Image of area around flow front

This map uses a satellite image acquired in March 2014 (provided by Digital Globe) as a base to show the area around the front of Kīlauea's active East Rift Zone lava flow. The area of the flow on December 16 at 11:15 AM is shown in pink, while widening and advancement of the flow as mapped on December 18 at 11:15 AM is shown in red

The leading tip of the flow had slowed, but had also widened and split into two branches. Both branches continue to advance downslope toward the Pahoa Marketplace, and the closest was about 1.0 km (0.6 miles) away. Tick marks have been placed along the steepest-descent path at an interval of 0.4 miles, measured from Pahoa Marketplace.

The blue lines show steepest-descent paths calculated from a 1983 digital elevation model (DEM; for calculation details, see http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2007/1264/). Steepest-descent path analysis is based on the assumption that the DEM perfectly represents the earth's surface. DEMs, however, are not perfect, so the blue lines on this map can be used to infer only approximate flow paths.