Halema'uma'u Explosive Eruption (October 12, 2008)

On October 12, 2008, an explosive eruption, shown in this video, blasted lithic and juvenile tephra onto the Halema'uma'u crater rim 85 meters (280 feet) above the informally-named Overlook vent (see http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/kilauea/timeline/ for links describing eruptive activity at the summit of Kilauea Volcano). It was the most powerful eruption to date in terms of seismic energy released. The mushroom-shaped ash cloud released by the eruption engulfed the crater rim above the vent, and falling tephra shattered solar panels for nearby equipment. Bright orange incandescence from hot gas and particles reached well above the level of the crater rim. Notice the appearance of dust on the ground surface behind the crater rim on the east (left) side of the plume several seconds after the ashy plume billows from the vent. This is presumably dust kicked up by tephra falling back to the ground after being ejected from the vent.

The images that comprise this video were acquired by a video monitoring system in the observation tower of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory about 1.8 kilometers (1.1 miles) north of the vent. The original video acquisition rate was 5 frames per second, and the resulting video is played at 50 frames per second.