Images

OFF THE LOUISIANA COAST — A controlled burn of oil from the Deepwater Horizon/BP oil spill sends towers of fire hundreds of feet into the air over the Gulf of Mexico. U.S. Coast Guard Photo by Petty Officer First Class John Masson.

The floor of Pu`u `Ō `ō Crater, about 100 m (330 ft) below, is now partly covered by a nice new blanket of reddish rubble.

Should Maui residents be concerned about lava flows?

"Rootless" lava shields are those built over a lava tube, as opposed to those which develop over the vent. This rootless shield was built over the past week, and hosted a lava pond at its summit. Overflows from the pond cascaded down the steep flanks.

An aerial view of the new lava pond inside Pu`u `Ō `ō crater. The photo was taken from the southeast.

This image shows an HVO geologist sampling the lava that was seeping out of the interior of the rootless shield. The lava was placed in a bucket of water to quench the sample. The top frame is a normal photograph, while the bottom frame is a thermal image taken within a fraction of a second of the photograph.

An HVO geologist samples lava from an active lava tube. These samples are analyzed routinely to track changes in lava chemistry.

The dramatic change in Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō landscape from 1992 (top) to 2005 (bottom). Both photos are taken from the same location, looking toward the east.

This photo shows the view into Overlook vent during a relatively high level of the lava lake in 2010. When the lava was at a high stand like this, the plume became very thin and a view of the lava lake was possible.

Sunset along the Southern California coast with waves crashing along the rocks.

Sunset along a Southern California beach.

A small vent on the rubble covered floor of Pu`u `Ō `ō crater was actively spattering today. Light winds allowed this relatively clear view into the crater, when otherwise it would be consumed by fume.

Areas of flowing lava show up as bright spots in this image of the active lava flow that extends south from the east rift to the ocean, near the eastern boundary of Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park. The image is a composite of a regular photo and a new ARRA-funded thermal infrared camera that will be used by USGS scientists to map lava-flow activity.

A new Webcam now sits on the north rim of Pu`u `Ō `ō. A new panorama of the crater, with a different view, will be back online soon.

Surpisingly, the Webcam managed to stay on top as it rode the avalanche to the bottom of the crater. When the fume cleared, the broken legs of the tripod (center frame and slightly above and right of center) and the Webcam enclosure (just below the tripod legs at center) were visible on the rubble pile.

Power and Ethernet cables disappear over the rim of the crater. The collapse left the chunk of rim in the background dangling precariously. It is likely that this slice will join its neighbor in the coming weeks.

Early Tuesday morning (May 11), a large slice of the north rim of Pu`u `Ō `ō collapsed into the crater, taking the Pu`u `Ō `ō Webcam with it. The collapse took a large bite out of the rim, seen here at center frame, that widened the crater by up to 17 m (56 ft).

View of HALEMAUMUA Crater during typical tradewind conditions, which blows the gas plume to the southeast. For scale, the Halema‘uma‘u Crater is about 1 km (0.6 mi) across (left to right); the floor of Halema‘uma‘u Crater is about 80 m (260 ft) m below the crater rim.

Seismologists demonstrates how an earthquake's S and P waves travel through the earth at a CVO public open house.

NEW ORLEANS — Fire boat response crews battle the blazing remnants of the Deepwater Horizon offshore oil rig on April 21, 2010. A Coast Guard MH-65C dolphin rescue helicopter and crew document the fire aboard the mobile offshore drilling unit Deepwater Horizon, while searching for survivors.

Original image can be found at: http://www.examiner.com/article/mother-nature-one-ups-scientists-no-cle…