Photos & Videos of East Rift Zone, July 9 & 10

The County of Hawai‘i released these pictures and videos taken from an overflight by the Hawai‘i County Fire Department of the East Rift Zone on Monday, July 9, 2018.

The Lower East Rift Zone on July 9, 2018. PC HFD.

VC: Hawai‘i Civil Defense

The Lower East Rift Zone on July 9, 2018. PC HFD.

VC: Hawai‘i Civil Defense

The Lower East Rift Zone on July 9, 2018. PC HFD.

VC: Hawai‘i Civil Defense

The U.S. Geological Survey released these pictures and videos of the East Rift Zone on Tuesday, July 10, 2018.

Kīlauea’s lower East Rift Zone

View from Bryson’s quarry around 11:45 p.m. lMonday, July 9, 2018, looking uprift past Halekamahina (an older ash cone) to fissure 8, which is creating the glow behind the cone.

Photo of the Lower East Rift Zone on July, 10, 2018. PC: USGS

Bright areas indicate incandescent lava, with the brightest areas showing the trace of the lava channel. A blockage in the channel produced overflows that are seen as spotty incandescence. Lava flows in the foreground are near the base of the quarry cinder pit.

Fissure 8 and a full lava channel as seen during HVO’s early morning overflight.

Photo of the Lower East Rift Zone on July, 10, 2018. Click to enlarge. PC: USGS

The visible road is Nohea Street in the Leilani Estates subdivision. Steam generated from heated rain water rose from the tephra deposits and lava flows surrounding Fissure 8.

Aerial view of Kapoho Crater looking toward the south-southeast.

Photo of the Lower East Rift Zone on July, 10, 2018. Click to enlarge. PC: USGS

Part of the lava channel became blocked just upstream of Kapoho Crater yesterday, diverting flows to the west and then south around the crater (center right). Lava exiting a crusted section of the channel continued flowing in the channel pathway (lower center to left).

During HVO’s morning overflight on Tuesday, July 10, the dramatic difference in landscapes on the northern and southern sides of the Fissure 8 lava channel was readily apparent.

Photo of the Lower East Rift Zone on July, 10, 2018. Click to enlarge. PC: USGS

With dominant trade winds blowing heat and volcanic gases to the southwest, the north side of the lava channel remains verdant, while, in stark contrast, vegetation on the south side has been severely impacted and appears brown and yellow. The Fissure 8 cone is obscured by a cloud of steam (top center).

Lava oozes from a small breakout near Bryson’s cinder quarry on Kīlauea Volcano’s lower East Rift Zone.

The breakout was part of a small overflow from the Fissure 8 lava channel. HVO field crews track the Fissure 8 overflows, breakouts and lava channel behavior as conditions allow, and report information to the Hawai‘i County Civil Defense Agency.

Time-lapse images show changes at Kīlauea Volcano’s summit caldera

This series of images from June 13 through July 7, 2018, show dramatic down-dropping of part of Kīlauea Volcano’s summit caldera floor. For weeks, the summit has subsided in both a continuous fashion, as well as in incremental, jolting drops.

The withdrawal of magma from the summit reduces pressure in the shallow magma reservoir. When this reduction becomes too great, rock that forms the floor of Halema‘uma‘u and parts of the surrounding Kīlauea caldera floor slump into the shallow magma reservoir to generate a collapse/explosion event. These events occur about every 24 to 32 hours. This view, from the Keanakāko‘i Overlook, is toward the north, across the caldera floor.