Photo & Video Chronology - Kilauea Archive

1 August 2002

Lava, lava everywhere, not only at the coast

| med | large |

Two streams of lava in Mother's Day flow pour down Pulama pali inland of Paliuli, lighting the predawn (0448) sky in most spectacular display of flow in some time. This is view visitors get from end of pavement after short walk from parking area.

| med | large |	| med | large |
West Highcastle bench.  Left. Lava dribble and falls into water off front of bench at 0524. Right. Mostly crusted breakout on bench, and same falls shown in left image, with dawning sky behind at 0528.

| med | large |	| med | large |
Wilipe`a bench.  Left. View at 0543 from east end of bench, showing lava entries on east side of leading tip of bench. Right. Visitors watch lava flow cover black sand beach at west end of Wilipe`a bench, 0604.

2 August 2002

Aerial view of active flow and benches, and a hornito or spatter cone

| med | large |

Aerial view of active flow field between Wilipe`a and West Highcastle benches and Paliuli. The shiny gray color of the new flows makes it easy to distinguish them from the vegetated flows on left (probably 600-900 years old) and the dark 1992-97 flows. View looks northeast.

| med | large |

A roofed spatter cone--termed a hornito by some--built above upper part of Mother's Day lava tube just southwest of Pu`u `O`o and about 10 km from Wilipe`a bench.

5 August 2002

Viewers at Wilipe`a bench

| med | large |

Viewers cluster atop sea cliff for best view of lava entering sea off southwest part of Wilipe`a bench. 0539, just before dawn.

6 August 2002

Lava near Highcastle

| med | large |

Dawn over slowly advancing lava 170 m inland from eastern Highcastle kipuka. 0541.

| med | large |	| med | large |
Left. Toes of lava emerge from pahoehoe along edge of Highcastle lobe of Mother's Day flow at 0551. Toes are fed from liquid interior of flow, which is both moving seaward and inflating. Right. View inland at 0552 from tip of Highcastle lobe. In middle distance, tops of four or five Paliuli cascades are visible. Pulama pali in background.

7 August 2002

Mother's Day descent, and finger into the sea

| med | large |	| med | large |
Left. Looking inland, over Paliuli (middleground) to slope above. Steep slope is Pulama pali. View shows main branch of Mother's Day flow. West branch is just left of view. Right. Shiny active tongue of West Highcastle flow nears sea cliff on east side of West Highcastle entry area.

| med | large |	| med | large |
Left. Only a matter of minutes now before lava plunges down sea cliff to Pacific below.  Right. Tongue feeds dribble of lava onto rocky base of sea cliff.

8 August 2002

Highcastle lobe, in night and day

| med | large |	| med | large |
Left. Bubbly lava toe at leading edge of most active tongue of Highcastle lobe at 0556. In large view, note incandescent wrinkles in crust on lava. Width of view about 70 cm. Right. Head-on view of most active tongue of Highcastle lobe, heading toward sea but still 85 m away. Pulama pali in background. 0603.

| med | large |	| med | large |
Left. Branch of most active tongue burning vegetation at 0611. Right. Most active tongue, though slithering quickly downslope, is dwarfed in context of entire flow field. Pulama pali in background. 0622.

Map shows lava flows erupted during the 1983-present activity of Pu`u `O`o and Kupaianaha (see large map). Lava from the Mother's Day flow (red flow on west side of flow field) reached the sea at West Highcastle early on July 19 and at Wilipe`a early on July 21. Active flows in May-July (shown in red) originate from two sources—the area of the rootless shields and an area just southwest of Pu`u `O`o. The two flows from the rootless shields are the Boundary flow, the longer flow along the edge of the national park, and the HALP flow, which moved into Royal Gardens subdivision on May 21. From near the southwest base of Pu`u `O`o, the Mother's Day flow passes along the west side of the flow field and into the forest, where it started a large wildfire in May that continued into late July. By June 10, the Mother's Day flow had reached the base of Paliuli, the steep slope and cliff below Pulama pali and just above the coastal flat. At the base of Paliuli, the Mother's Day flow abruptly spread laterally in a series of small budding flows to cover an area nearly 2 km wide, gradually moving seaward until the West Highcastle and Wilipe`a lobes finally reached the ocean and started building benches.

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.