Videos

This Quicktime movie shows some of the spattering associated with the gas pistoning, in which the spattering acts as an outlet for gas accumulating in the pond. Note how the crust in the center of the pond is fluctuating. Lava pond activity and gas pistoning are common in Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō.

The lava lake in the Overlook crater, within Halema‘uma‘u Crater at Kīlauea's summit, undergoes frequent periods of spattering. The spattering is normally at the lake margins, and the surface crust often flows towards, and is consumed at, the spattering source.

This thermal image sequence shows the typical motion of the lava lake in Halema‘uma‘u Crater. For scale, the lake is about 160 meters (520 feet) wide in this view. The clip spans about 12 minutes, and is shown at 30x speed. The lava upwells along the north margin of the lava lake (in this view, near the top of the image).

This short Quicktime movie shows spattering from a cone near the south rim of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō crater as a short lava flow is erupted.

Farther down the flank of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō a skylight on the Kahauale‘a flow provided a view of the flowing lava stream in the lava tube.

This Quicktime movie shows exactly two years of lava lake activity in Halema‘uma‘u Crater (Feb 11, 2011 to Feb 11, 2013) in one minute of time-lapse video, using images taken from a thermal camera perched on the rim of Halema‘uma‘u.

This Quicktime movie shows a time-lapse sequence of the lava lake captured by a thermal camera on the rim of Halema‘uma‘u crater. The sequence is shown at a speed of about 30 times actual. By viewing the sequence at this speed, spotting the upwelling area in the lake is easier than in a still photograph.

Video taken during today's helicopter overflight of Halema‘uma‘u, showing the active lava lake at a very high level (described in more detail in the caption above). Vigorous spattering on the lake margin emits a thick plume of gas.

Quicktime video, taken from the east rim of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō crater, showing the small lava lake that is active in the northeast portion of the crater floor. Unsteady gas escape along the lake margins drives low-level spattering and undulations of the lake surface.

Quicktime movie showing lava flowing through the active lava tube on the pali.

This video shows spattering at the west edge of the lava lake in the 'overlook' vent in Halema‘uma‘u Crater. The crackling and popping noises are from fracturing of the rocks composing the walls of the vent caused by thermal expansion.

Heat from the high lava lake level in the 'overlook' vent in Halema‘uma‘u is causing the walls of the vent above the lava surface to expand and fracture. This is the source of the cracking and booming noises emanating from the vent in recent days.

Video zoomed in on the spattering at the west edge of the lava lake in the 'overlook' vent in Halema‘uma‘u.

This Quicktime movie shows the impressive spattering at the western margin of the lava lake at Halema‘uma‘u. The continuous spattering is often punctuated by bursts which throw lava onto the ledge (left portion of image), and this accumulating lava is building a spatter rampart.

This Quicktime movie shows spattering that is typical at the margins of the lava lake in Halema‘uma‘u crater. The slow migration of the lava lake surface is normally towards the area of spattering, where the lava sinks back into the magmatic system. Spatter in this clip is being thrown about 5-10 meters (yards) in height.

The lava lake in Halema‘uma‘u has been at a relatively high level over the past week, and several rise-fall cycles (short term increases in lava level immediately followed by spattering and an abrupt drop) pushed the level even higher over the past day.

A small lava pond, set within a collapse pit, has been active in the eastern portion of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō crater for the past several weeks. At the east margin of the lava pond, lava sinks back into the system, with frequent spatter bursts sourced from this downwelling spot.

This Quicktime movie begins with a view of lava in Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō made possible by a small collapse pit. The lava is swiftly moving towards the northeast, and this represents lava within Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō crater that is entering the lava tube system which, in turn, feeds the active flow field.

This Quicktime movie shows vigorous spattering along the south margin of the Halema‘uma‘u lava lake. Lava, upwelling in the northern portion of the lake (out of view), slowly migrates to this southern margin where it sinks back into the conduit.

--fissures...fountains...and flows

by Matthew Patrick, USGS, Hawaiian Volcano Observatory

Video showing the fast-moving upper section of the lava stream on the relatively steep eastern flank of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō. The video pans to the left to show the smaller lava stream eruption from the lower (eastern) end of the fissure.