Images

Uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS) flights on November 23, 2022, allowed for aerial visual and thermal imagery to be collected of Halema‘uma‘u crater at the summit of Kīlauea. The active lake surface is limited to the western portion of the crater.

Uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS) flights on November 23, 2022, allowed for aerial visual and thermal imagery to be collected of Halema‘uma‘u crater at the summit of Kīlauea. The active lake surface is limited to the western portion of the crater.

A telephoto view of the lava lake within Halema‘uma‘u crater the morning on November 23, 2022, taken from the west rim and looking east. USGS photo by K. Mulliken.

A telephoto view of the west vent area within Halema‘uma‘u crater, at the summit of Kīlauea. This photo was taken the morning of November 23, 2022, at a moment when red molten material was visible in the inlet north of the west vent, which feeds into the lava lake. Incandescent material is intermittently visible in the inlet. USGS photo by K. Mulliken.

A helicopter overflight on November 17, 2022, allowed for aerial visual and thermal imagery to be collected of Halema‘uma‘u crater at the summit of Kīlauea. The active lake surface is limited to the western portion of the crater.

A helicopter overflight on November 17, 2022, allowed for aerial visual and thermal imagery to be collected of Halema‘uma‘u crater at the summit of Kīlauea. The active lake surface is limited to the western portion of the crater.

Building damage states used to classify buildings affected by Kīlauea's 2018 lower East Rift Zone lava flows by damage severity, the first developed for lava flows. (Source: Elinor Meredith and Nguyen Thi Nam Phuong/Earth Observatory of Singapore).

A close-up view of Halema‘uma‘u's active lava lake. The western rim of Kīlauea was visited by field crews who observed variable amounts of spattering along the eastern margin of the lake (seen here at the top of the photograph). The direction of flow is from west to east (bottom to top in this photograph).

A mid-morning view of the southern portion of Halema‘uma‘u, as seen by field crews from the western rim. Activity within Halema‘uma‘u has remained steady over the last week. The active lake surface sits 7 meters (~23 feet) below the surface of the caldera. A small amount of spatter along the eastern margin of the lake was visible (the red glow).

View looking west of Halema‘uma‘u at the summit of Kīlauea volcano the morning of November 17, 2022. This photo is taken from the overlook near Keanakāko‘i Crater, which is publicly accessible. Lava is visible in the center of the photo, to the left of the top of the shrub in the foreground.

View looking to the west on the crater floor of Halemaʻumaʻu, at the summit of Kīlauea. The foreground is covered by pāhoehoe, and the brown-colored feature in the background is the island that has persisted since the December 2020 eruption within Halema‘uma‘u. USGS photo by D. Downs.

A hornito located on the eastern side of Halemaʻumaʻu crater floor. The colorful nature of the hornito comes from the various gases that come out of the magma and precipitate on the surrounding rock. Many of these colors are from sulfur that is abundant in Kīlauea magmas. USGS photo by D. Downs.

This tall, thin hornito on the eastern side of the crater floor of Halemaʻumaʻu is made up of spatter. The spatter made its way through a crack in the thick, solidified lava that forms the base of Halema‘uma‘u crater, at the summit of Kīlauea. The yellow and white patches at the bottom are from sulfur that has come out of the magma precipitating on the lava.

Bathymetric data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) collected around American Samoa. Light gray areas are the islands of Tutuila, Ofu-Olosega, and Taʻū. Black lines are 1,640 ft (500 m) contour intervals below sea level.

Panoramic view of Halema‘uma‘u crater, at the summit of Kīlauea, looking eastward from the west rim. HVO scientists continue to monitor Halema‘uma‘u as the summit eruption continues. USGS photo taken on November 10, 2022, by J.M. Chang.

Image showing the active lava lake (silvery area), the west vent complex (lower right), and the main island (upper left) within Halema‘uma‘u crater, at the summit of Kīlauea. Orange lava can be seen spattering on the east side of the active lava lake. USGS photo taken at 9:35 a.m. HST on November 10, 2022, by J.M. Chang.

Telephoto image of the west vent complex within Halema‘uma‘u crater at the summit of Kīlauea. The west vent complex continues to feed lava into the active lava lake (silvery area, top). USGS photo taken from the west rim by J.M. Chang.

Panel A is a thermal image showing first observation of strong ‘lava glowing’ at Mauna Loa, time-stamped 11:36 p.m. HST on November 27, 2022. An example waveform from the array of sensors at the ‘Āinapō (AIND) field station is shown in panel B.

This reference map depicts the ongoing Kīlauea summit eruption on October 31, 2022. One eruptive vent (orange) is active within Halema‘uma‘u, on the western side of the crater floor. An adjacent pond (purple) is feeding lava to a larger lake (red) via a crusted-over tube.

A Kīlauea summit monitoring overflight the morning of October 28 provided this view of Halema‘uma‘u crater floor, which slowly rises with the continuing eruption. The active lava lake is visible in the upper right portion of the image.

A west-facing aerial view of Halema‘uma‘u crater at the summit of Kīlauea. The right side of the image is framed by the scarp, above the black lava within Halema‘uma‘u, that formed during the 2018 summit collapse. In the center foreground, is the down-dropped block within Kaluapele (the summit caldera), that also formed in 2018.