Images

This image was acquired yesterday (December 1, 2014) by the WorldView 2 satellite, and shows the activity in the downslope portion of the June 27th lava flow. The portion of the June 27th lava flow that entered Pāhoa in October is inactive, but a new lobe is advancing downslope a short distance west of the earlier flow.

The breakouts that began about two weeks ago near the area of ground cracks continued to advance downslope over the past week, creating a new lobe on the June 27th lava flow. This lobe is a short distance west of the earlier portion of the June 27th flow that reached Pāhoa.

A closer look at the narrow lava channel near the leading tip of the active lobe. The channel consists of both open sections as well as sections that are crusted over.

This map uses a satellite image acquired in March 2014 (provided by Digital Globe) as a base to show the area around the front of the June 27th lava flow. The area of the flow on November 24, 2014, at 12:00 PM is shown in pink, while widening and advancement of the flow as mapped on December 1 at 11:30 AM is shown in red.

A small breakout was also active on the upslope portion of the June 27th lava flow. The pāhoehoe lava was flowing over an ‘A‘ā flow from late 2007.

A comparison of a normal photograph with a thermal image of the leading tip of activity on the June 27th lava flow. The white box shows the rough extent of the thermal image. The thermal image shows the narrow lava channel near the leading tip of the new lobe.

A comparison of a normal photograph with a thermal image of the narrow channel at the leading tip of the new lobe on the June 27th lava flow. The normal photograph is partially obscured by smoke from vegetation burning, but the thermal image can "see" through the smoke to show the nature of the channel in detail.

This small-scale map shows the June 27th lava flow in relation to lower Puna. The area of the flow on November 24, 2014, at 12:00 PM is shown in pink, while widening and advancement of the flow as mapped on December 1 at 11:30 AM is shown in red.

This large-scale map shows the distal part of the June 27th flow in relation to nearby Puna communities. The area of the flow on November 24, 2014, at 12:00 PM is shown in pink, while widening and advancement of the flow as mapped on December 1 at 11:30 AM is shown in red.

A comparison of a normal photograph with a thermal image of the breakout active in the area of ground cracks. The white box shows the rough extent of the thermal image. The thermal image shows the location of active pāhoehoe lobes scattered over the area of the breakout, with activity slowly advancing downslope towards the north (right side of images).

When Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō began to form in 1983, the ground surface on which it was built was at an elevation of about 720 m (~2,360 ft). The Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō cone eventually reached a height of 255 m (837 ft), putting its top at an elevation of about 975 m (~3,200 ft).

This small-scale map shows the June 27th lava flow in Kīlauea's East Rift Zone in relation to lower Puna. The area of the flow on November 17, 2014, at 2:00 PM is shown in pink, while widening and advancement of the flow as mapped on November 24 at 12:00 PM is shown in red.

This large-scale map shows the June 27th lava flow in Kīlauea's East Rift Zone in relation to nearby Puna communities. The area of the flow on November 17, 2014, at 2:00 PM is shown in pink, while widening and advancement of the flow as mapped on November 24 at 12:00 PM is shown in red.

Although the downslope portion of the June 27th lava flow, near Pāhoa, is inactive, breakouts persist upslope near the ground crack system and well site. The lava has advanced a short distance downslope towards the north (towards the right side of the image), following the west margin of the existing June 27th lava flow.

This view looks downslope towards the east. The active breakout is burning vegetation along its margins, creating numerous small smoke plumes. Residential areas are visible in the upper portion of the photograph, with Pāhoa in the upper left.

A vertical view of the lava flow in the area of ground cracks. Portions of the flow surface include numerous downed trees, resulting from the initial phases of the flow burning through the trunks, causing the trees to topple.

One of many small pāhoehoe toes and surface flows noted by HVO geologists this morning in the area near the crack system where lava partially filled, and flowed out of a crack, around September 6.

This satellite image was captured by the Advanced Land Imager instrument onboard NASA's Earth Observing 1 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 farthest downslope breakouts today are still situated around the ground crack system, near the abandoned well site. The front of these breakouts was about 500 m (0.3 miles) northeast of the well site, and about 1.9 km (1.2 miles) west of Kaohe Homesteads. These breakouts were covering the existing flow and burning forest on its margins.

Much of the active lava was covering the existing flow around the ground crack system, with small portions entering the forest at the flow margins. The activity in the forest triggered brush fires and frequent methane explosions.

An HVO geologist examines a ground crack into which lava was pouring near the flow margin, producing large amounts of steam.