Images

Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) electronics technician Steven Fuke stands near a solar panel system that powers a volcano-monitoring station. 

View of the recently cleared Boiling Pots on the Wailuku River in Hilo. The pots, each about 15 m (50 ft) in diameter, are eroded into a 10,000 year old Mauna Loa lava flow. When the water is low, the river does not flow over some of the pot rims but it continues to flow through them. USGS photo.

HVO geologists visited the lower East Rift Zone lava flow field this past week to make measurements and observations, to better understand and reconstruct the dynamics of the Fissure 8 lava flow. This photo shows the channel wall in the braided channel region of the flow.

In the eastern portion of the lake, the dark brown zone had a slightly mottled appearance, but this pattern was transient and gone within about ten minutes.

Geologists from Montana State University study an outcrop of diorite (a silicic igneous rock that cooled slowly beneath the ground). An outcrop of this size is important because it is easier to see any structural relations along with rock composition.

USGS-Cascades Volcano Observatory geophysicist Rebecca Kramer works on station PR05, which is part of the Mount Rainier lahar detection network (Mount Rainier is pictured in the distance). The purpose of the site visit was to upgrade the power system and deploy infrasound equipment. 

The water lake within Halema‘uma‘u crater, at the summit of Kīlauea, continues to slowly rise, with no significant changes in recent weeks. USGS photo by M. Patrick.

The eastern end of the lake, shown here, is slightly warmer than the lake center, and commonly has steam rising from the water surface. USGS photo by M. Patrick.

Tina Neal, HVO Scientist-in-Charge from 2015–2020 ends her tenure on June 19, 2020. USGS photo.

A GPS station that monitors ground deformation on Kīlauea Volcano, one of the approximately 240 volcano-monitoring stations that Steven Fuke, as part of the HVO Technician Group, designs, installs, and maintains. 

The May 29 overflight provided updated aerial photographs of Kīlauea summit, covering the caldera floor and showing the current size of the water lake in Halema‘uma‘u crater.

The May 29 overflight provided updated thermal images of Kīlauea summit, covering the caldera floor and showing the warm surface of the water lake in Halema‘uma‘u crater. No significant changes were observed in the surface temperature of Kīlauea's summit crater lake.

During today's overflight of Kīlauea summit, both thermal and visual cameras were used to characterize activity. Comparing thermal (left) to visual (right) images of nearly the same view, you can see that the growing crater lake at Kīlauea's summit remains hot.

Steep walls, collapsed blocks, and rubble border Halema‘uma‘u Crater and Kīlauea's growing summit crater lake. In this photo, looking northwest, the summits of both Kīlauea (foreground) and Mauna Loa (background) are visible. USGS photos by K. Mulliken

This series of maps compares aerial imagery collected prior to Kīlauea's 2018 summit collapse and the "Geologic Map of the Summit Region of Kīlauea Volcano, Hawaii" (Dutton and others, 2007; Neal and others, 2003)—created before Kīlauea's 2018 summit collapse—with aerial imagery collected after the 2018 summit collapse and a preliminary update to Kīlauea's summit ge

HVO scientist measures the episode 12 lava fountain height at Mauna Ulu from Pu‘u Huluhulu on Dec 30, 1969. The Mauna Ulu eruption marks its 51st anniversary on May 24, 1969. Photo by Hans-Ulrich Schmincke.

_{A map of the lower East Rift Zone of Kīlauea Volcano showing the fissures and flow fields from the 1955 (blue) and 2018 (pink) eruptions. Portions of the 1955 lava flows that were covered during the 2018 eruption, are represented with a blue outline.}
 

Archive view of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory website in 2001.

Archive view of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory website in 2009.

A small rockslide occurred today on the south wall of Halema‘uma‘u, sending boulders into the water at the bottom of the crater. USGS video by M. Patrick.

A view from the south rim of Halema‘uma‘u shows a lower collapsed block which has remains of Crater Rim Drive and the Halema‘uma‘u parking lot. The white feature in the lower right is a stop sign that was present at the eastern exit of the parking lot.