Time-lapse thermal image movie of Halemaumau Overlook Vent. September 10-17, 2015. Images courtesy of USGS/HVO
Time-lapse movie of Halemaumau Overlook Vent. September 10-17, 2015. Images courtesy of USGS/HVO
Time-lapse movie of Halemaumau Overlook Vent from the West Rim of Halemaumau Crater. September 10-17, 2015. Images courtesy of USGS/HVO
Time-lapse movie of Halemaumau Crater from the south rim. September 10-17, 2015. Images courtesy of USGS/HVO
Time-lapse movie of Halemaʻumaʻu Overlook Vent from Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. September 10-17, 2015. Images courtesy of USGS/HVO
Time-lapse movie of Halemaumau Crater looking Southwest. September 10-17, 2015. Images courtesy of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park
(Activity updates are written by scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.)
KÄ«lauea’s summit lava lake level, which fluctuates in response to summit inflation and deflation, varied this past week between about 55 and 72 m (180–236 ft) below the vent rim within Halema‘uma‘u Crater.
KÄ«lauea’s East Rift Zone lava continues to feed scattered breakouts northeast and east of PuÊ»u ʻŌʻÅ. All active lava remains within about 8 km (5 mi) of PuÊ»u ʻŌʻÅ. Some breakouts are evident by smoke plumes from burning vegetation where lava creeps into the forest.
One earthquake was reported felt on the Island of Hawai‘i during the past week. On Thursday, September 17, 2015, at 12:32 p.m., HST, a magnitude-3.7 earthquake occurred 6.2 km (3.8 mi) southeast of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ŠCrater at a depth of 8.1 km (5.0 mi).
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
This map shows Kīlauea’s active East Rift Zone lava flow in relation to the eastern part of the Island of Hawaiʻi. The area of the flow on August 26 is shown in pink, while widening and advancement of the flow as of September 11 is shown in red. The yellow lines show the active lava tube system. The black box shows the extent of the accompanying large scale map.
The blue lines show steepest-descent paths calculated from a 1983 digital elevation model (DEM; for calculation details, see http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2007/1264/). Steepest-descent path analysis is based on the assumption that the DEM perfectly represents the earth’s surface. DEMs, however, are not perfect, so the blue lines on this map can be used to infer only approximate flow paths. PuÊ»u ʻŌʻŠlava flows erupted prior to June 27, 2014, are shown in gray. The base map is a partly transparent regional land cover map from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Office of Coastal Management draped over the 1983 DEM. The bathymetry is also from NOAA.
Because the flow field is changing very little at the moment, mapping of the lava flow is being conducted relatively infrequently. We will return to more frequent mapping if warranted by an increase in activity.
This map overlays a georeferenced thermal image mosaic onto a map of the flow field to show the distribution of active and recently active breakouts. The thermal images were collected during a helicopter overflight of the flow field on September 11. The June 27th flow is outlined in green to highlight the current flow margin. The yellow lines show the active lava tube system.
There has been no significant change on the flow field northeast of PuÊ»u ʻŌʻÅ, and some of the active flows continue to creep into the forest along the north edge of the flow field, as seen here, looking roughly northwest. Activity has been remarkably stable and consistent, with no overall advancement of the flows, for the last several weeks. Photo taken Friday, September 11, 2015 courtesy of USGS/HVO
View of Puʻu ʻŌʻŠcrater, looking northwest. The floor of the crater was paved in late August by lava that erupted from a vent at the northeast edge of the crater, which is the heavily fuming area to the right. There are also vents at the southeast edge of the crater (note the incandescent vent just left of center) and at the northwest edge (hidden by fume just above center). A western pit, outside the left edge of the crater (hard to see in this photo), hosts a small sluggish lava pond. The vent supplying the June 27th lava flow is on the flank of Puʻu ʻŌʻŠbeyond the right edge of the photo. Photo taken Friday, September 11, 2015 courtesy of USGS/HVO
Photo of Puʻu ʻŌʻŠwest of the crater, looking north-northwest. The west edge of the crater is to the right. The western pit, with the lava pond, is just above and left of center. Notice the vaguely arcuate line of fume that wraps from the south edge of the crater, around the western pit, and back to the northwest edge of the crater in the background. This fuming arc corresponds closely to the rim of the crater that was present in 2011. The surface of the crescent-shaped area bounded by this arc is sulfur stained and, when on the ground there, is found to be very hot, suggesting that there may be pockets of magma below the ground there. In time, other pits may form in this area, or the western pit may continue to widen, and eventually the entire crescent-shaped area could collapse and become part of the crater again. Photo taken Friday, September 11, 2015 courtesy of USGS/HVO
Like this:
Like Loading...
Leave a Reply