Images

Rootless shields grow both in breadth and height through the accumulation of repeated overflows from the summits of the shields. In this photo, a stream of lava is flowing southward down the flank of this emergent shield.

Seismic station VALT in Mount St. Helens crater, view toward the south.

A close-up view of the top of the main rootless lava shield at Pu`u `Ō `ō. The lava pond at the top of the shield is roughly 100 meters (yards) across.

This photo, taken at the northern base of the main rootless lava shield (Pu`u `Ō `ō), shows lava flowing down the flank of the shield.

This aerial view of the main rootless lava shield (at Pu`u `Ō `ō) shows the low, domed shape of this type of flow field feature. Sometimes, the flank of a rootless shield will fail, suddenly releasing the lava stored within and feeding fast moving 'a'ā flows.

Activity on the active flow field has been dominated by rootless lava shield construction for the past several weeks (Pu`u `Ō `ō). The main shield, seen here, is topped by a lava pond that feeds overflows down the sides of the shield. Successive overflows slowly build up the height of the shields.

Cross section through the trunk of a lodgepole pine tree from Cooking Hillside near Mud Volcano, Yellowstone National Park.  The earliest date for this tree is 1916 and it died in 1990. Spongy white-gray areas are foam insulation that was injected into the sample to reinforce the structure of the wood.

Data are collected every two minutes and sent by radio once per day to a server where values are plotted and released to the public internet.

Kīlauea volcano's summit eruption plume as viewed from the southeast flank of Mauna Loa on 11/30/2009 (top) and 12/20/2009 (bottom). The eruption plume's visible appearance is a complex function of physical eruptive vent conditions, meteorology and atmosp

A striking view of a breakout atop one of the rootless shields on the Quarry flow. Lava is flowing from the breakout point near the bottom of the photo toward the top of the photo, where it reenters the lava tube and continues downslope.

Lava fountains erupt from a fissure in the southwestern part of Moku`aeoweo, Mauna Loa's summit caldera, on April 11, 1940 (view looking to the south-southeast). Patches of white snow cling to the caldera walls as fluid pahoehoe lava flows spread across

Aerial view from above the north rim of Pu`u `Ō `ō crater. Most of the activity was in the center of the pond (lighter grey area), where one of the vents was actively spattering and small pieces of crust were overturning.

Aerial view of Kīlauea Volcano's south flank shows new lava flows in Royal Gardens subdivision (center) and the coastal plain (bottom center). Blue smoke (center right) is from burning vegetation caused by active lava flows. The developing lava-tube sys

A NetQuakes digital seismograph with WiFi antenna and power cord attached (pencil shows scale).

Records of the April 14, 2010, M3.8 earthquake, obtained from the Honomu, Hawai`i, NetQuakes seismograph. From top to bottom, the records show ground acceleration in east-west, north-south, and vertical directions. The records show roughly two minutes of

Should Maui residents be concerned about lava flows?

This image shows an HVO geologist sampling the lava that was seeping out of the interior of the rootless shield. The lava was placed in a bucket of water to quench the sample. The top frame is a normal photograph, while the bottom frame is a thermal image taken within a fraction of a second of the photograph.

This image shows an HVO geologist sampling the lava that was seeping out of the interior of the rootless shield. The lava was placed in a bucket of water to quench the sample. The top frame is a normal photograph, while the bottom frame is a thermal image taken within a fraction of a second of the photograph.

One of two small spatter cones that erupted through the crusted lava of a newly formed pond in Pu`u `Ō `ō. This cone is located at the base of the south wall of the crater.

This photo was taken from the lamp on the other side of the plume. The FTIR is the small dark silhouette on the rim across the crater gap.

HVO gas geochemists deployed a FTIR spectrometer on the east rim of Pu`u `Ō `ō crater. The FTIR measures the composition of the East Wall vent gases by "looking" through the plume at an infrared lamp (obscured by fume in this photo)