Images

At fissure 8, fountains provide a vigorous supply of lava that exits the cinder cone and drops over a spillway to enter a well-established lava channel that extends to the sea.

Aerial view of lava fountain at Fissure 8 and uppermost lava channel during an early morning overflight of the lava flow field.

This thermal map shows the fissure system and lava flows as of 6 am on Sunday, June 24. The fountain at Fissure 8 remains active, with the lava flow entering the ocean at Kapoho. Very small, short flows were observed today near Fissure 22. The black and white area is the extent of the thermal map.

Geologists captured this time-lapse video of the perched lava channel issuing from fissure 8 on Kīlauea's lower East Rift Zone.

On June 23, 2018 at 4:32 p.m. HST after approximately 17 hours of elevated seismicity, a collapse explosion occurred at the summit if Kīlauea. The energy released by the event was equivalent to a magnitude 5.3 earthquake.

View of cinder cones in the Northeast Rift Zone near the summit of Mauna Loa. View to the north-northeast with Mauna Kea in the background. Mauna Loa has erupted 33 times since 1843, most recently erupting in 1975 and 1984. Photo credit: Matt Patrick, USGS

Lava continues to erupt at a high rate from Fissure 8 and flow within the established channel to the ocean. No channel overflows were observed during this morning's overflight.

Halema'uma'u crater at 8:30 a.m., view is toward the south. Several benches are clearly visible within the crater.

Early morning view of the open lava channelbeginning about 5 km (3.1 miles) from Fissure 8.

Fissure 8 continues building a tephra cone and producing a robust channelized lava flow on Kīlauea Volcano's Lower East Rift Zone.

This thermal map shows the fissure system and lava flows as of 6 am on Thursday, June 21. The fountain at Fissure 8 remains active, with the lava flow entering the ocean at Kapoho. Very small, short flows have been active near the Fissure 6 and Fissure 16/18 area. The black and white area is the extent of the thermal map.

At a wide point in the channelized lava flow, a ropy crust has formed over the more fluid lava below.

Early morning view of the ocean entry. The lava fountain from fissure 8 is visible behind the laze plume rising from the entry point. The open lava flowchannel is visible just beyond the solidified darker flows in the foreground.

The USGS UAS (unoccupied aircraft system) team took this photograph of Halema‘uma‘u Crater from the Kīlauea Overlook on this morning. They are preparing for a flight to map further subsidence at the summit.

The USGS UAS (unoccupied aircraft system) team took this photograph of Halema‘uma‘u Crater from the Kīlauea Overlook on this morning. They are preparing for a flight to map further subsidence at the summit.

Fissure 8 continues building a tephra cone and producing a robust channelized lava flow on Kīlauea Volcano's Lower East Rift Zone.

Geologist makes early morning observations of the lava fountain and channelized flow at fissure 8 in Leilani Estates.

View of the southern edge of the growing Halema‘uma‘u crater (middle right) during yesterday's helicopter-assisted work at Kīlauea's summit. The once-popular parking lot (closed since 2008) that provided access to Halema‘uma‘u is no longer—the parking lot fell into the crater this past week as more and more of the Kīlauea Crater floor slides into Halema‘uma‘u.

A temporary GPS station (with radio telemetry for continuous measurement) was installed this week on the Kīlauea caldera floor to track the ongoing subsidence of the summit area. The data will help to characterize the extent and rate of the subsidence.

Geologist makes early morning observations of the lava fountain and channelized flow at fissure 8 in Leilani Estates.

Small streams of lava enter the ocean across a broad area, shown by the multiple white steam and laze plumes. Lava has added about 380 acres of new land into the sea.