava flow on February 23 at about 12:30 PM. The base image is a satellite image acquired in March 2014 (provided by Digital Globe). The perimeter of the flow at that time is outlined in yellow.

This map overlays a georegistered mosaic of thermal images collected during a helicopter overflight of Kīlauea's active East Rift Zone lava flow near Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō on February 23 at about 12:00 PM. The perimeter of the flow at that time is outlined in yellow.

This comparison of a normal photograph and a thermal image shows the position of active breakouts relative to the inactive flow tip. The white box shows the rough extent of the thermal image on the right. In the thermal image, active breakouts are visible as white and yellow areas.

This photograph looks east, and shows the breakout on the north flank of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō that began over the weekend. The breakout, visible as the lighter colored region in the center of the photograph, occurred from the area of the June 27th vent (upper right portion of photograph).

A closer look at some of the activity on the new breakout on the north flank of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō.

This large-scale map shows the distal part of Kīlauea's active East Rift Zone lava flow in relation to nearby Puna communities. The area of the flow on February 10 is shown in pink, while widening and advancement of the flow as of February 19 is shown in red.

This large-scale map uses a satellite image acquired in March 2014 (provided by Digital Globe) as a base to show the area around the front of Kīlauea's active East Rift Zone lava flow. The area of the flow on February 10 is shown in pink, while widening and advancement of the flow as of February 19 is shown in red.

This map overlays a georegistered mosaic of thermal images collected during a helicopter overflight of the distal part of Kīlauea's active East Rift Zone lava flow on February 19 at about 10:30 AM. The base image is a satellite image acquired in March 2014 (provided by Digital Globe). The perimeter of the flow at that time is outlined in yellow.

This comparison of a normal photograph and a thermal image shows the position of active breakouts relative to the inactive flow tip. The white box shows the rough extent of the thermal image on the right. In the thermal image, active breakouts are visible as white and yellow areas.

Another view of the leading portion of the June 27th flow, looking upslope. Pahoa Marketplace is in the lower right corner of the photograph. Mauna Loa can be seen near the top of the photograph.

This small-scale map shows Kīlauea's active East Rift Zone lava flow in relation to lower Puna. The area of the flow on February 10 is shown in pink, while widening and advancement of the flow as of February 19 is shown in red.

The leading tip of the June 27th flow has been stalled for several weeks, but scattered breakouts have persisted upslope. On today's overflight, one of these breakouts was active south of the stalled tip and about 650 meters (0.4 miles) northwest of the Pāhoa transfer station.

Another view of the leading portion of the June 27th flow. Persistent breakouts a short distance upslope of the stalled tip have resulted in widening of this section of the flow.

Vog concentrations in Hawai'i are primarily dependent on the amount of SO2 emitted from Kīlauea, the distance from the source vents, and the wind direction and speed on a given day. During trade wind conditions, areas southwest of Kīlauea and the leeward side of Hawai‘i are most frequently affected by vog.

An eruption consisting of several lava fountains started on February 4 at Piton de la Fournaise on La REUNION Island in the Indian Ocean.

This satellite image was captured on Saturday, February 14, 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.