Images

Interferogram created from data collected on September 22, 2020, and September 17, 2021, by the Sentinel-1 satellite system. Colored fringes indicate a change in distance (called range change) between the satellite and ground surface that is caused by surface deformation.

USGS-Black Swift Team with Super Swift UAS, Dutch Harbor Airport, Aleutian Islands, Alaska. Left-to-right: Dale Ruckman, Jack Elston, Christoph Kern, Angie Diefenbach, Maciej Stachura, Matt Burgess, Andy Dietrick.

No changes were observed at Kīlauea's summit during a brief field visit on September 3, 2021. Sunny weather made for spectacular views, though strong winds were blowing. The solidified crust of the lava lake within Halema‘uma‘u—which was active from December 2020 to May 2021—is visible in the lower center of this image. USGS photo by K. Mulliken.

View from a temporary webcam, which is located just southwest of Kīlauea summit caldera, and looks south over the area of the August 2021 intrusion. The dark lava flow on the left of image (mid-ground) is where the 1982 lava flow spilled out of the south caldera.

HVO technician Steven Fuke checks the solar panel at station HRPKE while conducting station maintenance on September 1. HVO remote monitoring stations are powered via solar panels and a suite of batteries.

Station HRPKE is located southwest of Kīlauea's summit, in the upper Southwest Rift Zone region, within Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park. The station measures sulfur dioxide (SO₂) concentrations in the air, as well as local meteorological data such as wind speed, wind direction, and rainfall.

View to the southwest from HVO station HRPKE, showing Pu‘ukoa‘e on Kīlauea's Southwest Rift Zone in the background.

On Tuesday, August 31, Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) scientists and technicians visited the Keller Well in Kīlauea's south caldera region. Water from the well is typically sampled and analyzed quarterly to monitor how magma supply to Kīlauea's summit reservoirs might impact regional ground water.

On August 31, the water level in Keller Well was measured at approximately 514.12 m (1686.75 ft) below the ground surface. Though an intrusion of magma took place beneath the ground surface in Kīlauea's south caldera region from August 23–30, water level in Keller Well does not show significant changes as a result of this event. USGS image by P. Nadeau.

This map depicts the detected intrusive activity over the past week at Kīlauea Volcano. The initial swarm of small earthquakes from August 23–25 was centered in the south caldera region, as labelled on the map.

Pore waters from Yellowstone Lake sediment cores collected in August 2021 are extracted through filtration devices into plastic syringes.  Note that the second core from the left appears light in color because the plastic core liner was etched by very hot 91°C (196°F) fluids.

Gravity coring device on the rear deck of the R/V Annie after coring the floor of Yellowstone Lake, with dark mud coating the outside of the corer.  The 100-lb. green coring head is at the top, and the bottom of the barrel has a tapered stainless steel core cutter.

View to the aft of the R/V Annie as it leaves Bridge Bay Marina early in the morning of August 26, 2021.

Map showing the seismic activity beneath the south part of Kīlauea caldera, within Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park, from August 23, 2021, at noon through the same time on August 25, 2021. The earthquake swarm began in that region at around 4:30 p.m. HST on August 23 and continued until the morning of August 25, 2021.

A hand-sample photo of what is known to be Lava Creek Tuff “unit 2.”  Small black scoria pieces are distinctive of this unit compared to the previously recognized Member A and Member B of the Lava Creek Tuff.  Photo by Ray Salazar (Montana State University) on August 16, 2021.

An HVO scientist uses a syringe to capture a sample from an area within Kīlauea caldera that was identified as emitting elevated levels of the volcanic gas carbon dioxide. The sample is transferred to a gas sample bag, which will later be taken to a lab for chemical analyses. USGS photo by K. Mulliken on August 3, 2021.

On the north margin of the south sulfur bank, which was exposed during the Kīlauea summit collapse events in 2018, light-colored deposits are evidence of the ongoing alteration from volcanic gas emissions.

From the northwest corner of the largest down-dropped block within Kīlauea caldera, HVO scientists were able to spot the southern edge of the lava lake that was recently active, from December 2020 to May 2021. The ongoing Kīlauea caldera gas survey is being conducted with permission from Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park.

On Tuesday, August 10, HVO scientists traversed the west and south rims of Halema‘uma‘u, at the summit of Kīlauea, to collect photos of the inactive lava lake from many different angles. Such a collection of photos will enable the construction of a three-dimensional model of the crusted lake surface using structure-from-motion software.

During the gas survey of Kīlauea caldera, HVO scientists walk transects in a grid-like pattern. As they traverse, the MultiGAS instruments that they are carrying on their backs measure the amount of carbon dioxide (CO₂), sulfur dioxide (SO₂), water vapor (H₂O), and hydrogen sulfide (H₂S).

Spatter ramparts from the April 30, 1982, Kīlauea summit eruption remain visible on the floor of Kīlauea caldera. During this brief eruption, which lasted approximately 19 hours, lava erupted from a 1-km-long (0.6 mile) fissure that extended to the northeast of Halema‘uma‘u.