Spatter cones built by vents of episode 51 on southwest flank of Pu`u `O`o, Kilauea Volcano, Hawai`i

Photo Information

Photograph by C. Heliker on April 3, 1992

Lava pours from the base of spatter cones built atop the episode-51 fissure on the southwest flank of Pu`u `O`o (note slope in lower left). Episode 51 began earlier, on March 7, when a 35-m-long fissure opened above the episode 50 fissure. The new fissure quickly built a spatter rampart on the cone and added many new flows to the shield on the west flank of Pu`u `O`o. During March and April, several brief pauses in the supply of lava to the new fissure prevented flows from advancing more than about 1.5 km from the vent.