Photo & Video Chronology - Kilauea Archive
Kilauea Latest Entries | Search | Kilauea Archive1 March 2002
Pu`u `O`o and points south
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Looking west up the east rift zone across the cone of Pu`u `O`o, with Napau Crater in background. Note the incandescent spot near the east end of the crater; this is a hole in the East Pond Vent. Trade winds blow the sulfurous fume south-southwestward. |
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| Two views of a crusted flow moving away from a new vent at about the 2180-foot elevation, just upslope from the breached rootless shield at 2150 feet. Left. Weak spattering shows location of vent. Right. Advancing lava in the new flow, which solidifies as pahoehoe. The billowy nature of the pahoehoe reflects its gas-rich nature, forming shelly pahoehoe that is torturous to try to walk across. The billows, which are 0.3-1 m high, are hollow, and the locomotion process is like walking on egg shells. | |
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| Left. Sampling gas from a hornito at about the 2130-foot elevation, just down slope from the lowest rootless shield. A tube is stuck through the side of the hornito into its hollow center, and gas is extracted for chemical analysis in the laboratory. Yellow color is native sulfur. Right. A baby hornito near the sampled one. Hammer gives scale. Great oaks from small acorns grow. | |
8 March 2002
Activity in Pu`u `O`o's crater
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Looking west up the east rift zone across the cone of Pu`u `O`o, with Napau Crater in background. Similar view to that of March 1 below. Note how much more of the crater's floor has been covered by lava, erupted in the past week, mainly in the past day or two. |
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| Two views of new crusted lava on the floor of Pu`u `O`o's crater. Left. Small active vent visible (in medium and large views )on crust of lava pond near center of image. Photographer looks southwest. Right. Small vent low on south crater wall (left-center of image) feeds flow trickling to floor of crater. Photographer looks west. | |
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Steep-sided spatter cone formed at the East Pond Vent, near the east end of Pu`u `O`o's crater. View looks west across the hot crust of the new lava fill in the crater. The spatter cone is several meters high. |
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13 March 2002
Rootless shield at 2180 feet
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Lava spills from crusted perched pond atop small rootless shield at 2180 feet. The lava cascades several meters into an older breached pond in 2150-foot shield (see February 2002 archive for photos and definition of rootless shield). The lava is moving away from the camera. In distance is part of the `a`a flow generated during breaching of the 2150-foot shield. Compare with photos above taken two days later. |
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Lava cascade from left to right, leaving the crusted pond at 2180 feet and plunging onto the 2150-foot rootless shield. The cascade is 5-7 m high. |
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15 March 2002
Rootless shield and pond at 2180 feet
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Perched pond on top of 2180-foot rootless shield has enlarged since March 13 (see image below) but still spills lava onto 2150-foot shield. The lava continues flowing out the breach in the 2150 pond (background). |
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| Two views of top of 2180-foot rootless shield. Left. Oblique aerial shot of perched pond, actively spilling, right to left, out onto 2150 shield. Right. Ground view of HVO geologist starting to thrown sampling device into lava at edge of 2180-foot perched pond. Pu`u `O`o is in far background. | |
| Video of eruptive activity |
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A`a lava flow on 23 February |
| Maps of lava-flow field, Kilauea Volcano |
Map of flows from Pu`u `O`o: 25 February 2002
Map shows lava flows erupted during the 1983-present activity of Pu`u `O`o and Kupaianaha (see large map). The flows in January and February 2002 are shown in dark red; they were fed by several rootless shields located directly above the lava tube at elevations between 2,200 and 2,050 feet. In addition, narrow streams of lava, mainly within tubes, have been descending Pulama pali along the west side of the Dec. 2000-Jan. 2002 flow field; this lava, which comes from a breakout just above the pali, is heading for the 1999 shatter ring. The most recent ocean entries at East Kupapa`u and Kamoamoa stopped in mid January and late January respectively.
Most of the recent flows between December 2000 and December 2002 were fed from breakout points at 2300-1700 feet, above the Pulama pali.
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.
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