Images

Fissures actively propagating during Kamoamoa eruption, Kīlauea, Hawai‘i. View looking at the NE end of the actively propagating fissure. Lava is just breaking the surface in foreground crack. Lava reached the surface along an actively propagating fissure during Kīlauea Volcano's Kamoamoa eruption on March 5, 2011.

Close-up of just-opened fissure segment at NE tip of propagating fissure. Spatter reaching 5 m into the air.

Close-up of spattering fissure. Lava reaching 10 m into the air.

View looking along recently opened fissure segment crossing tephra flats SW of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō, which is in the background.

View along fissure looking NE toward Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō shrouded in clouds in the background. Fissure segment in forest has shut down.

View toward the SW of fissure eruption. Fissure segment in forest has shut down. Compare to earlier photos before fissure opened up in tephra.

A channelized flow was being erupted today from the vent on the west side of the floor of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō.

Following several collapses and small explosive events that deposited spatter on the floor of Halema‘uma‘u crater around noon today, the lava surface in Halema‘uma‘u was roiling and agitated for the remainder of the afternoon, with numerous points of upwelling and spattering.

A close-up of the active lava surface in Halema‘uma‘u.

At 2:31pm today, another large chunk of the rim collapsed into the Halema‘uma‘u lava lake.

Just moments after the last photograph, the 2:31pm collapse produced a thick brown plume, but did not appear to trigger an explosive event in this case.

These tephra deposits are from the Kulanaokuaiki Tephra erupted from Kīlauea Volcano about 200 to 1000 C.E. The base of a lava flow overlying the tephra is just above the person's hand. This site is located near the base of Kīlauea's summit crater wall, directly below the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory and NPS Jaggar Museum.

Fissure eruption of low lava fountains from Kīlauea Volcano’s East Rift Zone in 2007, Island of Hawaiʻi.

Aerial photo showing lava fountains and flows from one of the fissure segments on March 8. A channelized ‘A‘ā flow is hidden by fume to right. Distant fume shows locations of other earlier Kamoamoa fissures active March 5-7. Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō about 3.6 km (2.2) in distance from the fountains.

Aerial photo of the Kamoamoa eruption on March 7, 2011. The western fissure feeding a channelized ‘a‘ā flow is visible in the lower right, while the eastern end of the fissure system and Pu‘u‘ō‘ō crater are in the upper left. USGS photo by T. Orr.

Image from a thermal camera located on the rim of Halema‘uma‘u crater above the Overlook vent and looking into the vent after the lava lake nearly drained away completely starting March 5. Volcanic tremor and summit deflation began at about 1:42 p.m. HST on March 5, and was shortly followed by draining of the lava lake.

Hawaiian Volcano Observatory scientists map and measure ground cracks during the Kamoamoa eruption. USGS photo taken by N. Richter on March 6, 2011.

Scientists collect volcanic gas data using a Fourier Transform Infrared spectrometer (FTIR). During the Kamoamoa eruption, sulfur dioxide emission rates from Kīlauea’s East Rift Zone reached the highest levels since the episodes of high-fountaining at Pu‘u‘ō‘ō (1983–1986) with an average rate of 8,500 tonnes per day and a peak value of 11,000 tonnes per day.

A geologist collects a molten lava sample from the Kamoamoa eruption. USGS photo taken by M. Patrick on March 6, 2011.

HVO geologist carries a freshly quenched lava sample from the 2011 Kamoamoa fissure eruption on Kīlauea Volcano. Molten lava is quickly placed in a bucket of water to "freeze" the growth of minerals for chemical and microscopic analyses.

HVO gas geochemist uses a Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometer to measure volcanic gas compositions emitted during the 2011 Kamoamoa fissure eruption on the East Rift Zone of Kīlauea Volcano. The instrument measures the infrared energy from the hot lava fissure as it passes through, and is absorbed by, the volcanic plume along an open atmospheric path.