Photo & Video Chronology - Kilauea Archive

7 August 2000

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Scientists from the University of Hawai`i in Manoa calibrate thermal-monitoring instruments (radiometers) at a skylight (in background) in the Smoke flow at the 2020-foot elevation above Pulama pali. The instruments will be installed on the rim of Pu`u `O`o later this year to provide real-time information about the temperature of specific features within the crater. Such data will help calibrate and interpret satellite images of thermal features on volcanoes.

9 August 2000

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Lava spouts onto bench and then into sea at an entry 100 m east of Waha`ula at dusk. The weak fire hose arc is estimated to be 1.5-2 m wide. During 45 minutes of observation, the flux slowly waxed and waned by perhaps 20 percent but always maintained a steady flow. The lava leaves the end of a tube that connects back to the Pu`u `O`o area, 11 km away. Steam in background comes from main Waha`ula entry.

11 August 2000

Just another Friday evening at the coast

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Sluggish toes of pahoehoe slowly spreading across coastal flat 200 m west of private access road to Royal Gardens. The pahoehoe comes from a nearby crack in an inflating flow. Note the lava starting to fall into a crack near right edge of photo.

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Lava in pahoehoe toe slowly filling a crack, which formed during cooling and possibly inflation of a flow surface several weeks ago. Lava from the surface breakout shown above sags slowly, almost reluctantly, into the crack.

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Lava poised to cascade over old sea cliff east of Waha`ula (left) and, several minutes later (right), pouring down onto the bench below the cliff. Note the small ocean entries in the background and on the black sand beach fronting the bench.

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Gushes from the pahoehoe flow that is actively cascading over the sea cliff. These lobes, however, are several tens of meters behind the cliff (to the right) and probably will solidify before making it to the cascade.

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Darkness falls on coast east of Waha`ula, and two entry clusters become apparent in middle ground. Note the people in the upper right corner, standing just west of the lava cascade shown in the photos above. Large steam plume in background comes from the Waha`ula entry point.

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Looking down onto small lava oozes and flows making their way across the bench to their eventual demise in the warm sea. The lava is fed by the cascade along right side of view. Photo taken from nearly the same place as photo above.

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The coastline equivalent of the hackneyed sunset shot. Bright glow in full darkness indicates that the lava in the cascade and on the bench is a tad hot, about 1140 degrees C.

15 August 2000

Breakouts occur along the tube below Pu`u `O`o

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Multiple breakouts from the lava tube at the 2250-foot elevation. This site, 1.5 km southeast of Pu`u `O`o, has been a frequent source of surface flows since late 1999. The rootless shields are just downstream of the site, which itself may become a rootless shield if activity continues for long. Width of view, about 100 m.

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(Left) HVO personnel at the edge of a new skylight at the 2200-foot elevation. (Right) Lava stream visible in the 2200-foot skylight. The ribbed texture on the flow is a thin crust that forms because the lava cools as it flows past this large opening in the tube. Crusts of solid lava (visible in the photo) are quickly forming on either side of the stream, threatening to form a new roof over the stream within a few days time.

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Another view into the 2200-foot skylight. Note the dark areas and ropy texture of the tacky crust that has formed on the lava stream. Solidified drips of lava hang from the roof of the tube.

29 August 2000

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Many-fingered pahoehoe flow (silver) from breakout point at 2300-foot elevation. The thin lobes are overrunning old (1985) `a`a flows (tan) and recent `a`a flows (black) along the east side of the episode 55 flow field. See large image for detail.

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Fluid pahoehoe flow pours over edge of older `a`a flow. In the background is a small kipuka of vegetation that will soon be burned by the lava.

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Shallow skylights in the new lava tubes, which are forming as surface flows crust over near the 2300 ft breakout point.

31 August 2000

Surface flows resume after brief pause

Lava production at Pu`u `O`o paused from late on the night of August 23 until early evening on August 26. At the end of the pause, surface breakouts from the tube resumed at the 2300-foot elevation, where they had been active before the pause began. As of August 31, these breakouts were continuing to advance but were still well above the top of Pulama pali. The breakouts are overriding older flows from this eruption.

Large map. Map shows lava flows (red) on Pulama pali and coastal plain active since October 1999, as well as flows erupted earlier from Pu`u `O`o and Kupaianaha. Compare this map with that for the previous updates to see how the flow has widened eastward between Royal Gardens and Waha`ula. Lava reached the ocean at the Lae`apuki bench on December 17-18, 1999; this was known as the West flow. The West flow has been inactive since early April. The eastern part of the active flow field reached the Royal Gardens private access road on January 11 and entered the sea near Waha`ula on February 3-14, 2000. The flow descending Pulama pali to feed this area is the Smoke flow; it is currently the only active flow.

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