Images

An aerial view of a new breakout (light-colored flow at center of image) from the 61g tube. The breakout began with some vigor on the morning August 29, but today it was sluggish, with only a few scattered pāhoehoe toes still active on the margins of the flow.

Close-up view of one of the small toes of pāhoehoe still active on the new breakout from the 61g lava tube, which began on Monday, August 29.

The dark-colored charcoal (left of rock hammer) from a log buried by lava was found at the base of an ‘A‘ā flow in the District of Ka‘ū on the Island of Hawai‘i. The age of this charcoal, determined by an accelerator mass spectrometer radiocarbon method, is 2075 plus or minus 36 years before present. USGS photo.

Paulina Lake, in the caldera of Newberry Volcano. View looking south-southeast.

Kīlauea Volcano's active lava flow continues to bury more of the emergency access route (Chain of Craters Road) in Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park. Early this morning, slow-moving breakouts were oozing across the road on the west side of the flow.

Kīlauea Volcano's older "61g" lava flows have now inflated (left side of photo), creating jagged terrain that rises as much as 3 m (10 ft) above the road. Today, new lava (right) was covering additional areas of the gravel road.

At the summit of Kīlauea, the weather cleared, but inflation turned to deflation and the lava lake level dropped, so the spattering that had been visible from overlooks in Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park the past two days is no longer visible today. But, it was a beautiful day to view Halema‘uma‘u Crater from the Jaggar Museum Overlook!

This hand-tinted telephoto image of Kīlauea Volcano's "Old Faithful" lava fountain in Halema‘uma‘u Crater was taken by volcanologist Frank A. Perret on July 23, 1911. USGS-Hawaiian Volcano Observatory photo archives.

"The whole Eastern Half of the lake is in a state of continuous activity with Old Faithful playing 10 to 20 feet every 35 to 45 seconds." J.M. Lydgate wrote these words and sketched this map of Halema‘uma‘u Crater in the Volcano House Register (a collection of hotel guest comments) in July 1909 to document his observations of Kīlauea Volcano.

This video clip, filmed on August 12, 2016, shows a typical pāhoehoe breakout on Kīlauea Volcano's "61g" lava flow (actual speed).

In concert with inflationary tilt, the level of Kīlauea Volcano's summit lava lake rose over the past day and was measured at 28 m (92 ft) below the vent rim this morning.

Zooming in on the lava lake, a closer camera view of the spattering lake surface late this afternoon.

USGS scientist measures Earth's gravity field at a benchmark on the west flank of Mount St. Helens. Sediment-filled channel of South Fork Toutle River is visible in the distance. The drainage was heavily impacted by mudflows spawned by the May 18, 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens.

Drew Downs in Iceland with a glacier in hte background.

Otter Rock, Oregon. The Oregon coast is one of the areas that could be affected by a large earthquake on the Cascadia subduction zone.

HVO geologist uses a handheld device that can receive very-low-frequency (VLF) radio waves in order to measure lava discharge within a tube. This device, simply called a VLF, measures the shape of the electromagnetic field induced around an active lava tube by transmissions from very-low-frequency radio transmitters scattered around the globe.

HVO geologist conducts a VLF (very low frequency) survey across the episode 61g lava tube to measure the depth and cross-sectional area of lava flowing within the tube.

Aerial view of the Kamokuna ocean entry. Lava is reaching the sea along a broad area about 1 km (0.6 miles) long. In this view, the 61g lava flow is lighter gray in color compared to older lavas.

Aerial view of the Kamokuna ocean entry and the Emergency Access Road cut by the 61g lava flow. 61g lavas are lighter in color than older lavas on the coastal plain. Upslope, a trail of fume marks the lava tube as it passes over the pali.

This map shows recent changes to Kīlauea's East Rift Zone lava flow field at the coast. The area of the active flow field as of August 12 is shown in pink, while widening and advancement of the active flow as mapped on August 19 is shown in red. The base is a Digital Globe image from January 2016.

On August 6, a rockfall from the steep walls of Overlook crater, which contains Kīlauea Volcano's summit lava lake, triggered an explosive event that deposited spatter (molten lava) and solid rock fragments on the rim of Halema‘uma‘u Crater. That event was just the latest in a series of explosions that began in 2008.