During a monitoring overflight of the Kīlauea summit on June 22, 2023, Hawaiian Volcano Observatory scientists briefly stopped on the Halema‘uma‘u crater floor to collect a lava sample. Afterward, they departed via helicopter with a low-angle view of the recent eruption area from the east.
Michael H Zoeller
Geologist with a focus in GIS. Manages geospatial data for HVO, with projects in digital cartography, remote sensing, topographic modeling, data communications, and data archiving. Geologic research interests include field mapping and coastal/submarine volcanic processes.
Education:
Franklin & Marshall College, B.A. (2013)—Geosciences, Government
Science and Products
Eruption of stagnant lava from an inactive perched lava lake
Lava flow hazards are usually thought to end when the erupting vent becomes inactive, but this is not always the case. At Kīlauea in August 2014, a spiny ʻaʻā flow erupted from the levee of a crusted perched lava lake that had been inactive for a month, and the surface of the lava lake subsided as the flow advanced downslope over the following few days. Topography constructed from oblique aerial p
Authors
T. Orr, Michael H. Zoeller, Edward W. Llewellin, Matthew R. Patrick
Lava effusion rate evolution and erupted volume during the 2018 Kīlauea lower East Rift Zone eruption
The 2018 eruption on the lower East Rift Zone of Kīlauea Volcano produced one of the largest and most destructive lava flows in Hawai’i during the past 200 years. Over the course of more than 3 months, twenty-four fissures erupted, and the rate of lava effusion varied by two orders of magnitude, with significant implications for evolving flow behavior and hazards. Syn-eruptive data were collected
Authors
Hannah R. Dietterich, Angela K. Diefenbach, Adam Soule, Michael H. Zoeller, Matthew R. Patrick, J. J. Major, Paul Lundgren
Submarine lava deltas of the 2018 eruption of Kilauea volcano
Hawaiian and other ocean island lava flows that reach the coastline can deposit significant volumes of lava in submarine deltas. The catastrophic collapse of these deltas represents one of the most significant, but least predictable, volcanic hazards at ocean islands. The volume of lava deposited below sea level in delta-forming eruptions and the mechanisms of delta construction and destruction ar
Authors
Adam Soule, Michael H. Zoeller, Carolyn Parcheta
Monitoring network changes during the 2018 Kīlauea Volcano eruption
In the summer of 2018, Kīlauea Volcano underwent one of its most significant eruptions in the past few hundred years. The volcano’s summit and East Rift Zone magma system partially drained, resulting in a series of occasionally explosive partial caldera collapses, and widespread lava flows in the lower East Rift Zone. The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) operates a robust permanent monitoring ne
Authors
Brian Shiro, Michael H. Zoeller, Kevan Kamibayashi, Ingrid Johanson, Carolyn Parcheta, Matthew R. Patrick, Patricia Nadeau, R. Lopaka Lee, Asta Miklius
Digital database of the geologic map of the middle east rift geothermal subzone, Kīlauea Volcano, Hawai‘i
This database release contains all the information used to produce Geologic Investigations Series I-2614 (https://pubs.usgs.gov/imap/2614/). The main component of this digital release is a geodatabase prepared using ArcGIS, but Esri shapefiles are included as well.Kīlauea is an active shield volcano in the southeastern part of the Island of Hawai‘i. The middle East Rift Zone (MERZ) map includes ab
Authors
Michael H. Zoeller, Frank A. Trusdell, Richard B. Moore
Mapping the lava deltas of the 2018 eruption of Kīlauea Volcano
No abstract available.
Authors
Adam Soule, Erin Heffron, Lindsay Gee, Larry Mayer, Nicole A. Raineault, Christopher R German, Darlene Lim, Michael H. Zoeller, Carolyn Parcheta
The 2018 rift eruption and summit collapse of Kilauea Volcano
In 2018, Kīlauea Volcano experienced its largest lower East Rift Zone (LERZ) eruption and caldera collapse in at least 200 years. After collapse of the Pu'u 'Ō'ō vent on 30 April, magma propagated downrift. Eruptive fissures opened in the LERZ on 3 May, eventually extending ~6.8 km. A 4 May earthquake (M6.9) produced ~5 m of fault slip. Lava erupted at rates exceeding 100 m3/s, eventually coveri
Authors
Christina A. Neal, Steven Brantley, Loren Antolik, Janet Babb, Matthew K. Burgess, Michael Cappos, Jefferson Chang, Sarah Conway, Liliana G. Desmither, Peter Dotray, Tamar Elias, Pauline Fukunaga, Steven Fuke, Ingrid Johanson, Kevan Kamibayashi, James P. Kauahikaua, R. Lopaka Lee, S. Pekalib, Asta Miklius, Brian Shiro, Don Swanson, Patricia Nadeau, Michael H. Zoeller, P. Okubo, Carolyn Parcheta, Matthew R. Patrick, William Tollett, Frank A. Trusdell, Edward F. Younger, Emily Montgomery-Brown, Kyle R. Anderson, Michael P. Poland, Jessica L. Ball, Joseph A. Bard, Michelle L. Coombs, Hannah R. Dietterich, Christoph Kern, Weston Thelen, Peter Cervelli, Tim R. Orr, Bruce F. Houghton, Cheryl Gansecki, Richard Hazlett, Paul Lundgren, Angela K. Diefenbach, Allan Lerner, Greg Waite, Peter J. Kelly, Laura E. Clor, Cynthia Werner, Katherine Mulliken, Gary B. Fisher, David Damby
Crisis remote sensing during the 2018 lower East Rift Zone eruption of Kīlauea Volcano
Kīlauea Volcano, Hawai‘i, is renowned as one of the most active and closely monitored volcanoes on Earth. Scores of seismometers and deformation sensors form an array across the volcano to detect subsurface magmatic activity, and ground observers track eruptions on the surface. In addition to this dense ground-based monitoring, remote sensing – both airborne and spaceborne – has become a backbone
Authors
Michael H. Zoeller, Matthew R. Patrick, Christina A. Neal
Chronology of recent volcanic activity on the Island of Hawai‘i, Hawaii
The youngest and largest island in the State of Hawaii—the Island of Hawai‘i—is formed by five volcanoes, three of which have erupted within recent geologic history: Mauna Loa, Kīlauea, and Hualālai. This data release provides a chronology for activity and impacts at Mauna Loa, Kīlauea, and Hualālai over approximately the past two and a half centuries. This data release includes a word document, “
Photogrammetry-derived digital elevation models and source images for an inactive perched lava lake formed at Pu‘u‘ō‘ō (Kīlauea) in 2014
Lava flow hazards are usually thought to end when the erupting vent becomes inactive, but this is not always the case. At Kīlauea in August 2014, a spiny ʻaʻā flow erupted from the levee of a crusted perched lava lake that had been inactive for a month, and the surface of the lava lake subsided as the flow advanced downslope over the following few days. Topography constructed from oblique aerial p
Colorimeter data for the summit water lake at Kīlauea Volcano, Island of Hawaiʻi, 2020
In 2018, a large effusive eruption on the lower flank of Kīlauea Volcano was associated with collapse and subsidence of the summit caldera floor (Neal and others, 2019). The bottom of Halemaʻumaʻu, a crater nested within the summit caldera, subsided by more than 500 m. In July 2019, water was observed ponding on the deepest part of the Halemaʻumaʻu crater floor and the water rose and enlarged in
Sample details and near-real-time ED-XRF, grain size, and grain shape data collected during the November – December 2022 eruption of Mauna Loa volcano, Island of Hawaiʻi
At 11:21 p.m. (Hawaii Standard Time [HST]) on November 27, 2022, Mauna Loa volcano on the Island of Hawaiʻi started erupting from fissures at its summit caldera, Mokuʻāweoweo. This was followed shortly afterwards by the opening of a segment of fissures in the direction of the Southwest Rift Zone. These were mostly within the structural boundary of the caldera, so their location is denoted as ‘Sout
Rapid-response digital elevation models of the 2020-present summit eruptions at Kilauea Volcano, Island of Hawai'i
We depict changing eruptive features within the summit caldera of Kilauea volcano, Island of Hawai'i with rapid-response digital elevation models (DEMs) acquired since a series of caldera-filling effusive eruptions began on December 20, 2020. These eruptions follow the caldera collapse of 2018, with new lava progressively filling the approximately 1-cubic-kilometer pit that formed between May and
Water-level data for the crater lake at the summit of Kilauea Volcano, Island of Hawai'i, 2019-2020
During 2018, Kilauea Volcano, on the Island of Hawaiii, had a large effusive eruption (~1 cubic kilometer of lava) on the lower East Rift Zone that caused widespread destruction (Neal and others, 2019; Dietterich and others, 2021). This lower flank eruption was accompanied by one of the largest collapses of the summit caldera in two hundred years, with portions of the caldera floor subsiding more
Digital database of the geologic map of Alamagan Volcano, northern Mariana Islands
Alamagan Volcano is a Quaternary stratovolcano along the Mariana Arc, an active subduction zone in the western Pacific Ocean. Although primarily submerged, its peak reaches above sea level, with subaerially-exposed volcanic deposits dating back through the Holocene to the late Pleistocene. These feature data represent such deposits and other geologic features of Alamagan Volcano, describing its in
Digital elevation model of K?lauea Volcano, Hawaii, based on July 2019 airborne lidar surveys
The 2018 eruption of Kilauea Volcano on the Island of Hawaii saw the collapse of a new, nested caldera at the volcano?s summit, and the inundation of 35.5 square kilometers (13.7 square miles) of the lower Puna District with lava. Between May and August, while the summit caldera collapsed, a lava channel extended 11 kilometers (7 miles) from fissure 8 in Leilani Estates to Kapoho Bay, where it for
Geospatial database of the 2018 lower East Rift Zone eruption of Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii
The 2018 lower East Rift Zone eruption of Kilauea Volcano began in the late afternoon of 3 May, with fissure 1 opening and erupting lava onto Mohala Street in the Leilani Estates subdivision, part of the lower Puna District of the Island of Hawaii. For the first week of the eruption, relatively viscous lava flowed only within a kilometer (0.6 miles) of the fissures within Leilani Estates, before a
GIS shapefiles for Kilauea's episode 61g lava flow, Pu`u `O`o eruption: May 2016 to May 2017
This dataset contains shapefiles and associated metadata for Kīlauea volcano's Puu Ōō episode 61g lava flow from May 24, 2016 through May 31, 2017. Episode 61g began with a breakout from the east flank of Puu Ōō on May 24, 2016. Lava reached the Pacific Ocean at Kamokuna on July 26, 2017, and began building a lava delta that extended seaward from the original coastline. This lava delta collapsed i
Lava inundation zone maps for Mauna Loa, Island of Hawaiʻi, Hawaii
Lava flows from Mauna Loa volcano, on the Island of Hawaiʻi, constitute a significant hazard to people and property. This report addresses those lava flow hazards, mapping 18 potential lava inundation zones on the island.
Lava sampling in Halemaʻumaʻu (June 22, 2023)
During a monitoring overflight of the Kīlauea summit on June 22, 2023, Hawaiian Volcano Observatory scientists briefly stopped on the Halema‘uma‘u crater floor to collect a lava sample. Afterward, they departed via helicopter with a low-angle view of the recent eruption area from the east.
Science and Products
Eruption of stagnant lava from an inactive perched lava lake
Lava flow hazards are usually thought to end when the erupting vent becomes inactive, but this is not always the case. At Kīlauea in August 2014, a spiny ʻaʻā flow erupted from the levee of a crusted perched lava lake that had been inactive for a month, and the surface of the lava lake subsided as the flow advanced downslope over the following few days. Topography constructed from oblique aerial p
Authors
T. Orr, Michael H. Zoeller, Edward W. Llewellin, Matthew R. Patrick
Lava effusion rate evolution and erupted volume during the 2018 Kīlauea lower East Rift Zone eruption
The 2018 eruption on the lower East Rift Zone of Kīlauea Volcano produced one of the largest and most destructive lava flows in Hawai’i during the past 200 years. Over the course of more than 3 months, twenty-four fissures erupted, and the rate of lava effusion varied by two orders of magnitude, with significant implications for evolving flow behavior and hazards. Syn-eruptive data were collected
Authors
Hannah R. Dietterich, Angela K. Diefenbach, Adam Soule, Michael H. Zoeller, Matthew R. Patrick, J. J. Major, Paul Lundgren
Submarine lava deltas of the 2018 eruption of Kilauea volcano
Hawaiian and other ocean island lava flows that reach the coastline can deposit significant volumes of lava in submarine deltas. The catastrophic collapse of these deltas represents one of the most significant, but least predictable, volcanic hazards at ocean islands. The volume of lava deposited below sea level in delta-forming eruptions and the mechanisms of delta construction and destruction ar
Authors
Adam Soule, Michael H. Zoeller, Carolyn Parcheta
Monitoring network changes during the 2018 Kīlauea Volcano eruption
In the summer of 2018, Kīlauea Volcano underwent one of its most significant eruptions in the past few hundred years. The volcano’s summit and East Rift Zone magma system partially drained, resulting in a series of occasionally explosive partial caldera collapses, and widespread lava flows in the lower East Rift Zone. The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) operates a robust permanent monitoring ne
Authors
Brian Shiro, Michael H. Zoeller, Kevan Kamibayashi, Ingrid Johanson, Carolyn Parcheta, Matthew R. Patrick, Patricia Nadeau, R. Lopaka Lee, Asta Miklius
Digital database of the geologic map of the middle east rift geothermal subzone, Kīlauea Volcano, Hawai‘i
This database release contains all the information used to produce Geologic Investigations Series I-2614 (https://pubs.usgs.gov/imap/2614/). The main component of this digital release is a geodatabase prepared using ArcGIS, but Esri shapefiles are included as well.Kīlauea is an active shield volcano in the southeastern part of the Island of Hawai‘i. The middle East Rift Zone (MERZ) map includes ab
Authors
Michael H. Zoeller, Frank A. Trusdell, Richard B. Moore
Mapping the lava deltas of the 2018 eruption of Kīlauea Volcano
No abstract available.
Authors
Adam Soule, Erin Heffron, Lindsay Gee, Larry Mayer, Nicole A. Raineault, Christopher R German, Darlene Lim, Michael H. Zoeller, Carolyn Parcheta
The 2018 rift eruption and summit collapse of Kilauea Volcano
In 2018, Kīlauea Volcano experienced its largest lower East Rift Zone (LERZ) eruption and caldera collapse in at least 200 years. After collapse of the Pu'u 'Ō'ō vent on 30 April, magma propagated downrift. Eruptive fissures opened in the LERZ on 3 May, eventually extending ~6.8 km. A 4 May earthquake (M6.9) produced ~5 m of fault slip. Lava erupted at rates exceeding 100 m3/s, eventually coveri
Authors
Christina A. Neal, Steven Brantley, Loren Antolik, Janet Babb, Matthew K. Burgess, Michael Cappos, Jefferson Chang, Sarah Conway, Liliana G. Desmither, Peter Dotray, Tamar Elias, Pauline Fukunaga, Steven Fuke, Ingrid Johanson, Kevan Kamibayashi, James P. Kauahikaua, R. Lopaka Lee, S. Pekalib, Asta Miklius, Brian Shiro, Don Swanson, Patricia Nadeau, Michael H. Zoeller, P. Okubo, Carolyn Parcheta, Matthew R. Patrick, William Tollett, Frank A. Trusdell, Edward F. Younger, Emily Montgomery-Brown, Kyle R. Anderson, Michael P. Poland, Jessica L. Ball, Joseph A. Bard, Michelle L. Coombs, Hannah R. Dietterich, Christoph Kern, Weston Thelen, Peter Cervelli, Tim R. Orr, Bruce F. Houghton, Cheryl Gansecki, Richard Hazlett, Paul Lundgren, Angela K. Diefenbach, Allan Lerner, Greg Waite, Peter J. Kelly, Laura E. Clor, Cynthia Werner, Katherine Mulliken, Gary B. Fisher, David Damby
Crisis remote sensing during the 2018 lower East Rift Zone eruption of Kīlauea Volcano
Kīlauea Volcano, Hawai‘i, is renowned as one of the most active and closely monitored volcanoes on Earth. Scores of seismometers and deformation sensors form an array across the volcano to detect subsurface magmatic activity, and ground observers track eruptions on the surface. In addition to this dense ground-based monitoring, remote sensing – both airborne and spaceborne – has become a backbone
Authors
Michael H. Zoeller, Matthew R. Patrick, Christina A. Neal
Chronology of recent volcanic activity on the Island of Hawai‘i, Hawaii
The youngest and largest island in the State of Hawaii—the Island of Hawai‘i—is formed by five volcanoes, three of which have erupted within recent geologic history: Mauna Loa, Kīlauea, and Hualālai. This data release provides a chronology for activity and impacts at Mauna Loa, Kīlauea, and Hualālai over approximately the past two and a half centuries. This data release includes a word document, “
Photogrammetry-derived digital elevation models and source images for an inactive perched lava lake formed at Pu‘u‘ō‘ō (Kīlauea) in 2014
Lava flow hazards are usually thought to end when the erupting vent becomes inactive, but this is not always the case. At Kīlauea in August 2014, a spiny ʻaʻā flow erupted from the levee of a crusted perched lava lake that had been inactive for a month, and the surface of the lava lake subsided as the flow advanced downslope over the following few days. Topography constructed from oblique aerial p
Colorimeter data for the summit water lake at Kīlauea Volcano, Island of Hawaiʻi, 2020
In 2018, a large effusive eruption on the lower flank of Kīlauea Volcano was associated with collapse and subsidence of the summit caldera floor (Neal and others, 2019). The bottom of Halemaʻumaʻu, a crater nested within the summit caldera, subsided by more than 500 m. In July 2019, water was observed ponding on the deepest part of the Halemaʻumaʻu crater floor and the water rose and enlarged in
Sample details and near-real-time ED-XRF, grain size, and grain shape data collected during the November – December 2022 eruption of Mauna Loa volcano, Island of Hawaiʻi
At 11:21 p.m. (Hawaii Standard Time [HST]) on November 27, 2022, Mauna Loa volcano on the Island of Hawaiʻi started erupting from fissures at its summit caldera, Mokuʻāweoweo. This was followed shortly afterwards by the opening of a segment of fissures in the direction of the Southwest Rift Zone. These were mostly within the structural boundary of the caldera, so their location is denoted as ‘Sout
Rapid-response digital elevation models of the 2020-present summit eruptions at Kilauea Volcano, Island of Hawai'i
We depict changing eruptive features within the summit caldera of Kilauea volcano, Island of Hawai'i with rapid-response digital elevation models (DEMs) acquired since a series of caldera-filling effusive eruptions began on December 20, 2020. These eruptions follow the caldera collapse of 2018, with new lava progressively filling the approximately 1-cubic-kilometer pit that formed between May and
Water-level data for the crater lake at the summit of Kilauea Volcano, Island of Hawai'i, 2019-2020
During 2018, Kilauea Volcano, on the Island of Hawaiii, had a large effusive eruption (~1 cubic kilometer of lava) on the lower East Rift Zone that caused widespread destruction (Neal and others, 2019; Dietterich and others, 2021). This lower flank eruption was accompanied by one of the largest collapses of the summit caldera in two hundred years, with portions of the caldera floor subsiding more
Digital database of the geologic map of Alamagan Volcano, northern Mariana Islands
Alamagan Volcano is a Quaternary stratovolcano along the Mariana Arc, an active subduction zone in the western Pacific Ocean. Although primarily submerged, its peak reaches above sea level, with subaerially-exposed volcanic deposits dating back through the Holocene to the late Pleistocene. These feature data represent such deposits and other geologic features of Alamagan Volcano, describing its in
Digital elevation model of K?lauea Volcano, Hawaii, based on July 2019 airborne lidar surveys
The 2018 eruption of Kilauea Volcano on the Island of Hawaii saw the collapse of a new, nested caldera at the volcano?s summit, and the inundation of 35.5 square kilometers (13.7 square miles) of the lower Puna District with lava. Between May and August, while the summit caldera collapsed, a lava channel extended 11 kilometers (7 miles) from fissure 8 in Leilani Estates to Kapoho Bay, where it for
Geospatial database of the 2018 lower East Rift Zone eruption of Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii
The 2018 lower East Rift Zone eruption of Kilauea Volcano began in the late afternoon of 3 May, with fissure 1 opening and erupting lava onto Mohala Street in the Leilani Estates subdivision, part of the lower Puna District of the Island of Hawaii. For the first week of the eruption, relatively viscous lava flowed only within a kilometer (0.6 miles) of the fissures within Leilani Estates, before a
GIS shapefiles for Kilauea's episode 61g lava flow, Pu`u `O`o eruption: May 2016 to May 2017
This dataset contains shapefiles and associated metadata for Kīlauea volcano's Puu Ōō episode 61g lava flow from May 24, 2016 through May 31, 2017. Episode 61g began with a breakout from the east flank of Puu Ōō on May 24, 2016. Lava reached the Pacific Ocean at Kamokuna on July 26, 2017, and began building a lava delta that extended seaward from the original coastline. This lava delta collapsed i
Lava inundation zone maps for Mauna Loa, Island of Hawaiʻi, Hawaii
Lava flows from Mauna Loa volcano, on the Island of Hawaiʻi, constitute a significant hazard to people and property. This report addresses those lava flow hazards, mapping 18 potential lava inundation zones on the island.
Lava sampling in Halemaʻumaʻu (June 22, 2023)
During a monitoring overflight of the Kīlauea summit on June 22, 2023, Hawaiian Volcano Observatory scientists briefly stopped on the Halema‘uma‘u crater floor to collect a lava sample. Afterward, they departed via helicopter with a low-angle view of the recent eruption area from the east.
During a monitoring overflight of the Kīlauea summit on June 22, 2023, Hawaiian Volcano Observatory scientists briefly stopped on the Halema‘uma‘u crater floor to collect a lava sample. Afterward, they departed via helicopter with a low-angle view of the recent eruption area from the east.