Images

Several other spatter cones were active in Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō crater today, producing loud jetting and hissing sounds as gas is forced through narrow incandescent openings.

The summit lava lake in Halema‘uma‘u Crater dropped slightly last week in response to summit deflation, but has returned to higher levels with resumed inflation. Fluctuations like this have been common during the summit eruption. The lake is currently at a level that has been typical for the past year.

Colors ranging from pink to purple indicate the water depth around the islands, while shades of gray show land topography above sea level. Red areas on the Island of Hawai‘i indicate lava flows erupted within the past 200 years.

Preview image for video: The lava lake in the Overlook crater, within Halema‘uma‘u Crater at Kīlauea's summit, undergoes frequent periods of spattering. The spattering is normally at the lake margins, and the surface crust often flows towards, and is consumed at, the spattering source.

Mount Rainier volcano looms over Puyallup Valley, near Orting, Washington.

A photograph of Mount St. Helens, as viewed from Elk Rock on January 18, 2014.

Mount Rainier volcano looms over Puyallup Valley, near Orting, Washington.

Scientists conduct a stream channel cross-section survey of the Toutle River on the north side of Mount St. Helens (view to the southwest).

Colors ranging from red to purple indicate the water depth around the Island of Hawai‘i, while shades of gray show land topography above sea level. Red shows lava flows erupted over the past 200 years. The Puna Ridge represents the submarine extension of Kīlauea's east rift zone.

During the 1926 Mauna Loa eruption, an ‘a‘ā flow about 457 m (1500 ft) wide and 9 m (30 ft) high headed straight for the village of Ho‘ōpūloa on April 18, as shown here. By the next day, the lava flow had destroyed a dozen houses, a church, and the wharf, and had nearly obliterated the bay. 

The Kahauale‘a 2 flow remains active northeast of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō, with the flow front this week consisting of a narrow finger that has reached 7.5 km (4.7 miles) northeast of the vent on Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō. The flow front has cut a narrow swath through the forest, and is igniting numerous small fires.

The Kahauale‘a 2 flow remains active northeast of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō, with the flow front this week consisting of a narrow finger that has reached 7.5 km (4.7 miles) northeast of the vent on Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō. The flow front has cut a narrow swath through the forest, and is igniting numerous small fires.

View of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō, looking southwest. The vent for the Kahauale‘a 2 flow is on the near side of the crater, close to the center of the photograph (but obscured by white fume).

Map showing the submarine shape of the Hawaiian hotspot track, which extends from the Hawaiian Islands, through a prominent bend in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, to Alaska's Aleutian Islands. The inset shows the volcanoes in the main Hawaiian Islands.

During the first few hours of the Kamoamoa fissure eruption in March 2011, lava bubbled to the surface through a ground crack that propagated along Kīlauea Volcano's East Rift Zone. How it and other Hawaiian fissure eruptions work will be the topic of a talk at UH-Hilo on January 16, 2014.

Erupting vents on Mauna Loa's Northeast Rift Zone near Pu‘u‘Ula‘ula (Red Hill) on Mar. 25, 1984—just hours after the eruption began—sent massive ‘A‘ā lava flows moving toward Hilo at 4 miles per hour. By the time the eruption ended on April 15, lava flows had reached to within four miles of Hilo city limits. USGS photo.

Hawaiian Volcano Observatory seismologists will talk about Hawaii's history of destructive earthquakes in two public presentations. Paul Okubo (right) will speak at the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo on November 20, and Wes Thelen (left) will speak in Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park on November 26.

Julia Griswold is a geologist with the USGS-USAID Volcano Disaster Assistance Program.

In left foreground, ice-ravaged mafic edifice Little Brother is separated from North Sister by Little Ice Age trough of Collier Glacier. Both North Sister and Little Brother expose numerous oxidized scoria falls, whereas smooth black Middle Sister cone is cloaked by mafic lava flows.

Map showing one-year probability of accumulation of 1 centimeter (0.4 inch) or more of tephra from eruptions of volcanoes in the Cascade Range.

Photo of Crater Lake with oblique bathymetric image of the caldera floor beneath the lake's surface. Oregon