Kīlauea Volcano Overflight: When Will the Lava Delta Collapse?

“We saw magnificent spatter in Puʻu ʻŌʻō’s amazing lava lake, many surface flows above and below the Pali and a lava delta at Kamokuna that is apparently resistant to collapse, in spite of two radial cracks that stretch across its surface,” said Tropical Visions Video photographer and videographer Mick Kalber, about last week’s Paradise Helicopters overflight of Kīlauea Volcano and the surrounding area on Thursday, Aug. 17, 2017.

Amazingly, at over seven acres, the bench at the ocean entry is still intact.

“My guess of collapse while we flew have gone by the by,” said Kalber, “but the event is inevitable as the bench continues to slump. Anybody got a guess?

Puʻu ʻŌʻō is a volcanic cone in the eastern rift zone of Kīlauea Volcano on Hawai‘i Island. Puʻu ʻŌʻō has been erupting continuously since Jan. 3, 1983, making it the longest-lived rift-zone eruption of the last two centuries.