This map shows the locations of eruptive fissures on Kīlauea Volcano’s East Rift Zone in the order that they occurred in the Leilani Estates Subdivision as of 6 a.m. Sunday, May 6, 2018.
The blue lines are paths of steepest descent that identify likely paths of a lava flow, if and when lava moves downhill from an erupting vent. USGS Photo. (Click to enlarge)
The paths of steepest-descent were calculated from a 1983 digital elevation model (DEM) of the Island of Hawai‘i, created from digitized contours. Steepest-descent path analysis is based on the assumption that the DEM perfectly represents the earth’s surface. DEMs, however, are not perfect, so the blue lines on this map can be used to infer only approximate lava-flow paths. The base shaded-relief map was made from the 1983 10-m (DEM).
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