An official website of the United States government
Here's how you know
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock () or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.
HVO field crews—equipped with specialized safety gear—conduct station maintenance, collect water samples, and monitor for new changes from within the closed area of Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park with NPS permission.
No changes were observed at Kīlauea's summit during a brief field visit on September 3, 2021. Sunny weather made for spectacular views, though strong winds were blowing. The solidified crust of the lava lake within Halema‘uma‘u—which was active from December 2020 to May 2021—is visible in the lower center of this image. USGS photo by K. Mulliken.
Station HRPKE is located southwest of Kīlauea's summit, in the upper Southwest Rift Zone region, within Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park. The station measures sulfur dioxide (SO2) concentrations in the air, as well as local meteorological data such as wind speed, wind direction, and rainfall. On September 1, an HVO scientist and two technicians conducted HRPKE station maintenance. USGS photo by P. Nadeau.
HVO technician Steven Fuke checks the solar panel at station HRPKE while conducting station maintenance on September 1. HVO remote monitoring stations are powered via solar panels and a suite of batteries. Remote stations such as HRPKE are telemetered, meaning that data collected at the remote station is transferred to the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory and can be viewed in near real-time. USGS photo by P. Nadeau.
View to the southwest from HVO station HRPKE, showing Pu‘ukoa‘e on Kīlauea's Southwest Rift Zone in the background. Pu‘ukoa‘e formed during an eruption more than 200 years ago; lava flows from the December 1974 eruption of Kīlauea's Southwest Rift Zone—which are visible in the foreground—flowed southwest towards Pu‘ukoa‘e, with one lava flow from the eruption stopping at Pu‘ukoa‘e. USGS photo by P. Nadeau.
Sampling Keller Well in Kīlauea’s south caldera region — August 31, 2021
On Tuesday, August 31, Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) scientists and technicians visited the Keller Well in Kīlauea's south caldera region. Water from the well is typically sampled and analyzed quarterly to monitor how magma supply to Kīlauea's summit reservoirs might impact regional ground water. HVO scientists conducted an additional sampling mission due to the recent intrusion southwest of Kīlauea's summit caldera. In this photo, water collected from the well is emptied from the narrow pipe collector into a sample bottle. For more information on Keller Well monitoring, please see HVO's Dec. 20, 2018, "Volcano Watch" article: Volcano Watch — A Field Trip to the Mountain of Water (usgs.gov). USGS photo by P. Nadeau.
On August 31, the water level in Keller Well was measured at approximately 514.12 m (1686.75 ft) below the ground surface. Though an intrusion of magma took place beneath the ground surface in Kīlauea's south caldera region from August 23–30, water level in Keller Well does not show significant changes as a result of this event. USGS image by P. Nadeau.
Get Our News
These items are in the RSS feed format (Really Simple Syndication) based on categories such as topics, locations, and more. You can install and RSS reader browser extension, software, or use a third-party service to receive immediate news updates depending on the feed that you have added. If you click the feed links below, they may look strange because they are simply XML code. An RSS reader can easily read this code and push out a notification to you when something new is posted to our site.
