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Awesome views of the active lava lakes in Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō crater.
Awesome views of the active lava lakes in Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō crater
The level of the lava lake on the east side of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō crater is even with the crater's northeast rim. Standing at that spot afforded an eerie view looking across the surface of the lake. A scientist, rescuing equipment, is visible on the crater rim in the background. The view is toward the south.
Lava has been overflowing the east rim of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō crater over the last few days. These overflows have traveled up to about 500 m down Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō's east flank before stalling as the slope flattens. The overflows show up in this photo as lighter gray pahoehoe and ‘A‘ā flows at the center of the image. The view is to the west.
The overflows were fed from the edge of an active lava lake filling the east side of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō crater. As the lake and its containing levees has risen, an ever increasing amount of the east rim of the crater is being buried. This photo, looking roughly northwest, shows lava overflowing the east rim of the crater.
A lava lake also fills the western side of the crater. This morning, lava overflowed that lake, and then filled and overtopped the northwest rim of a pit on the west side of the crater (the West Gap pit; just above and to the right side of the photo). These flows have traveled up to about 400 m down the northwest flank of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō to its base. View is to the northwest.
This photo shows an overflow from the northwest side of the West Gap pit advancing as a narrow channelized flow. The flow is just beginning to transition into ‘A‘ā at its terminus. The view is to the south-southeast.
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