Photo & Video Chronology - Kilauea Archive

3 November 2002

Lava on the West Highcastle delta

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Left. Lava flow spreads slowly across northeast end of West Highcastle delta, with glow from ocean entry below predawn sky. 0544. Right. Looking a little more southerly than in left image, showing two large entry points and more of breakout flow. 0556

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Left. Breakout in above images reaches across black sand beach, consisting of glassy fragments formed when lava enters water and is washed by waves to protected area alongside delta. Note water just beyond front of delta at top of image. 0558. Right. Similar view to one on left, giving greater perspective. 0559.

5 November 2002

Lava comes over Paliuli

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Left. Mostly crusted lava drops slowly down eastern part of active Paliuli and spreads languidly onto coastal flat below. Height of pali is about 10 m. 0603. Right. Lava breaking out from small tube and moving slowly down fan built against Paliuli. West end of active cascades. 0608.

6 November 2002

Pu`u `O`o to the sea

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Left. Looking southwest at fuming vents on floor of Pu`u `O`o's crater. In large view, two incandescent spots are visible. Right. Incandescent Cookie Monster skylight and hornito along upper part of Mother's Day lava tube. Hornito is 2-3 m high.

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Left. Kona wind blows laze onshore from West Highcastle (distant) and Wilipe`a (near) lava deltas. Western edge of Mother's Day flow shown where it crosses Chain of Craters Road. Right. Front of West Highcastle lava delta. Large view shows lava entering water near center of image.

7 November 2002

East arm of Mother's Day flow on coastal flat

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Looking upslope across new east arm of Mother's Day flow (shiny, in middleground) toward Pulama pali. Paliuli is hidden by high area in new arm. Fume in otherwise clear sky comes from Pu`u `O`o.

8 November 2002

Lava slowing advancing across coastal flat

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Left. Lava breakouts out from front of flow and ponds against high area to left. Width of view, about 10 m. 0542. Right. Small breakouts from slowly advancing flow. Width of view, about 8 m. 0543.

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Left. Toes oozing from under crust. Note stretching of bubbles. Width of view, about 2 m. 0549. Right. Separating crust on moving flow. Crust tears slowly in typical zig-zag fashion. Width of view, about 3 m. 0552

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View looks to top of Pulama pali from front of flow on coastal flat. Paliuli is hidden by rise in active flow. Image is very similar to that of November 7 below. Fume comes from higher up flow, along east edge of Mother's Day flow on gentle slope between Pulama pali and Paliuli. 0557.

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Later in day, helicopter view of Mother's Day flow looking inland. Part of West Highcastle delta can be seen in lower left. New east arm of flow (center right), shown in images above, is prominent. This arm, if it continues, would soon turn abruptly and enter the ocean about where the prominent sea cliff ends. At center skyline is Pu`u `O`o.

9 November 2002

Lava up close and personal

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Left. Setting of next 11 images. Lava in east arm of Mother's Day flow has filled shallow basin and is spilling over the "levee" to the next lower depression. Relief from top of basin fill to base of cascade, about 3 m. Pulama pali and fuming flow in background. 0628. Right. One of several cascades pouring from filled depression. Width of entire river, 4-5 m. 0632.

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Close-ups of lava toes on slope during start of cascades. Note broken and stretched bubbles in each toe. Left. Two toes nestled against one another. Toe in lower right is older, as can be told by darker color (thicker developing crust). Width of view, about 30-40 cm. 0557. Right. Front of one toe on gentle slope. Width of view, about 40 cm. 0558.

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Left. Two toes branching from a third on gentle slope. Width of view, about 1 m. 0559. Right. Extreme close-up of lava toe, showing many bubbles and stretched filaments of lava. Width of view, about 30 cm. 0601.

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Left. Lava gushing from breached toe in upper left. Width of view, about 50 cm. 0609.  Right. Enough crust has formed on this small gush to be wrinkled, even though crust is still incandescent. Width of view, 50-70 cm. 0610.

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Left. More advanced stage of wrinkle formation than in right image above. Most crust has cooled just enough to lose incandescence, but furrows are opening and have not yet cooled. Width of view, about 50 cm. 0627. Right. Fairly mature wrinkled crust is being stretched so that furrows are exposing incandescent base of crust. Width of view, 1-1.5 m. 0620.

10 November 2002

Tip of east arm in predawn light

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Tip of east arm of Mother's Day flow, 450-500 m from coastline. This area was quite active a few minutes ago but went into lull as sky began to brighten. Tip is trapped in closed depression and has to inflate over rim before it can advance seaward. 0610.

11 November 2002

Deltas remain active

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Lava pours into water off southeast side of West Highcastle delta. Most views recently have not been this good, for activity has been farther out on fronts of both West Highcastle and Wilipe`a deltas. For the past couple of mornings, however, cascades and spigots have been turned on at West Highcastle. 0602.

12 November 2002

Burning bushes and a toe race

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Left. Western finger of east arm of Mother's Day flow has entered Highcastle kipuka, setting small bushes on fire at base of vegetated tumulus. 0549. Right. Lava toes race--figuratively, anyway--seaward near tip of east arm. 0600.

13 November 2002

East arm of Mother's Day flow continues advance

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Left. Lava spills into the sea along the southeast tip of the West Highcastle lava delta. Right. Lava toes of the east arm of the Mother's Day flow continue moving toward the sea, about 180 m away. 0730.

14 November 2002

East arm nears sea cliff

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A thin finger of the east arm of Mother's Day flow was only 10 m from the sea cliff at 11 this morning. This and many other advancing flows along the east arm suggest a new ocean entry is likely to form by day's end.  Lava continues to spill into the sea from both West Highcastle and Wilipe`a deltas. 1145.

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Geologists working on Pu`u `O`o cone earlier this week came face to face with this statue-like hornito emerging from the west gap pit. The hornito actually formed in May, probably during the initial activity that led to the Mother's Day flow. Photo was taken November 12.

15 November 2002

Highcastle sputters and east arm of Mother's Day flow advances

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Left. Early morning glow along the edge of the West Highcastle lava delta. 0600 Right. Pahoehoe flow creeps over the black sand beach at the base of the Highcastle sea cliff. West Highcastle lava delta in upper left. 0630.

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Aerial views of the east arm of the Mother's Day flow and Highcastle (located east of the West Highcastle lava delta). Left. View is looking east from above the main part of the Mother's Day flow. Right. Circle marks the area where a small lava finger spilled over the sea cliff to touch the black sand beach early on the evening of November 14 (see top left photo). Little or no lava was spilling over the sea cliff early this morning, but other flows of the east arm were still advancing seaward.

Map shows lava flows erupted during the 1983-present activity of Pu`u `O`o and Kupaianaha (see large map). Active flows in May-July (shown in red) originated 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. 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, at Wilipe`a early on July 21, and at Highcastle on August 8. 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. Activity at West Highcastle ended in early August, but entry began soon thereafter at Highcastle, eventually burying tiny kipuka of the Chain of Craters Road. The Wilipe`a entry died away slowly and had ended by mid-August. Highcastle and neighboring Highcastle Stairs entries ended on about August 23. For a time there were no active entries. Then Wilipe`a was reactivated on September 3 and remains active as of September 19. West Highcastle likewise renewed its activity on September 16-17 but died away during the night of September 18-19. Not shown on the map is the new northeastern end of the Wilipe`a bench, which extends halfway to West Highcastle from the east end of the bench shown on the map.

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.