Images

Kīlauea Volcano's lava lake within Halema‘uma‘u Crater rose steadily over the past day in concert with summit inflation. This morning, with the lake level at just 19 m (62 ft) below the summit vent rim, vigorous spattering on the lake surface was visible from the Jaggar Museum Overlook in Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park.

An HVO volunteer uses a stereoscopic microscope to sort the various components of a deposit from a Kīlauea Volcano eruption.

This map shows recent changes to Kīlauea's East Rift Zone lava flow field at the coast. The area of the active flow field as of August 19 is shown in pink, while widening and advancement of the active flow as mapped on September 1 is shown in red. The base is a Digital Globe image from January 2016.

Calm after the storm—a beautiful day on Kīlauea Volcano's East Rift Zone. Rain from Hurricane Madeline had little impact on Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō, shown here, or lava flow 61g.

View of the 61g flow field, from Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō (visible on top, left horizon) to the westernmost ocean entry at the coast, where lava spills into the sea, creating a lava delta.

A closer view of where lava is entering the sea along a 1.1-km- (0.7-mi-) wide section of the coastline. There is no evidence that high surf from Hurricane Madeline had any impact on the lava deltas that have formed, and continue to grow, at the ocean entries.

View of the lava pond within the Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō west pit crater, which is about 50 m (164 ft) across. Weak spattering on the lava pond surface, about 23 m (75 ft) below the crater rim, is visible through the thick volcanic gas cloud.

An aerial view of a new breakout (light-colored flow at center of image) from the 61g tube. The breakout began with some vigor on the morning August 29, but today it was sluggish, with only a few scattered pāhoehoe toes still active on the margins of the flow.

Close-up view of one of the small toes of pāhoehoe still active on the new breakout from the 61g lava tube, which began on Monday, August 29.

The dark-colored charcoal (left of rock hammer) from a log buried by lava was found at the base of an ‘A‘ā flow in the District of Ka‘ū on the Island of Hawai‘i. The age of this charcoal, determined by an accelerator mass spectrometer radiocarbon method, is 2075 plus or minus 36 years before present. USGS photo.

Paulina Lake, in the caldera of Newberry Volcano. View looking south-southeast.

Kīlauea Volcano's active lava flow continues to bury more of the emergency access route (Chain of Craters Road) in Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park. Early this morning, slow-moving breakouts were oozing across the road on the west side of the flow.

Kīlauea Volcano's older "61g" lava flows have now inflated (left side of photo), creating jagged terrain that rises as much as 3 m (10 ft) above the road. Today, new lava (right) was covering additional areas of the gravel road.

At the summit of Kīlauea, the weather cleared, but inflation turned to deflation and the lava lake level dropped, so the spattering that had been visible from overlooks in Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park the past two days is no longer visible today. But, it was a beautiful day to view Halema‘uma‘u Crater from the Jaggar Museum Overlook!

This hand-tinted telephoto image of Kīlauea Volcano's "Old Faithful" lava fountain in Halema‘uma‘u Crater was taken by volcanologist Frank A. Perret on July 23, 1911. USGS-Hawaiian Volcano Observatory photo archives.

"The whole Eastern Half of the lake is in a state of continuous activity with Old Faithful playing 10 to 20 feet every 35 to 45 seconds." J.M. Lydgate wrote these words and sketched this map of Halema‘uma‘u Crater in the Volcano House Register (a collection of hotel guest comments) in July 1909 to document his observations of Kīlauea Volcano.

This video clip, filmed on August 12, 2016, shows a typical pāhoehoe breakout on Kīlauea Volcano's "61g" lava flow (actual speed).

In concert with inflationary tilt, the level of Kīlauea Volcano's summit lava lake rose over the past day and was measured at 28 m (92 ft) below the vent rim this morning.

Zooming in on the lava lake, a closer camera view of the spattering lake surface late this afternoon.

USGS scientist measures Earth's gravity field at a benchmark on the west flank of Mount St. Helens. Sediment-filled channel of South Fork Toutle River is visible in the distance. The drainage was heavily impacted by mudflows spawned by the May 18, 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens.

Drew Downs in Iceland with a glacier in hte background.