Images

Mules loaded with sampling equipment and supplies for a mission to collect gas and thermal water samples from the Bechler River area in the southwest part of Yellowstone National Park. 

Following the draining of magma from Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō on April 30, 2018, the crater was roughly 356 meters (1168 feet) deep. The upper part of the crater was flaring, with the deepest portion a narrower cylindrical shaft.

Explosive eruption columns of ash rising from Halema‘uma‘u at 11:15 a.m. on May 18, 1924 (top) and at 11:05 a.m. on May 15, 2018 (bottom) look similar.

The video was taken during an overflight of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō crater on Kīlauea's middle East Rift Zone. No major changes were observed, but the crater shape continues to change due to continued rockfalls.

Landsat-8 nighttime thermal infrared image from April 2017 showing the Tern Lake area. In Yellowstone, temperatures are extremely cold at night in the winter, and most lakes are frozen (dark pixels). West Tern Lake seems to be thawing here - perhaps it receives some thermal waters from nearby hot springs.

View into Halema‘uma‘u from the west rim of Kīlauea's summit caldera. USGS photo: J. Kauahikaua, 03 March 2019

Aerial view due south of the Mono Lake-Long Valley volcanic region. Inset map shows locations of latest Pleistocene–Holocene silicic magmatic centers relative to Long Valley caldera. Rhyolites of the Mono–Inyo chain are shown in pink, and the dacitic–rhyodacitic Mammoth Mountain dome complex is shown in blue. U.S.

Huckleberry Ridge Tuff deposit exposed on Mt. Everts, near the northern boundary of Yellowstone National Park. The deposit was created by ash falling from the plume early in the eruption sequence, 2.08 million years ago. Photo by Madison Myers, Montana State University.

This ‘a‘ā flow erupted from fissure 8 on Kīlauea Volcano's lower East Rift Zone on June 1, 2018, shows how the interior of a lava flow remains incandescently hot even though surface cooling forms a crust of solid rubble.

A USGS pilot and Hawaiian Volcano Observatory gas geochemist prepare to conduct a test flight of an unmanned aerial system (UAS) on Kīlauea Volcano in November 2018. This UAS was outfitted with a prototype miniaturized multi-gas sensor for the detection of volcanic gases emitted by Kīlauea, including sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide.

Dragon’s Mouth in the Mud Volcano Area of Yellowstone National Park.

Many of the earthquakes in Hawaii that extend offshore and up the island chain are due to plate bending, or flexure. The upper panel shows magnitude-5 and greater earthquakes since 1861, with some notable events labeled.

Hot spring waters with relatively high dissolved element concentrations on the floor of West Thumb, Yellowstone Lake. Image acquired by the Global Foundation for Ocean Exploration ROV Yogi on August 7, 2018.

Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō on May 3, 2018, as viewed from the helicopter overflight. The crater floor is collapsed, and a thin plume escapes from the gaping crater. The west flank cracked on April 30th around 2:30 pm HST, and minor amounts of lava oozed out of the crack (line of steaming features) just before the plumbing system catastrophically failed.

A sensor data logger recovered from the floor of Yellowstone Lake in the Deep Hole area in 2018 shows signs of melting due to unexpectedly high temperatures in sediments up to ~3 ft (1 m) away from an active hydrothermal vent. Image acquired by the Global Foundation for Ocean Exploration ROV Yogi on August 4, 2018.

Color bands in this radar interferogram depict the pattern of surface deformation at the Yellowstone caldera from September 22, 2004, to August 23, 2006. The southwest and northeast parts of the caldera floor rose about 11 cm (4.3 inches) and 15 cm (5.9 inches), respectively, while the north caldera rim near Norris Geyser Basin subsided about 7 cm (2.8 inches).

At Kīlauea's summit today, a clear morning gave way to heavy rain, which re-mobilized the ash cover between HVO and the Southwest Rift Zone, concentrating the ash in washes.

The fissure 8 lava channel remains inactive and continues to cool.

Kīlauea Volcano’s summit, seen here from the northeast rim of the caldera, has remained quiet, with no collapse events since August 2. It remains too soon to tell if this diminished activity represents a temporary lull or the end of summit collapses.

Kīlauea Volcano's 2018 summit collapse, shown here on July 28 (left), and the lower East Rift Zone fissure 8 lava flow, shown here on July 2 (right), will be the focus of "Volcano Awareness Month" talks offered in January 2019.

USGS scientists continue to monitor some of the cracks in the lower East Rift Zone to check for any significant changes. This scientist is using an Infrared thermometer to record the temperature within the ground cracks.