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Volcano Watch: Kilauea activity update for February 14, 2013

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Time-lapse movie of Halemaumau overlook vent

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Time-lapse thermal image movie of Halemaumau overlook vent

(Activity updates are written by scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.)

This image was captured on Wednesday, February 13, by the Advanced Land Imager sensor aboard NASA's Earth Observing 1 satellite. Although this is a false-color image, the color map has been chosen to mimic what the human eye would expect to see. Bright red pixels depict areas of very high temperatures, and show active or very recently active lava flows. The image shows three general areas of active breakouts. First, flows have been active for several weeks northeast of Puʻu ʻŌʻō, and have reached about 2 km (1.2 miles) from the Puʻu ʻŌʻō crater rim. Second, breakouts have been active above the pali, about 5 km (3.1 miles) southeast of Puʻu ʻŌʻō. Third, several scattered breakouts have been active on the coastal plain, with several patches very close to the shoreline above the active ocean entry. Satellite images such as this help fill in observational gaps between field visits.

This image was captured on Wednesday, February 13, by the Advanced Land Imager sensor aboard NASA’s Earth Observing 1 satellite. Although this is a false-color image, the color map has been chosen to mimic what the human eye would expect to see. Bright red pixels depict areas of very high temperatures, and show active or very recently active lava flows. The image shows three general areas of active breakouts. First, flows have been active for several weeks northeast of PuÊ»u ʻŌʻō, and have reached about 2 km (1.2 miles) from the PuÊ»u ʻŌʻō crater rim. Second, breakouts have been active above the pali, about 5 km (3.1 miles) southeast of PuÊ»u ʻŌʻō. Third, several scattered breakouts have been active on the coastal plain, with several patches very close to the shoreline above the active ocean entry. Satellite images such as this help fill in observational gaps between field visits.

A lava lake within the Halema`uma`u Overlook vent produced nighttime glow that was visible from the Jaggar Museum overlook and via HVO’s Webcam during the past week. The lake level fluctuated slightly in response to summit DI events but was generally between about 25 and 30 m (80–100 ft) below the floor of Halema`uma`u.

On Kilauea’s east rift zone, surface lava flows remain active about mid-way across the coastal plain along with some weak activity near the coast. Small ocean entries remain active just inside and just outside Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park.

At Pu`u `O`o, lava erupting from a complex of spatter cones on the northeast side of the crater floor — the former site of a small lava lake — is feeding a slow-moving pahoehoe flow spreading toward the northeast. Other spatter cones on the crater floor have sporadically erupted tiny, short-lived flows, at least one of which traveled a few hundred meters (yards) down Pu`u `O`o’s southeast flank.

There were no felt earthquakes in the past week on the Island of Hawai`i.

Visit the HVO Web site (http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov) for Volcano Awareness Month details and Kilauea, Mauna Loa, and Hualalai activity updates, recent volcano photos, recent earthquakes, and more; call (808) 967-8862 for a Kilauea summary; email questions to askHVO@usgs.gov.

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Time-lapse movie of Pu‘u ‘O‘o Crater

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Time-lapse thermal image movie of Pu‘u ‘O‘o Crater

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Time-lapse movie of the Peace Day Flow area

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