Geologist examines new lava flow from Kīlauea's Southwest Rift Zone eruption, June 4, 2024

The eruption on Kīlauea's Southwest Rift Zone remained paused on Tuesday, June 4, but Hawaiian Volcano Observatory geologists visited the area to take measurements of the previous day's lava flows. Here, a geologist examines part of the lava flow from fissure 2. Note that none of the lava flow is as tall as the geologist; similar to the December 1974 eruption from the same area on Kīlauea, the eruption of June 3 produced extremely thin Pāhoehoe flows. This contrasts with other recent eruptions like that at Pu‘u‘ō‘ō on Kīlauea's East Rift Zone between 1983 and 2018, where Pāhoehoe flows sometimes inflated to tens of meters in thickness. USGS photo by M. Zoeller (HVO).