Images

Perched on the rim of Kīlauea Volcano's summit caldera, the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory and NPS Jaggar Museum (foreground) overlook the active lava lake within Halema‘uma‘u Crater. The black lava flows to the left and right of the fuming vent spilled onto the crater floor in April-May 2015, when the lava lake briefly filled to overflowing.

Lava from the 61g flow continues into the ocean along Kīlauea's south coast. Today's field crew also noted active pāhoehoe breakouts a few hundred meters (yards) upslope from the coast and road.

The summit lava lake in Halema‘uma‘u Crater continuously circulates, with lava upwelling on one side of the lake and downwelling on the opposite side, often resulting in vigorous spattering (bright spot on left side of lake).

USGS HVO geochemist measuring gases released from Kīlauea with a Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometer, an instrument that detects gas compositions on the basis of absorbed infrared light.

The active lava flow on Kīlauea Volcano's south flank providing wonderful lava-viewing experiences for Park visitors. A section of the road can be seen here, with fume from the active lava tube in the far distance behind it, and the active flow front in the foreground. The flow front was less than 100 meters (yards) from the ocean when this photo was taken.

Just over two months since the start of the 61g flow, it reached the ocean on July 26 at 1:15 am HST. The narrow ocean entry was creating a small plume of gas and steam during today's overflight as the lava came into contact with the ocean.

A close-up view of the ocean entry with multiple small fingers of lava spilling over the cliff.

Video of the ocean entry, showing lava spilling over the sea cliff.

HVO geologists in the field overnight observed lava crossing the stretch of land between the "emergency" gravel road and the sea cliff. This photograph shows the flow front a short time before lava reached the ocean.

This photograph looks towards the ocean, from a spot along the west margin of the flow, showing the ocean entry plume just minutes after lava first reached the water.

This image shows a thermal map of the flow on the pali and coastal plain, created from airborne thermal images. White pixels are hot, and show areas of active surface breakouts. The background image is a satellite image collected before the current lava flow was active.

This map shows recent changes to Kīlauea's East Rift Zone lava flow field. The area of the active flow field as of July 19 is shown in pink, while widening and advancement of the active flow as mapped on July 26 is shown in red. Lava reached the ocean on the morning of July 26. Older Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō lava flows (1983-2016) are shown in gray.

Flow 61G reached the emergency access road inside Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park on July 25 at 3:20 pm and crossed the road in about 30 minutes. At 4:00 pm, the flow front was approximately 110 m (0.07 miles) from the ocean.

View of the slabby pāhoehoe flow front as it crosses to the ocean side of the emergency access road inside Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park.

Southeast flanks of Mount Cleveland, a volcano in the Alaskan Aleutian Islands. Gas and steam plume seen emanating from the summit.

Summit of Cleveland Volcano in Alaska's central Aleutian Islands. A lava dome is visible in the crater.

Research projects with the USGS take scientists to beautiful places and Mauna Kea volcano on Hawai‘i Island is no exception. Here is a palila field crew camping site on the north slope of Mauna Kea as the sun sets.  

During early morning field observations, a large breakout of lava near the base of Pūlama Pali (steep fault scarp in background) was visible through fumes from the lava tube and heat shimmer from lava on the coastal plain. The approximate location of the lava tube feeding Kīlauea's active lava flow is visible as degassing sources (white fume) on the pali.

A faint double rainbow provided a beautiful backdrop for sluggish pāhoehoe lava oozing out from near the flow front this morning.

The flow front remains active and consists of slowly advancing pāhoehoe. There are scattered breakouts along the margins of the flow on the coastal plain and base of the pali. During the overflight today, the flow front was 730 m (0.45 miles) from the ocean.

A breakout at the base of the pali viewed by a field crew this morning has formed a channelized ‘A‘ā flow on the steeper portion of the coastal plain.