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7 October 2005

Sampling lava and Pu`u `O`o

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Left. Stainless steel cable with hammer head on end is lowered into lava through skylight along lava tube in east branch of PKK flow at 230-feet elevation below Pulama pali. Hoe handle is used to guided cable when pulled up. After a few seconds, to ensure that lava sticks to hammer head, cable is pulled up. 0956:24. Right. Sample is pulled out of skylight, with cable draped over hoe handle. Retrieving sample from lava is tricky, for head or cable can snag as in fishing. Skilled operators are at work here. 0956:32.

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Left. Sample is dropped into can of water to quench to glass. Rock hammer is used to break glass from cable. Sample will ultimately be used for chemical analysis. 0956:46. Right. Later in day, overflight nicely shows all vents in Pu`u `O`o's crater. From lower left, East Pond Vent (big pit with lots of fume), January Vent (just beyond) East Pond Vent). South Wall Complex (almost lost in fume near crater wall,) Drainhole (standing my itself to right of South Wall Complex), Beehive (to right of Drainhole, with narrow plume of bluish fume), and West Gap (two spatter cones near right edge of image). 1221.

14 October 2005

East Lae`apuki lava delta and small skylight

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Left. Aerial view of East Lae`apuki lava delta, showing thick laze plumes at front of delta, where many lava falls are dropping into the sea. 0912. Right. Small skylight, from which a thin lava flow welled and then drained back underground. The curved wrinkles on the crust at far end of skylight formed during drainback, when the crust was hot and pliable. 1150.

24 October 2005

Murky lava ponds in crater of Pu`u `O`o

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Left. Resembling a D. Howard Hitchcock painting of Halemaumau in 1890s, this is instead an aerial view of lava pond in East Pond Vent, taken under fumey conditions. South crater floor was collapsing at this time, but East Pond Vent shows no changes. 1523. Right. Circulating lake of lava in South Wall Complex, above which a cone nested within a shallower crater existed a few days earlier. The cone collapsed, as did surrounding parts of the crater floor, to greatly modify South Wall Complex, Drainhole, Beehive, and points between, 1524.

25 October 2005

Crater of Pu`u `O`o

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Left. Aerial view looking west across Pu`u `O`o's crater, showing large crater at South Wall Complex (upper middle of image) and smaller collapse at Drainhole (just right of South Wall Complex). The collapses occured during past week. Other vents are East Pond Vent (large, leftmost vent), January Vent (two cone remnants right of East Pond Vent), and Beehive (small fuming cone at right). 1212. Right. Unusual direction of view, toward east, across crater. Cones in West Gap are in foreground, and Beehive cone and Drainhole crater are just above center of view. Reddened northwest flank of Pu`u `O`o, criss-crossed with cracks and trails, is at left. 1213.

Map of flows from Pu`u `O`o: 25 July 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 July 2005. Yellow shade indicates currently active Kuhio (PKK) flow, active most of the time from March 20, 2004 through the present (late July 2005). The east and west branches (arms) of the PKK flow, once widely separated, began to merge and overlap on coastal flat in March 2005. The east branch feeds the East Kamoamoa ocean entry and probably the East Lae`apuki entry as well. The west branch remains active, with intermittent breakouts on Pulama pali.

The brown shade denotes Martin Luther King (MLK ) flows, which first erupted in January 2004 from flank vents on the south slope of Pu`u `O`o. Since then, several more vents have formed in the MLK area, and they ontinue to erupt intermittently.

Red indicates the Mother's Day/Banana flow, which was last active in September 2004. Short flows from the crater, West Gap, and Puka Nui vents are also shown in red. In recent months, only the Puka Nui vent has produced infrequent, small flows.

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.