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The Kahauale‘a 2 flow remains active, with scattered pāhoehoe breakouts driving slow advancement of the flow field through the forest. Breakouts at the flow margins trigger forest fires, and numerous plumes of smoke. Today, the flow front was 8.2 km (5.1 miles) northeast of the vent on Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō.
A comparison of a thermal image (left) with a normal photograph (right) of the Kahauale‘a 2 flow front. Brighter colors in the thermal image depict hotter surface temperatures, with white and yellow areas showing active pāhoehoe breakouts. These breakouts are distributed in a scattered fashion across this portion of the flow field. The vent for the Kahauale‘a 2 flow is on Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō, visible in the upper left of the photograph.
A view of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō crater from the north, looking southeast. In the foreground, the crater rim has red hues due to oxidized cinder and spatter from the early days of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō in the 1980s. In the center of the photograph, the black crater floor consists of lava flows erupted in the last several years, with several spatter cones built upon these flows. Near the left edge of the photograph, a small perched lava pond has been active in recent months.
A closer view of the lava pond in the northeast portion of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō crater. The lava pond has partially closed over the past several weeks, and today was about 5 meters (yards) in diameter - about half of the diameter from two weeks ago. The pond was spattering, with small bits of airborne spatter visible in this photograph.
