Photo & Video Chronology - Kilauea Archive

15 September 2002

Lava on Wilipe`a bench and inland

| med | large |

| med | large |

Lava on surface of Wilipe`a bench directly seaward of end of pavement on Chain of Craters Road. Same flow that burned asphalt two days ago now moves onto bench; see aerial image taken on September 13 (below) for view of flow soon after it crossed old sea cliff onto bench. Images look directly down onto flow from top of old sea cliff--the coast before late July. In both views, lava moves toward cliff, filling shallow moat between inflated bench and cliff. Left. Width of view, about 8 m. 0457. Right. Width of view, about 4 m. Note wrinkles in crust of flow. 0501.

| med | large |

| med | large |

Left. Thin pahoehoe flow at western edge of flow field moves across grassland on coastal flat. This is exactly 1 km inland of the current turnaround for Chain of Craters Road. Flow comes from off right side of image, fed by inflating flow below Paliuli, and snakes its way across flat, nearly featureless terrain. Black band is fireline burned to control wildfire. Paliuli is dark wavy line across image at level of lower end of fireline. High ground behind is eastern end of Holei Pali. Pulama pali is higher and washed out. 0606. Right. Pahoehoe toes set fire to grass as flow slowly moves seaward 1 km inland from turnaround. 0604.

16 September 2002

Coastal lights and road enhancement

| med | large |	| med | large |
Left. Looking southwest from east side of new flow tongue between Highcastle and West Highcastle. In distance is Wilipe`a bench, with ocean entries at its front and surface flows inland. 0547. Right. New flow tongue between Highcastle and West Highcastle moving down lava fan and reaching far across 1995 bench toward the Pacific. 0553

| med | large |

Tumulus pushed up as lava flow inflated. Lava covered this part of the road on September 12-13, but tumulus has mainly grown by inflation in past two days. Tumulus is elongate parallel to roadway, perhaps influenced by road cuts. 0630.

17 September 2002

Renewed West Highcastle and continuing Wilipe`a entries

| med | large |

| med | large |

Left. Lava flowing across northeast end of West Highcastle bench. Bench was formed in late July and early August, then had no lava on it until yesterday afternoon. Bench has grown little overnight. Note wrinkled and festooned crust on stream, which is 7-9 m long. 0527. Right. Breakout at brink of sea cliff overlooking northeast end of West Highcastle bench. Lava pours from breakout over cliff onto bench. 0539.

| med | large |	| med | large |
Left. Looking obliquely down onto northeast end of West Highcastle bench, showing two places where lava enters the water. 0545. Right. Telephoto of gusher from lava tube along southeast-facing front of Wilipe`a bench, viewed from West Highcastle. Tube broke open only 1-2 minutes earlier. Height of fall, 5-7 m. 0611.

18 September 2002

One view of West Highcastle and three of Wilipe`a

| med | large |	| med | large |
Left. Sole lava entry at West Highcastle lights surf below. 0519. Right. Taken from same place as left image, looking at northeast side of Wilipe`a delta (bench) and entries from its leading edge. 0547.

| med | large |	| med | large |
Left. Lava falling into water off southeast-facing front of Wilipe`a delta (bench). 0602. Right. View from farther southwest, giving different angle to same lava falls shown in left image. 0613.

19 September 2002

Wilipe`a lava delta and beleaguered trail

| med | large |	| med | large |
Left. Wilipe`a lava delta (bench) from halfway to West Highcastle. Entries are spread along a wide front, from those visible on left to those creating glow in distance to right. Note incandescent areas on surface of delta, caused by both breakouts and fingers of a flow coming over the old sea cliff to right of view. 0521. Right. Telephoto of entry area visible at left of image above. 0558.

| med | large |

Something there is that doesn't love a trail. Especially one that challenges lava flows. This one, created by the park a short time ago to aid viewers of Wilipe`a delta, is cut by active lava flow now. 0606.

20 September 2002

Lava returns to Highcastle

| med | large |	| med | large |
Left. Looking southwest at lava falling down sea cliff onto black sand beach at Highcastle. Cliff is 8-10 m high. Vertical streak in lower right is falling blob of lava, strung out because of slow shutter speed. 0540 Right. Telephoto of base of lava falls, showing small, rough flow built on beach. If falls continue, this will develop into a small delta or bench. 0543.

| med | large |	| med | large |
Left. Breakout at top of sea cliff in flow feeding falls. Silhouetted against water is rock wall at west end of view point below buried Highcastle steps. 0547. Right. View of lava diving over sea cliff, taken with tripod astraddle rock wall in left image. Note steaming surface of stubby flow built across beach at base of cliff. 0603.

| med | large |	| med | large |
Left. Looking northeast at lava breaking out from under crust and starting to fall to base of sea cliff. 0552. Right. Looking northeast down onto stubby, ragged flow on black sand beach at base of Highcastle sea cliff. This flow will grow into a delta (bench) if supply continues and surf remains low. 0555.

| med | large |

Lava issues from under crust in upper left and flows lazily into low area on surface of Highcastle lobe, about 100 m inland of sea cliff. In background is Pulama pali. Fume and smoke come from broad flow and adjacent small fires on upper part of pali. 0617.

21 September 2002

Odds 'n Ends at the Coast

| med | large |	| med | large |
Left. Lava has flowed onto 1995 delta (bench) and locally is moving off front of delta into water. View looks south down onto delta from top of pre1995 sea cliff. Western of two new entries between Highcastle and West Highcastle. 0542. Right. Approximately same view as one to left, but after dawn. Shows sandy beach constructed seaward of 1995 delta. Lava is moving across and along delta. 0601.

| med | large |	| med | large |
Left. Breakouts in flow feeding western of two entries. 0555. Right. Looking east at top of lava falls onto black sand beach, eastern of two new entries between Highcastle and West Highcastle. Lava from falls combines on beach to form short flow that enters water and may eventually become a delta. 0549.

| med | large |	| med | large |
Left. Steam comes from front of Wilipe`a delta, as viewed from just west of West Highcastle. Pre-1995 sea cliff in near right. Note new wave-cut cliff in delta, and sublimates on surface. 0625. Right. Same location as image to left. Looking northeast along coast, showing steam from West Highcastle in front of point and steam from new entries on other side of point. 0628

22 September 2002

Sunday morning at the coast

| med | large |

| med | large |

Left. Steamy glow at northeasternmost ocean entry. Looking down on northeast end of 1995 delta. Lava is flowing across delta and into water. Subhorizontal streaks seaward of delta front are incandescent rocks carried rapidly outward by receding water. 0527. Right. Taken from same place as left image but later to show more details. Long flow started to gush from sudden breakout at top of sea cliff about 20 minutes earlier. 0549.

| med | large |	| med | large |
Left. Breakout point for long narrow flow in right image above. Note the elongate bubbles, stretched as lava accelerates over sea cliff, jamming up as flow encounters obstacle in lower left. 0559. Right. Lava on 1995 delta, fed by different flows than previous images. View looks down onto surface of delta. Surf visible in upper right, responsible from steam along front of active delta. 0603.

| med | large |

Telephoto, using digital zoom, of several lava streams pouring into water off southeast-facing part of Wilipe`a delta. Prominent falls are 2-3 m high. 0623.

23 September 2002

A pretty first morning of autumn at West Highcastle

| med | large |	| med | large |
Views looking east of lava entering the ocean at West Highcastle. Approximate height of freely falling lava, 3-4 m. In both views, incandescent pieces of lava are floating on water receding after wave.  Left. 0516. Right. 0522.

| med | large |	| med | large |
Higher magnification of lava entering the sea. Left. Steam reflects glow from incandescent lava streams. 0527. Right. Steam has temporarily disappeared from one of the entry points. 0529.

| med | large |

Lava flows across top of delta and plunges into water at same entry points as those shown above. The lava on top of delta has in turn cascaded down an old sea cliff (out of sight to left) to reach the surface of the growing delta. 0530.

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.