September 15, 2022 — Kīlauea west vent

The western vent in Halema‘uma‘u was steaming heavily the morning of September 15. A small glowing spot could be seen when looking through the laser rangefinder instrument, which is used to measure distances. This close-up view also revealed a small blanket of tephra on the slope of the cone that has been created by spattering at the vent. HVO geologists did not witness any spattering while on the caldera rim the morning of September 15, but they saw that the vent is still feeding lava to the active pond through a crusted-over inlet. USGS photo by J. Schmith.