Breakouts remain active northeast of PuÊ»u ʻŌʻÅ. Though heavy rains prevented a detailed survey today, there was little change in activity observed on Thursday’s (Nov 12) overflight. As with previous weeks, most breakouts are active within the existing boundaries of the June 27th lava flow, with no major expansion of the flow margins. This photo shows a typical breakout, with PuÊ»u ʻŌʻŠin the distance. Photo taken Thursday, November 12, 2015 courtesy of USGS/HVO
Time-lapse thermal image movie of Halemaumau Overlook Vent. November 5-12, 2015. Images courtesy of USGS/HVO
Time-lapse movie of Halemaumau Overlook Vent. November 5-12, 2015. Images courtesy of USGS/HVO
Time-lapse movie of Halemaʻumaʻu Overlook Vent from Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. November 5-12, 2015. Images courtesy of USGS/HVO
Time-lapse movie of Halemaumau Crater looking Southwest. November 5-12, 2015. Images courtesy of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park
Time-lapse movie of KÄ«lauea Caldera from Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. November 5-12, 2015. Images courtesy of USGS/HVO
(Activity updates are written by scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.)
KÄ«lauea continues to erupt at its summit and East Rift Zone. The summit lava lake level varied between about 50 and 70 m (164–230 ft) below the vent rim within Halema‘uma‘u Crater. On the East Rift Zone, scattered lava flow activity remained within about 6.4 km (4 mi) of PuÊ»u ʻŌʻÅ.
Mauna Loa is not erupting. Small earthquakes continue to occur beneath the volcano’s summit and upper Southwest Rift Zone at rates slightly above background levels. GPS lines across the summit have shown no change, but flank crossing lines continue to extend, which is consistent with inflation of magma reservoirs beneath Mauna Loa.
One earthquake was reported felt on the Island of Hawai‘i this past week. On Monday, November 9, 2015, at 10:21 a.m., HST, a magnitude-3.6 earthquake occurred 13.7 km (8.5 mi) south of Volcano at a depth of 8.7 km (5.4 mi).
Please visit the HVO website (http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov) for past Volcano Watch articles, KÄ«lauea daily eruption updates, Mauna Loa weekly updates, volcano photos, recent earthquakes info, and more; call for summary updates at 808-967-8862 (KÄ«lauea) or 808-967-8866 (Mauna Loa); email questions to askHVO@usgs.gov
Time-lapse movie of Pu’u ‘O’o Crater North Flank from the North Rim. November 5-12, 2015. Images courtesy of USGS/HVO
This map shows recent changes to Kīlauea’s active East Rift Zone lava flow field. The area of the flow on October 23 is shown in pink, while widening and advancement of the flow as mapped on November 12 is shown in red. Not all changes at the northern edge of the flow in the forest were mapped due to poor weather and visibility. The yellow lines show the active lava tube system. Puʻu ʻŌʻŠlava flows erupted prior to June 27, 2014, are shown in gray.
The base map is a partly transparent 1:24,000-scale USGS digital topographic map draped over a 10-m digital elevation model (DEM).
This small-scale 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 October 23 is shown in pink, while widening and advancement of the flow as mapped on November 12 is shown in red. The yellow lines show the active lava tube system. Puʻu ʻŌʻŠlava flows erupted prior to June 27, 2014, are shown in gray. 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. 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.
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