Photo & Video Chronology - Kilauea Archive
Kilauea Latest Entries | Search | Kilauea Archive6 May 2005
East Pond and MLK Vents to Kamoamoa
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| Left. MLK vent snuggled close to southwest base of Pu`u `O`o. Only a jagged remnant remains of the spatter cone (see image for April 8, 2005). 0838. Right. Seething pond of lava within MLK vent. Spatter cone collapsed into this pond. Note spatter on surface in foreground. 1014. | |
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| Left. Looking down at bubbling lava pond in MLK vent. 1234. Right. Closer view of the lava pond. The floating crust on the pond is almost constantly being broken up and reformed by the motion of the lava. 1234. | |
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| Left. Lava pond in East Pond Vent in Pu`u `O`o's crater. 0954. Right. Aerial view into Kiln hornito on upper PKK tube system, showing stream of lava flowing through the tube. Yellow-orange ring is spatter altered by escaping gas. 1251. | |
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| Left. Start of breakout in east branch of PKK flow near top of Pulama pali. Breakout began only shortly before this image was taken. 1232. Right. Near downstream end of breakout in left image, below steepest pitch of Pulama pali. Note that the lava has solidified to `a`a (dark) along margins of channels. 1245. | |
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| Left. Kamoamoa lava delta, largest of the three currently active. Most of surface of delta is coated with moving or only recently stagnated lava. 0853. Right. Front of Kamoamoa delta, with lava streams pouring off it into the water and onto a new black sand beach. 0900. | |
16 May 2005
East Kamoamoa plume and PKK skylight
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| Left. Plumes rise from E. Kamoamoa entry (foreground) and East Lae`apuki (background) on May 13, 2005. The entry at Kamoamoa is about halfway in between, with a plume too small to be visible from this angle. View is looking southwest, toward end of Chain of Craters Road. Right. Pu`u `O`o crater, looking westward across the crater vents, most of which are incandescent at night. The East Pond Vent is in the foreground. The collapsed cone hosts an active lava pond, which is about 15 m below the level of the crater floor. Photo taken on May 13, 2005. | |
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| Skylight on upper PKK lava tube. Lava is flowing toward the left side of the photo, headed toward Pulama pali. Photo taken on May 13, 2005. | |
24 May 2005
The glowing cone and to quench a sample
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| Left. HVO geologist snags a sample from an active pahoehoe flow, wearing a hood made of a non-flammable material to protect his face from the heat. The coffee can at his feet contains water to "quench," or quickly cool, the lava. Photo taken May 19, 2005 Right. Incandescent spatter cone near the south wall of the Pu`u `O`o crater. This is one of several vents inside the crater that contribute to the glow seen from Pu`u `O`o on clear nights. Photo taken May 17, 2005. | |
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| Plumes from three lava entries-East Kamoamoa, Kamoamoa, and East Lae`apuki--are visible in this photo. View is to the northwest, looking toward the end of Chain of Craters Road. Photo taken May 19, 2005. | |
Map of flows from Pu`u `O`o: 16 May 2005
Map shows lava flows erupted during 1983-present activity of Pu`u `O`o and Kupaianaha (see large map).
Yellow, brown, and red colors indicate lava flows erupted from October 2003 to mid May 2005. Yellow shade indicates currently active Kuhio (PKK) flow, active most of the time from March 20, 2004 through present (May 2005). Its large eastern arm feeds the Ka`ili`ili ocean entry. Its western arm once supplied lava to Lae`apuki, but now the west branch of that arm carries lava to the West Highcastle entry. The middle arm of the PKK flow has not amounted to much and hangs high on Pulama pali between the western and eastern arms.
Brown shade denotes MLK flows, which first erupted in January 2004, and, in brief spurts, subsequently.
Red indicates the Mother's Day/Banana flow, which is no longer active. Short flows from the crater, West Gap, and Puka Nui vents are also shown in red. Only the Puka Nui vent is currently producing infrequent, small flows.
New vents opened at the southern base of Pu`u `O`o on January 19, 2004 and fed Martin Luther King (MLK) flows, which remained active until March 5, 2004. Since then, several more vents have formed in the MLK area and continue to erupt intermittently. On March 20, 2004 the Kuhio (PKK) flow originated from two vents, about 250 m south of base of Pu`u `O`o. This flow has been continuously active since July 26, 2004.
The Banana flow developed from breakouts from the Mother's Day lava tube, centered near the former Banana Tree kipuka. The breakouts become prominent in the middle of April and lava started down Pulama pali shortly thereafter. The Banana flow fed an ocean entry from the end of May through the beginning of August. This flow stagnated early in September 2004, and Mother's Day tube died late in 2004.
Map of Pu`u `O`o and vicinity: 24 August 2004
Map shows vents, lava flows, and other features near Pu`u `O`o frequently referred to in updates (see large map). These features change often, but this map should help those viewers lost in the terminology. The cones in West Gap are just outside the boundary of the crater--the oval-shaped depression containing the seven numbered vents (now down to 6, as Humble Vent has been buried by a mound of lava flows erupted from Dave's Pit/Vent in March. Red color denotes flows--the Mother's Day flows--erupted since May 12, 2002. Light orange color indicates episode-55 flows erupted between March 1997 and August 2002 (exclusive of Mother's Day flows). Darker orange represents MLK flows; yellow, PKK flow; purple, Puka Nui flow. Vents for these sets of flows shown by indicated symbols. Gray shows flows of earlier episodes.
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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