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View looking southwest of the Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō cone and crater. The fume sources on the northeast flank (lower left) mark the path of the lava tube that is feeding flows on the pali. The vent feeding the tube is the fuming area near the crater rim (center); an active circular lava pond is immediately behind the vent. The pond began to take shape and become slightly elevated above the crater floor in the past couple of days after lava began erupting in the crater on Saturday (12/5), quickly filling a depression in the east part of the crater. On the far west edge of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō is a vent (fuming) that erupted many small flows last week.
Close view of the Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō crater. Incandescent spatter cone stands above fume rising from the main vent area. Lava is still erupting in the lava pond, marked by the smooth shiny surface behind the spatter cone, but the level appears to have stabilized overnight.
pāhoehoe flows spreading on the coastal plain about 0.6 km from the base of the pali. When visited this morning, the flows had spread out considerably as they filled in low areas of the coastal plain. The leading edge of the flows were about 2.5 km from the ocean.
