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View is from northwest caldera rim atop Uwekahuna Bluff toward the east-northeast. The northeast caldera wall (right of tree) consists of several large blocks (referred to as step faults or faulted blocks) that slid or collapsed downward as the summit area of Kilauea subsided to form the current caldera. Volcano House Hotel is on the caldera rim directly above the blocks. The caldera was much deeper immediately after it formed than today -- in 1823, more than 33 years after geologists estimate that the caldera stopped collapsing, observers estimated the caldera floor was 540 m below the rim, whereas today it is only about 135 m. The dark lava flows on the caldera floor (right of faulted blocks) were erupted in 1974 and 1971; lava flows erupted in 1919 from Halema`uma`u cover most of the caldera floor in foreground ( see geologic map). |
