An official website of the United States government
Here's how you know
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock () or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.
Two areas on eastern Banana delta are shedding lava into the water, as seen from visitor viewing area just northeast of delta. Largest area persisted until after dawn, but left area--on northeast side of delta's point--caved away several minutes after this image was taken. Height of cascades in right area, 4-6 m.
About one minute after large slab from the point broke away and fell into water. This changed configuration to viewers' disadvantage, since lava falls could no longer be seen off the point but instead were taking place in reentrant left by collapse. However, initial glow from falls in the reentrant was wonderful to see.
Glow at point has tamed down, but main entry continues to drip and fall into swash zone. Note black sand, generated by water quenching lava to brittle glass that waves break into sand-sized pieces.
If you can't look east at sunrise, look west. Sky is often prettier there, in subtle way. Main entry area healthy again, but glow at point of delta is weak.
Wave starting to crash against the decidedly smaller main entry area. Such waves disrupt the falling lava only temporarily. As soon as water withdraws, lava breaks through water-quenched skin and shows itself.
Get Our News
These items are in the RSS feed format (Really Simple Syndication) based on categories such as topics, locations, and more. You can install and RSS reader browser extension, software, or use a third-party service to receive immediate news updates depending on the feed that you have added. If you click the feed links below, they may look strange because they are simply XML code. An RSS reader can easily read this code and push out a notification to you when something new is posted to our site.