Images

Instruments continue to collect vital data during workplace closures. Here staff perform maintenance on an eddy flux tower located within a phragmites wetland at the Cape Cod National Seashore. The instruments on this tower measure methane and CO2 fluxes related to plant and soil processes day in and day out for the entire year.

Steep walls, collapsed blocks, and rubble border Halema‘uma‘u Crater and Kīlauea's growing summit crater lake. In this photo, looking northwest, the summits of both Kīlauea (foreground) and Mauna Loa (background) are visible. USGS photos by K. Mulliken

Barry Arm of Harriman Fjord, Prince William Sound, Alaska. Included is Barry Glacier and Cascade Glacier.

Map of the portion of the southwest coast of Puerto Rico affected by an earthquake sequence that began in December 2019, along with portions of the seafloor where faults involved in the earthquake sequence were suspected to exist.

HVO scientist measures the episode 12 lava fountain height at Mauna Ulu from Pu‘u Huluhulu on Dec 30, 1969. The Mauna Ulu eruption marks its 51st anniversary on May 24, 1969. Photo by Hans-Ulrich Schmincke.

A small rockslide occurred today on the south wall of Halema‘uma‘u, sending boulders into the water at the bottom of the crater. USGS video by M. Patrick.

A view from the south rim of Halema‘uma‘u shows a lower collapsed block which has remains of Crater Rim Drive and the Halema‘uma‘u parking lot. The white feature in the lower right is a stop sign that was present at the eastern exit of the parking lot.

HVO staff work together while maintaining social distancing as they install different parts of the new Mauna Loa summit MultiGAS station on April 27. In the left side of the image, an HVO field engineer connects solar panels to the batteries that will power the MultiGAS station.

On April 27, HVO field engineers and a gas geochemist conducted fieldwork to increase HVO's volcano-monitoring capabilities. Staff installed a MultiGAS station to collect volcanic gas data from within Moku‘āweoweo, Mauna Loa's summit caldera. The work was carried out with permission of Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park.

Geologic Map of the Southern Flank of Mauna Loa Volcano, Island of Hawai‘i

The relationship between Δ30 and N2/3He ratios in hydrothermal gases from Iceland and Yellowstone. Δ30 and N2/3He ratios are shown for samples collected from gases in Iceland (yellow circles) and Yellowstone (red circles). The Yellowstone mantle-endmember is arguably indistinguishable in terms of N2/3He from the convecting upper mantle (grey diamonds).

Measuring tilt in Timberline parking lot in early April 1980 during lightly falling snow. USGS photo by Don Swanson.

Clear weather allowed HVO geologists to make observations and take measurements of the water pond at Kīlauea's summit. No major changes were observed, and the water level continues to slowly rise. Note the former HVO observation tower can be seen above the geologist's helmet. 

This compilation shows the appearance of the water pond at Kīlauea's summit over the past two weeks. Day to day changes in the color of the pond are common, with portions of the pond shifting from a green hue to brown. A sharp color boundary has been common for several months in the same general area of the pond.

Members of the Clear Lake Volcanic Field research team

Locations of multichannel seismic reflection profiles (in black), collected during cruise FA2020-14. The profiles are overlain on colored and shaded multibeam bathymetry, Lidar topography (green and white) and near-shore bathymetry (darker blue), and NOAA coastal relief model (light blue and white).

Liquefaction-related features and cracks along the sandy shore next to Stanley Lake.

Clear weather allowed another water pond measurement to be made this morning. Results show continued slow rise of the water level. No major changes were observed. Note the former HVO observation tower can be seen above the geologist's helmet.

Day to day changes in the color of the water pond are common. This morning the pond had a browner hue compared to the previous observation on April 1, when the pond color was slightly more greenish yellow (see photo below).

Physical map of the western USA showing locations of strong earthquakes in March 2020 and Basin and Range extensional province. The Basin and Range stretches from the Sierra Nevada in the west to the Wasatch and Teton mountains in the east, and from central Idaho and southwest Montana in the north to Mexico in the south.

During the 1926 Mauna Loa eruption, an ‘a‘ā flow about 457 m (1500 ft) wide and 9 m (30 ft) high headed straight for the village of Ho‘ōpūloa on April 18, as shown here. By the next day, the lava flow had destroyed a dozen houses, a church, and the wharf, and had nearly obliterated the bay. Photo by Army Air Corps, 11th Photo Section.