Videos

Today marks the 10th anniversary of the eruption within Halema‘uma‘u at the summit of Kīlauea Volcano. When the vent first opened on March 19, 2008, it formed a small pit about 115 feet (35 m) wide. Over the past decade, that pit (informally called the "Overlook crater") has grown into a gaping hole about 919 feet by 656 feet (280 x 200 m) in size.

(January 26, 2008, 10:50:12 to 19:12:16) Perched lava ponds often formed atop the rootless shields built by the "Thanksgiving Eve Breakout" (TEB) lava flow. This movie shows the failure of the flank of a rootless shield on January 26, 2008, and the release of the lava contained within the perched lava pond at its summit.

The rapid onset of unrest at Mount St. Helens on September 23, 2004 initiated an uninterrupted lava-dome-building eruption that continued until 2008. The initial phase produced rapid growth of a lava dome as magma pushed upward.

(December 1, 2007, 02:01:38 to 16:01:36) On November 21, 2007—the eve of the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday—Episode 58 changed dramatically. Lava, erupting from Fissure D into a perched lava channel, found an easier path to the surface and broke out from directly over Fissure D on what was, by then, the southern flank of the channel.

(November 15, 2007, 09:00:15 to 13:00:15) Periods of overflow and levee construction at the Episode 58 lava channel were interspersed with periods when the lava level was below the channel rim. The lava surface within the lava channel commonly experienced repeated cycles of rise and fall, as shown here.

(September 20, 2007, 05:00:03 to 09:00:03) As the Episode 58 lava channel developed, the upper end of the channel crusted over so that lava—extruding from the erupting fissure—flowed through a short tube before entering the channel.

(September 8 to November 30, 2007) Within days of the onset of Episode 58 on July 21, 2008, activity localized on the easternmost eruptive fissure—Fissure D—and channelized lava began flowing to the northeast. Repeated overflows from the channel added slowly to its height, and the channel became perched up to 45 meters above the pre-existing lava surface.

Aerial of eddy in channel near vent D

Looking down the channel of Fissure D

(June 10 to July 25, 2007) During June 17–19, 2007, an intrusion into Kīlauea's upper east rift zone (Episode 56) led to the cessation of eruptive activity at Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō and the collapse of the Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō crater floor (Poland and others, 2008).

(July 13, 2007, 14:00:30 to 21:00:36) Episode 57 was driven by the eruption of lava from two vents—one on the west-central part of the crater floor and the other on the eastern side of the crater.

The refilling of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō during Episode 57 was driven by the eruption of lava from two vents—one on the west-central part of the crater floor (to the right) and the other on the eastern side of the crater (to the left). This movie shows the competing interaction between flows from these two vents for a period of several hours on July 8.

(July 5, 2007, 23:00:06 to July 6, 2007, 09:00:06) With the resumption of eruptive activity at Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō on July 1, 2007 (Episode 57), a lava lake, fed by two vents, quickly began to form within the Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō crater. The vent seen here was located on the eastern side of the crater.

Mount St. Helens reawakened in late September 2004. Small magnitude earthquakes beneath the 1980-1986 lava dome increased in frequency and size, and a growing welt formed on the southeast margin of the previous lava dome and nearby portions of Crater Glacier.

(April 2, 2004, to October 28, 2006) A time-lapse camera was poised on the southwestern flank of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō cone from early 2004 through mid-2007.

October 16 , 2006, 06:20:23 to 08:00:22) This is another movie showing a shatter ring in action (see "Shatter ring on the PKK lava tube", 03-20-06).

(Sept 21, 2006, 18:00:02 to 00:00:05) Between the morning of September 20 and the evening of September 22, 2006, there were 10 separate breakouts from the PKK lava tube. Each originated about 50 meters inland from the older sea cliff bounding the inboard edge of the East Lae‘apuki lava delta.

(June 24, 2006, 19:00:53 to June 25, 2006, 01:00:55) After sunset on June 24, 2006, lava burst from the PKK lava tube about 50 meters inland from the older sea cliff bounding the inboard edge of the East Lae‘apuki lava delta. Lava reached the sea cliff and began cascading over it in less than a minute, and it spread quickly across the l

(June 2, 2006, 18:30:02 to June 3, 2006, 02:00:03) Gas-pistoning is an interesting phenomenon seen at Kīlauea and some other basalticvolcanoes. It is caused by the accumulation of gas near the top of the lava column within a volcanic vent (Swanson and others, 1979).

Throughout the eruption, scientists installed monitoring stations to track volcanic activity, deployed temporary monitoring ""spiders"", monitored the temperature of lava spines and created time-lapse of dome growth. During the 3+ years of the eruption, lava piled up to form a new dome 460 m (1,500 ft) high.

The first priority of any eruption is to assess current status and what might happen next. To accomplish this, Mount St. Helens became one of most heavily monitored volcanoes. At the start of the 2004–08 eruption, 13 permanent seismic stations operated within about 12 miles of Mount St. Helens.