Videos

Video showing low fountaining from the dominant vent, near the southwest end of the fissure system adjacent to Nāpau Crater, active during the day on March 7.

This Quicktime movie shows a sequence taken from a thermal camera looking into the Halema‘uma‘u vent cavity between March 5 and 7. Tremor and deflation began at about 1:42pm on March 5, and this was shortly followed by draining of the Halema‘uma‘u lava lake.

Video showing the collapse of the Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō crater floor on March 5. The video starts at 4 am and ends at 11 pm. The floor of the crater dropped about 115 meters (377 ft) in just a few hours.

There was a series of vent wall and rim collapses on March 3, much like those than occurred in January and February. This video, compiled from the Webcam on the rim of Halema‘uma‘u above the vent, is one of the larger collapses, and shows the northwest rim of the vent falling into the lava lake.

Booming sounds from the vent in Halema‘uma‘u have been audible around the summit area of Kīlauea for the past several days. Some of these sounds are caused by rocks striking the surface of the lava lake, but most are actually the sound of the vent walls cracking due to heating and expansion of rock.

The level of the lava lake sometimes changes abruptly. These cycles of rise and fall, which amount to a vertical change of around 15 m (about 50 ft), are occasionally triggered by rockfalls. Here, a small collapse from the vent wall triggers degassing and a drop in the lava level.

As the spattering shown in the previous video intensifies, the walls of the vent heat even more, causing the cracking of the rocks through thermal expansion to speed up, creating the cacophony of popping noises apparent in this video.

Time-lapse movie showing lava erupting from vents on the floor of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō crater. Each frame is a composite of eight images comprising a panorama of the crater that is captured every five minutes. During daylight hours, the camera switches to an IR mode so that eruptive activity is easier to monitor.

Another series of collapses occurred within Kīlauea's summit vent on the floor of Halema‘uma‘u before sunrise on February 15. This movie shows the first of the rockfalls and the resulting small explosive event.

Movie of lava flows in Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō crater from February 6-8. Lava has been erupting sporadically from three vents within Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō crater-a cone on the west side of the crater floor (foreground to left), a cone on the northeast side (center frame), and from an opening on the east crater wall (background).

Movie of the January 21 collapse and dusty plume captured by a Webcam located in the observation tower at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.

Movie of the January 17 collapse and explosive eruption captured by a Webcam located in the observation tower at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.

Movie of the January 17 collapse and explosive eruption captured by a Webcam located on the rim of Halema‘uma‘u directly above the erupting vent.

movie shows a channelized flow that broke out of the lava tube early this morning at the base of the pali, west of Kalapana. Even after traveling through the lava tube system for almost 10 kilometers (about 6.2 miles), the lava is sufficiently hot to be extremely fluid, and moves swiftly downslope. For scale, the channel is about 2 meters (about 2 yards) wide.

movie shows the flow that began erupting in Pu`u `Ō `ō crater this morning. The primary vent for the flow was producing small pulsating spattering that had built a small rampart on its south side. The final portion of the video is shown at x10 speed with a wide view, and shows how the spattering vent is supplying the flow.

movie captures a short period of successive littoral explosions at the Puhi-o-Kalaikini ocean entry, where lava exiting the tube enters the water. The explosions were throwing ejecta up to about 20 meters. The video was taken with a high zoom factor from the top of the sea cliff, well away from the entry point and not on the lava delta.

The lava lake deep within the vent cavity at Halema`uma`u crater remains active, with ongoing degassing and circulation of lava. This Quicktime movie shows the view in the vent today with a thermal camera, and the video is set at x4 speed to better show the slowly moving lava surface.

movie shows video taken during today's field visit and overflight. The first portion of the video is taken at the rim of Pu`u `Ō `ō crater, and shows the north vent feeding the lava pond. The lava surface undulates due to rising gas bubbles, and a small overturn is triggered.

movie shows the active lava pond within Pu`u `Ō `ō crater, imaged with a thermal camera. The video is shown at x60 speed, and covers about 25 minutes. Lava is being supplied to the crater from two vents, one visible in the upper right corner of the image and one out of view in the lower left.

video from a thermal camera looking into the vent cavity at Halema`uma`u around 3pm today. The video is shown at x4 speed. At the beginning of the clip, the lava level is at a high stand, with slowly migrating crustal plates and little spattering. Eventually, small scale spattering begins in the northeast corner of the pond, accompanied by vigorous degassing.

USGS scientists recount their experiences before, during and after the May 18, 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens. Loss of their colleague David A. Johnston and 56 others in the eruption cast a pall over one of the most dramatic geologic moments in American history.