Images

A closer view of the skylight on the east breakout. The skylight is about 6 m (20 ft) across, and the lava stream is traveling toward the upper right side of the photo.

An even closer view of the skylight (about 6 m or 20 ft across). Again, the lava stream is flowing to the upper right.

The photo was taken from a vantage looking up Avalanche Gulch at Red Banks (a line of cliffs along the ridge central to the photograph).

Heavy rains that began falling during Memorial Day weekend in late May 2016 pushed the Brazos River, 30 miles southwest of Houston, Texas, toward a near-record flooding stage that hasn’t been seen since 1913, according to the National Weather Service (NWS).

Video of spattering along the north margin of Kīlauea Volcano's summit lava lake.

The summit lava lake in Halema‘uma‘u Crater was at a high level earlier in the week, and partly visible from the Jaggar Museum Overlook at times. But over the past few days, the lake level has dropped slightly.

A wider view of the lava lake within the Overlook crater, from the rim of Halema‘uma‘u Crater (closed to the public due to hazardous conditions). Two spattering areas were active, one along the north margin and another in the southeast corner of the lake.

A closer look at the northern spatter source, which spanned roughly 30 meters (100 feet) of the lake margin.

The two new flows that broke out on the flanks of the Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō cone on Kīlauea Volcano's East Rift Zone on May 24 remained active early this morning. The flows were spreading laterally near the vent, but making little forward progress; as a result, they were not posing a threat to any community.

Marinna Martini is deploying a weather buoy off the coast of Plymouth Ma.

A specialized wave buoy was deployed at the site farthest from shore to measure the height, period, and direction of surface waves and telemeter the data to the Coastal Data Information Program (CDIP)

Hawai‘i ‘amakihi with avian pox. Symptoms of this virus, which can be spread by mosquitoes, include tumor-like lesions on unfeathered parts of a bird's body, including feet and legs, around the eyes, and at the base of the bill. USGS photo.

This small-scale map shows Kīlauea's active East Rift Zone lava flow field in relation to the eastern part of the Island of Hawai‘i. The new breakouts from Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō that began on May 24 are shown in red, as mapped on May 25. The area of the original June 27th lava flow field is shown in pink, as last mapped in detail on May 9.

This map shows recent changes to Kīlauea's active East Rift Zone lava flow field. The new breakouts from Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō that began on May 24 are shown in red, as mapped on May 25. The area of the original June 27th lava flow field is shown in pink, as last mapped in detail on May 9. Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō lava flows erupted prior to June 27, 2014, are shown in gray.

As of 8:30 a.m., HST, today, May 25, 2016, lava continued to flow from two breakout sites on the flanks of the Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō cone, which was shrouded by rain and steam during HVO's morning overflight.

The two breakouts that began at Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō yesterday (May 24) are still active. This morning, the active portions of both flows remained relatively short, extending no more than 1 km (0.6 miles) from their breakout points.

This morning (May 25, 2016), the northern breakout on Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō was feeding an impressive channel of lava that extended about 950 m (0.6 mi) northwest of the cone. This channel was about 10 m (32 ft) wide as of 8:30 a.m., HST.

The second flow from the eastern breakout on Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō—in the area of the "Peace Day" flow that broke out in September 2011—remained active as of this morning, and its total length was about 1.2 km (0.75 mi) long. This lava flow was slowly spreading laterally, but the flow front had stalled.

A slightly closer view of the lava flow from the eastern breakout on Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō. This flow has not advanced significantly since yesterday, but it is slowly widening.

Despite heavy rain, which resulted in blurry spots on this photo due to water droplets on the camera lens, HVO scientists were able to do some of the work they hoped to accomplish during this morning's overflight. Here, an HVO geologist maps the location of active lava from the eastern breakout on Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō.

Amidst steam created by rain falling on the hot lava, another HVO geologist uses a rock hammer to collect a sample of the active flow. Analyses of this sample will yield data on the temperature and chemical makeup of the lava, information that is needed to help determine what's happening within the volcano.

This map of two new breakouts at Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō, which began just before 7:00 a.m., HST, this morning, shows the extent of the lava flows based on aerial photos that were taken at 8:30 a.m.