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Images and Chronology

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24 October 2008

Active breakouts in Royal Gardens, bright white object, and lava streams at Waikupanaha ocean entry

Left. Overview of breakouts active in the Royal Gardens subdivision. The source of these flows is at the top of the pali, on the skyline, and their terminus is on the coastal plain below the bottom of the photo. Right. The new flows stand out much better when viewed from the opposite angle. The shiny lobe crossing through the center of the photo was active last week. The red roof to the left of that flow is the last intermittently occupied house in the subdivision.

Left. Most of the active breakouts stretched from Paradise Street, on the right side of the photo, out onto the coastal plain near the base of the pali. The bright white object at the center of the photo is the roof of an unoccupied house that burned sometime in the last 24 hours from lava-sparked fires. Right. The breakouts near the base of the pali were feeding several small channelized `a`a flows, like the one shown here.

Left. Overview of flow field on the coastal plain. The Waikupanaha entry is at left, and the Royal Gardens subdivision is near upper right. Right. Close-up of the Waikupanaha ocean entry. Small lava streams were spread all along the front of the small, but growing delta.

16 October 2008

Impressive channelized `a`a flows in Royal Gardens, and a structure destroyed

Left. Breakouts have been active in the Royal Gardens subdivision throughout the past week. Despite a slight slowdown over the last day or two, Kilauea continues to impress with channelized `a`a flows such as the pictured here. Right. Pahoehoe flows on the west side of the currently active flow field followed an old `a`a flow part-way down the pali. The pahoehoe flows are the gray-colored flows on top of the brown `a`a crossing through the center of the photo. Activity then backed up-slope where trees can be seen burning.

Left. The flows on the west side of the active flow field followed Ali`i Avenue for a short distance, where they destroyed one of the two remaining intermittently occupied structures in the subdivision. In this photo, the house has already been destroyed and active flows are covering other rain tarps and other items. Right. An hour and a half later, nearly everything had been buried and destroyed.

12 October 2008

Movie of the latest explosive eruption from Halema`uma`u

This Quicktime movie (x3 speed) shows the latest explosive eruption from the vent in Halema`uma`u, which occurred at 7:28am. A robust, ash-rich mushroom cloud is ejected, and followed by pulses of hot, glowing gas and particles. The explosion deposited a field of fist-size ejecta around the crater rim.

This is another movie of the October 12 explosive eruption captured by a camera located on the rim of Halema`uma`u just above the vent. The camera was completely engulfed in the ash cloud, turning day to night, then bombarded by falling ejecta.

11 October 2008

Awesome quicktime movie of Halema`uma`u ash-rich pulse!

This Quicktime movie (x3 speed) shows an ash event from the vent in Halema`uma`u, occurring at 3:54 pm. The normally white degassing plume is rapidly overwhelmed with a vigorous ash-rich pulse that rises rapidly from the vent. Red flashes above the vent indicate hot, incandescent material being ejected.

9 October 2008

No changes at Pu`u `Ō `ō, TEB breakout, and channelized flow

Left. There have been no significant changes at Pu`u `Ō `ō for the last several weeks, and the crater remains obscured by heavy fume. Despite the thick fume, some vents within the crater can be roughly located by observing areas where the vigorous fuming rises above the general background level of fume, as can be seen in this photo. Right. A breakout from the TEB tube above Royal Gardens continues to flow down the east margin of the TEB flow field. The terminus, just below the center of the photo, has several small `a`a channels. The upper portion of the breakout has been resurfaced by pahoehoe, and is the slightly darker-colored lava just above photo center. Mauna Kea shines in the background at upper right, and the broad summit of Mauna Loa is at upper left. Pu`u `Ō `ō is the heavily fuming cone near upper left, and the TEB vent is the fume source at top center.

Left. A breakout near the bottom of Royal Gardens reactivated shortly before we flew over this morning. It was feeding a rapidly moving channelized flow heading toward the left (southwest), with part of the breakout pouring back into the lava tube through a skylight. Right. In this close-up, the channelized flow crosses the upper right-hand corner of the photo, though the highlight is at center frame where lava pours back into the tube through a skylight. Very little cooling occurred before lava re-entered the tube giving it a shiny, smooth surface. The big block of cooled lava in the middle of the stream above the skylight is roughly 3 meters across (~10 feet).

3 October 2008

Barely visible lava lake at Halema`uma`u Crater and minor ocean entry at Waikupanaha

Left. The surface of the lava lake in Halema`uma`u Crater was barely visible today through the thick fume. A red tint in the upper right corner of the vent can be seen, but no clear views were captured due to the fume. Right. Lava enters the ocean at Waikupanaha creating a minor ocean entry plume due to a DI event that started yesterday morning. The photo was taken during this morning's overflight when the tilt was at the bottom of the D phase.

Eruption-viewing opportunities change constantly, so refer to this page often. Those readers planning a visit to Kilauea or Mauna Loa volcanoes can get much useful information from Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park.