Unified Interior Regions

Close view of the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (right, with viewing tower) and National Park Service Jaggar Museum and overlook (left) on Kīlauea Volcano's caldera rim. At least three fault blocks can be seen below the observatory, which developed when Kīlauea's summit collapsed about 500 years ago to form the present-day caldera.

Volcanic-gas plume rises from Halema‘uma‘u Crater as seen from the Jaggar Museum (Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park) viewing area next to the U.S. Geological Survey's Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.

Volcanic-gas plume rising from summit of Kīlauea Volcano as seen from Highway 11, Hawai‘i

Volcanic gas plume rises from Halema‘uma‘u Crater, Kīlauea Volcano, Hawai‘i

Volcanic gas plume rises from Halema‘uma‘u Crater, Kīlauea Volcano, Hawai‘i

Strong tradewinds blow the gas plume from the Overlook vent in Halema‘uma‘u Crater to the southwest. Photograph taken at 4:37 a.m. HST.

Ash and other lava fragments erupted from the new vent in HALE‘Ama‘uMAU Crater were collected almost daily from several wooden "tear catchers" located near the crater rim and from many more plastic buckets nearby. Six years later, ash collections are still made several times a week.

Kīlauea Volcano's summit vent within Halema‘uma‘u Crater was about 115 feet in diameter in April 2008, a month after it opened. 

Gas plume rising from the new Overlook Vent in Halema‘uma‘u Crater, Kīlauea Volcano, Hawai‘i. Trade winds blow the plume to the southwest.

A plume of volcanic gases (chiefly water vapor, carbon dioxide, and sulfur dioxide), tiny lava and rock particles, and droplets drifts southwest in the tradewinds from Halema‘uma‘u Crater. The 500-5,000 metric tons (1.1-11 million pounds) of sulfur dioxide gas emitted each day react in the atmosphere and, with the other gases and particles, form "vog" (volcanic smog)

Movie of the littoral explosions at Waikupanaha