Images

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What a difference four days makes! These thermal images of fissure 8 fountains erupting on Kīlauea's lower East Rift Zone show a few things: 1) The lava fountains have gained height—with the tallest one growing from 150 ft to over 250 ft. 2) A pu‘u (cone) has built up downwind. 3) The amount of material wafting downwind is greater.

Map as of 2:00 p.m. HST, June 4, 2018. Given the dynamic nature of Kīlauea's lower East Rift Zone eruption, with changing vent locations, fissures starting and stopping, and varying rates of lava effusion, map details shown here are accurate as of the date/time noted. Shaded purple areas indicate lava flows erupted in 1840, 1955, 1960, and 2014-2015.

Video from helicopter overflight of Kīlauea Volcano's lower East Rift Zone on June 4, 2018, shows lava from fissure 8 entering the ocean at Kapoho Bay. View to the north.

Overflight photo at 7AM HST from offshore looking up the flowfront. Nearly all of the front was active and advancing/spreading.

This animated GIF shows a sequence of radar amplitude images that were acquired by the Italian Space Agency's Cosmo-SkyMed satellite system. The images illustrate changes to the caldera area of Kīlauea Volcano that occurred between May 5 and June 2 at 6:00 p.m. HST.

Summit plume at 8:40AM HST on June 3. A slight mist in the air softens the look of the plume, which is predominantly white steam with very minor amounts of ash.

Photo from 7AM helicopter overflight, hovering offshore and looking up the flowfront. Nearly all of the front was active and advancing; advance rates were estimated at an average of 250 feet/hour (76 m/hr), and as of 7AM the flow was 500 yards (457 m) from the ocean.

Map as of 11:00 a.m. HST, June 3, 2018. Given the dynamic nature of Kīlauea's lower East Rift Zone eruption, with changing vent locations, fissures starting and stopping, and varying rates of lava effusion, map details shown here are accurate as of the date/time noted. Shaded purple areas indicate lava flows erupted in 1840, 1955, 1960, and 2014-2015.

Northern edge of the fissure 8 flow front on the night of June 1, as it approached the intersection of Highways 132 and 137, known as "Four Corners."

East side of the fissure 8 flow on the "lighthouse road" (east of the Four Corners intersection). The ‘a‘ā flow was about 5 m (16 ft) thick when this photo was taken around 2:00 p.m. HST. 

Overnight (June 1-2), fissure 8 lava fountains decreased to heights of about 50 m (164 feet). The moon can be seen in the upper left.

Map as of 1:30 p.m. HST, June 2, 2018. Given the dynamic nature of Kīlauea's lower East Rift Zone eruption, with changing vent locations, fissures starting and stopping, and varying rates of lava effusion, map details shown here are accurate as of the date/time noted. Shaded purple areas indicate lava flows erupted in 1840, 1955, 1960, and 2014-2015.

An HVO geologist documents the fissure 8 flow southeast of Four Corners (the intersection of Highways 132 and 137).

USGS scientists on HVO's overflight this morning (June 2) captured this image of the fissure 8 flow front as it advanced west along Highway 132. Around the time of this photo, 7:15 a.m.

As fissure 8 lava flowed into Green Lake, the lake water boiled away, sending a white plumehigh into the sky—visible from afar between around 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. HST.

Ed Brown (identified by white arrow, standing behind former USGS HVO Scientist-in-Charge Tina Neal) pictured with his HVO colleagues during the 2018 Kīlauea lower East Rift Zone eruption and summit collapse when HVO staff were temporarily based at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo Geology Department following the evacuation of the HVO building in Hawaiʻi Volcano

Viewed from the intersection of Nohea and Leilani Streets at 10:15AM HST on June 1, the Fissure 8 lava fountain (to the right) appears to have decreased in height from previous sustained heights of 260 feet.

An aerial view of Halema‘uma‘u at the summit of Kīlauea Volcano captured from an Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) overflight video on May 31, 2018. Limited UAS flights into this hazardous area are conducted with permission and coordination with Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park to collect visual information on this changing eruption site.

Photo of the easternmost Fissure 8 lava flow in the vicinity of Kapoho Crater at 6:00 AM HST on June 1.

Fissure 8 continues to feed lava into multiple flow lobes. One lobe is advancing through agricultural lands toward the northeast, as shown in this image taken from a helicopter overflight on June 1, 2018, at 6:21 AM.