Images

The summit lava lake today was at a relatively low level, about 65 meters (210 feet) below the Overlook crater rim, associated with summit deflation. Spattering was active along the lake margins. This photograph shows overflows from April and May (dark lava in bottom portion of photograph) covering the floor of Halema‘uma‘u Crater.

Pele's hair covers the roadside along Crater Rim Drive, next to the Halema‘uma‘u parking lot, in an area of Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park closed to the public due to proximity to the summit lava lake. The Pele's hair (long strand of volcanic glass) is emitted from the lava lake and carried upwards by the rising gas plume, and then drifts downwind.

Top image shows the forested Pu‘u Kahauale‘a cone on July 18, 2014, surrounded by the June 27th lava flow (light gray surfaces) with Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō in distance. Below, what remains of the Pu‘u Kahauale‘a cone on July 23, 2015, with only the very top of the cone visible.

Volcano monitoring station with external GPS antenna and digital seismometer (buried). Fiberglass enclosure houses power supply and communications, and is designed to withstand harsh weather.

Soufrière Hills volcano in Montserrat.

Gas collection from a bubbling source within Pelican Creek, Yellowstone. Inverted funnel placed over gas source, gas travels through tubing into evacuated/vacuum glas flask to be analyzed in lab.

This thermal image of the Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō crater, sent by text on May 7, 2015, to USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory geologists, is an example of the thermal camera alarm system developed at HVO. In this case, the alarm was triggered by the appearance of new lava on the floor of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō, seen here as the brightly colored (hot) region in the image.

Gas flask sampling at West Astringent Creek, Yellowstone. Open tube with attached gas chamber inserted into ground, gas travels through tube into vacuum flask being held by scientist.

Dr. Jim Kauahikaua, accompanied by his wife, Jeri Gertz (left), traveled to Washington, D.C., where he received the DOI Meritorious Service Award on May 5, 2015, in recognition of his scientific contributions in the field of volcano hazards and leadership of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory for the U.S. Geological Survey. USGS photo.

This map shows recent changes to Kīlauea's active East Rift Zone lava flow field. The area of the flow on June 30 is shown in pink, while widening and advancement of the flow as of July 7 is shown in red. The yellow line is the active lava tube. Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō lava flows erupted prior to June 27, 2014, are shown in gray.

This small-scale map shows Kīlauea's active East Rift Zone lava flow in relation to lower Puna. The area of the flow on June 30 is shown in pink, while widening and advancement of the flow as of July 7 is shown in red.

Is there volcanic activity on Venus? This artistic rendering shows how an erupting Venusian volcano might look. Image courtesy of the European Space Agency.

This map shows recent changes to Kīlauea's active East Rift Zone lava flow field. The area of the flow on June 19 is shown in pink, while widening and advancement of the flow as of June 30 is shown in red. Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō lava flows erupted prior to June 27, 2014, are shown in gray.

This map overlays a georeferenced thermal image mosaic onto the flow field change map to show the distribution of active and recently active breakouts. The thermal images were collected during a helicopter overflight of the flow field today (June 30). The June 27th flow is outlined in green to highlight the flow margin. The yellow line is the active lava tube.

Active pāhoehoe lava is scattered over a broad area northeast of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō, but has not advanced significantly over the past month. Today, the farthest active lava was about 7.5 km (4.7 miles) from the vent on Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō, with the leading tip of this breakout burning vegetation. Aerial view towards the southwest. Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō is in the upper left.

A closer look at the upper June 27th flow field, where numerous breakouts were active. The active breakouts are visible as the light-colored areas near the bottom of the photo. In the lower right, the remains of Pu‘u Kahauale‘a can be seen. Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō is in the upper left.

A view of the southern portion of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō crater, where two small incandescent vents have been active recently.

A closer view of the one of the pāhoehoe breakouts near Pu‘u Kahauale‘a. The dark flakes on the surface are bits of crust from the underlying flow that get stuck to the front of the newer flow, and end up on the top surface as the nose of the new flow inflates.

A view of the breakouts active near Pu‘u Kahauale‘a.

This 1891 map shows much of the saddle between Mauna Kea (at top of map) and Mauna Loa. Lava flows depicted as black irregular shapes in the lower half of the map were erupted from Mauna Loa, with labeled ages ranging from "ancient" to 1881.