Images

On May 3, Kīlauea Volcano's Kamokuna lava delta, which had been growing since late March, collapsed. An HVO time-lapse camera captured the sequence of events in five-minute intervals. This image shows the lava delta at 7:50 a.m. HST, a couple of hours before the collapse.

Between 9:35 and 9:40 a.m., a large steam plume appeared in the middle of Kamokuna lava delta in the area of large cracks noted in our April 27 image (see below). Weak fountaining or spattering likely occurred initially, because new tephra is visible in the steaming area, but that activity ended by 9:40 a.m.

Within five minutes, between 9:55 and 10:00 a.m. HST, nearly the entire delta disappeared, collapsing into the sea. The collapsed area cut back toward the sea cliff, past the largest crack on the delta. In this image, captured at 10:05 a.m., the seawater is brown and turbulent.

This morning (May 4), the Kamokuna ocean entry was obscured by a thick steam plume at the base of the cliff. Sparse littoral bursts, occasionally visible through the plume, were the source of the floating, steaming lava fragments that can be seen in the ocean near the entry.

Hawaiian Volcano Observatory volunteer Marcy Frenz feeds a seismogram from the May 1982 Kīlauea south caldera earthquake flurry into a large-format document scanner. Preserving stacks of paper earthquake records as digital image files is an ongoing project at HVO. USGS photo by S. Tsang.

Early this morning the lava lake level was measured at 12.5 m (41 ft) below the vent rim, the highest level the lake reached this month. But, at around 8:30 a.m., summit inflation switched to deflation and the lava lake level began to drop.

The episode 61g Kamokuna ocean entry has been slowly building a new lava delta for a little over a month now. Since our April 15 post, the delta has grown substantially. Two large cracks parallel to the coast are visible on the delta (center), with the distal portion slumping slightly seaward—suggesting further instability.

By mid-afternoon, when these photos were taken, the drop in the lava lake level was obvious. A "bathtub ring" of black lava forming a rim on the vent wall (between the lighter-colored rocks higher in the wall and the surface of the lava lake) provides a record of the lake's previous higher level.

Mount St. Helens monitoring station SEP during temporary installation of a 20 foot mast to restore data flow after heavy snow buried the site and cut off seismic data transmission.

Mount St. Helens monitoring station SEP buried in about 10-15 ft of snow. Station stands approximately 8 ft tall and is located to the right of the person in this photo. April 21, 2018

Ben Gaddis, a volunteer at the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, works on historical documentation of volcanic products from the 1924 explosive eruption of Halema‘uma‘u Crater within Kīlauea's summit caldera. Ben recently received the U.S. Department of Interior's "Citizen's Award for Exceptional Service" for his many years of volunteer service at HVO.

The ocean entry at Kamokuna remains active, with a small lava delta. Views of the lava streams entering the water were obscured by the thick plume. Very weak littoral explosions were occurring.

Lava flowing from Kīlauea again

A wide range of clothing and preparedness is seen amongst the estimated 1,500 people a day visiting Kīlauea's active flow field and ocean entry.

Surface flows erupting; lava bench movement measured

Local volcanologist to assess Zaire eruption

Kīlauea flows are large

This map shows recent changes to Kīlauea's East Rift Zone lava flow field. The area of the active flow field as of March 30 is shown in pink, while widening and advancement of the active flow as of April 10 is shown in red. Older Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō lava flows (1983-2016) are shown in gray. The yellow line is the trace of the active lava tube (dashed where uncertain).

A small delta has formed at the Kamokuna ocean entry, but views of the delta have been largely obscured by the thick ocean entry plume.

A closer view of the delta. A small black sand beach is visible on its eastern side (bottom of photo).

Fragments of floating lava drift away from the ocean entry, creating small steam plumes as the hot lava boils the seawater.