One month ago the summit lava lake was at the rim of the Overlook crater (the small crater in the center of the photo), spilling lava onto the floor of Halemaʻumaʻu Crater (the larger crater that fills much of the photo), creating the dark flows surrounding the Overlook crater. Since that time the lava lake has dropped, associated with summit deflation, and today the lake level was about 60 meters (200 feet) below the Overlook crater rim. The stack of recent overflows is visible on the wall of the Overlook crater as the layer of dark lava atop the older, light colored lava forming the majority of the Overlook crater wall.
The photo is taken from the southeast rim of Halemaʻumaʻu Crater. The closed Halemaʻumaʻu overlook is in the upper left corner of the photo. Jaggar Museum and HVO can be seen as a small bump on the horizon in the upper right portion of the photograph. Photo taken Thursday, June 9, 2015 courtesy of USGS/HVO

Time-lapse movie of Halemaumau Crater from the south rim. June 4-11, 2015. Images courtesy of USGS/HVO

Time-lapse movie of Halemaumau Overlook Vent. June 4-11, 2015. Images courtesy of USGS/HVO

Time-lapse thermal image movie of Halemaumau Overlook Vent. June 4-11, 2015. Images courtesy of USGS/HVO

Time-lapse movie of Halemaumau Overlook Vent from the West Rim of Halemaumau Crater. June 4-11, 2015. Images courtesy of USGS/HVO

Time-lapse movie of KÄ«lauea Caldera from Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. June 4-11, 2015. Images courtesy of USGS/HVO

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

KÄ«lauea’s summit lava lake level fluctuated over the past week, but remained well below the Overlook crater (vent) rim and out of direct view from Jaggar Museum. On the morning of June 11, the lake was about 49 m (161 ft) below the current floor of Halema`uma`u.

KÄ«lauea’s East Rift Zone lava flow continues to feed widespread breakouts northeast of PuÊ»u ʻŌʻō. Active flows remain within about 8 km (5 mi) of PuÊ»u ʻŌʻō.

No felt earthquakes were reported on the Island of Hawai’i in the past week.

Please visit the HVO website (http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov) for past Volcano Watch articles, KÄ«lauea daily eruption updates and other volcano status reports, current volcano photos, recent earthquakes, and more; call (808) 967-8862 for a KÄ«lauea summary update; email questions to askHVO@usgs.gov

Time-lapse movie from images gathered from a temporary thermal camera looking into Pu’u ‘O’o Crater. The temperature scale is in degrees Celsius up to a maximum of 500 Celsius (932 Fahrenheit) for this camera model, and scales based on the maximum and minimum temperatures within the frame. Thick fume, image pixel size and other factors often result in image temperatures being lower than actual surface temperatures. June 4-11, 2015. Images courtesy of USGS/HVO

Time-lapse movie of Pu’u ‘O’o Crater North Flank from the North Rim. June 4-11, 2015. Images courtesy of USGS/HVO

Time-lapse multi-image movie of Mokuʻāweoweo Caldera from the Northwest Rim on Mauna Loa. June 4-11, 2015. Images courtesy of USGS/HVO