Unified Interior Regions
Hawaii
The Pacific Region has nine USGS Science Centers in California, Nevada, and Hawaii. The Regional Office, headquartered in Sacramento, provides Center oversight and support, facilitates internal and external collaborations, and works to further USGS strategic science directions.
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The growing Halema‘uma‘u
View of growing Halema‘uma‘u from the southeast side of Kīlauea Crater.
July 14, 2018, Kīlauea fissure 8 video captured by UAS
In this July 14, 2018, video captured by the UAS (Unmanned Aircraft Systems) team, lava was erupting from within the 120-foot-high fissure 8 cinder cone built of chilled lava fragments. Lava emerging from the cone was traveling about 13-16 miles per hour, flowing freely over a small set of cascades (rapids) and into a perched channel that was as much as 50 feet above the
Kīlauea Volcano's summit (DEM)
Since early May 2018, the floor of Halema‘uma‘u Crater has dropped 450 m (about 1480 ft). Extensive cracking and faulting around the crater, along with inward slumping of the crater rim, has more than doubled its diameter. Like a balloon slowly losing air, subsidence occurs because magma in Kīlauea's shallow summit reservoir is moving into the East Rift Zone more rapidly
This Hawai‘i County Fire Department aerial image shows Kapoho Crater
This Hawai‘i County Fire Department aerial image shows Kapoho Crater with the most active branch of the fissure 8 lava channel now to the west (right) of the cone and feeding a robust ocean entry. The path of the fissure 8 channel prior to being diverted can be seen east (below and left) of the crater; despite no visible surface connection between this branch and the sea,
...Sink holes (dark spots to right of large tree) are beginning to form
Sink holes (dark spots to right of large tree) are beginning to form along fractures beneath the field of tephra that has formed downwind of fissure 8. Tephra (Pele's hair and other airborne volcanic glass fragments) from the fissure 8 lava fountains continues to fall downwind, covering the ground within a few hundred meters (yards) of the active vent. High winds can waft
...Timelapse video of Halema'uma'u and Kīlauea Caldera
This time-lapse video shows Halema‘uma‘u and Kīlauea Caldera as seen from the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. It includes roughly one image for every day between April 14, 2018, and July 11, 2018. The lava lake is visible early in the video, with overflows onto the caldera floor on April 23, but the lake vanishes from sight in early May as pressure in the summit magma
Kīlauea Volcano's lower East Rift Zone compilation video
This compilation of video from HVO's early morning overflight of Kīlauea Volcano's lower East Rift Zone shows (1) lava from fissure 8 moving through a perched channel toward the northeast, (2) the diverted channelized ‘a‘ā flow west of Kapoho Crater, and (3) a vigorous ocean entry along the southern coastline in the vicinity of Ahalanui Beach Park (Warm Ponds).
Rockfalls and Sounds
Listen to the sounds of rockfalls at Kīlauea Volcano's summit in this short video taken from the northeast rim of the caldera. At 2:42 p.m. HST on July 12, 2018, a collapse/explosion event at Kīlauea's summit released energy equivalent to a magnitude-5.3 earthquake. Rockfalls that occurred in Halema‘uma‘u and along the steep summit caldera walls during the event can be
Four Examples of Nest Predation by Rats - Hawaii Volcanoes National
Black rats were unintentionally introduced to Hawai’i in the late 1800s, most likely as hitchhikers on trading vessels. Since their introduction, they have disrupted native ecosystems by destroying native plants, eating native arthropods, and depredating bird nests. Black rats have contributed to population declines and species extinctions of Hawaiian forest birds, and
Four Examples of Nest Predation by Rats (Short)
Black rats were unintentionally introduced to Hawai’i in the late 1800s, most likely as hitchhikers on trading vessels. Since their introduction, they have disrupted native ecosystems by destroying native plants, eating native arthropods, and depredating bird nests. Black rats have contributed to population declines and species extinctions of Hawaiian forest birds, and
Kīlauea lower East Rift Zone lava flow
During an overflight this morning, the Hawaii County Fire Department captured this image looking east toward Kapoho Crater. A breakout from the south margin of the main fissure 8 channel is sending a
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Breakouts remain active on the coastal plain and pali

Coastal breakouts put on a show

In today's age of aerial photography, satellites, and drones, bird's-eye views of geologic features are taken for granted. A century ago, such depictions posed enormous challenges.

Thirty-seven years after the May 18, 1980, eruption of Mount St. Helens, Washington, scientists, engineers, land managers, and Federal, State, and County officials are still grappling with a challenge created by the eruption—how to prevent potentially massive downstream flooding by the release of water from Spirit Lake, located at the base of the volcano.

Clear views at the ocean entry

Good views of Halema‘uma‘u's lava lake

This mosaic of thermal images is basically a thermal map of the lava flow surface, and reveals the exact location of all the active surface breakouts.

Deformation of the lava delta continues

Activity continues at the growing lava delta

What's up with Mauna Loa, and is any change in sight?

Continued spattering in the summit lava lake

Collapses common during significant drops in summit lava lake