October 8, 2010 – Volcano, Hawaii

Video courtsey USGS, voice of Stephanie Salazar

Mobile version of video

The Pu’u O’o crater of Kilauea Volcano opened up a lava lake earlier this week. USGS volcano scientists say it is about 30 feet deep.

The volcanic crater this is the primary vent for the lava flow that extends down to the Kalapana Coast line. This week the ‘lake’ was producing small pulsating spattering that had built a small rampart on its south side.

The vent on the north floor of Pu`u `O`o Crater that began erupting on Wednesday morning effused lava onto the crater floor throughout Wednesday and into Thursday (ongoing as of Thursday morning), and has buried the east portion of the crater floor to a depth of at least 10 m (30 ft).

A USGS view of the lava lake, this one from the much lower western rim of Pu`u O`o

The latest USGS update (issued 8:29 a.m. on Friday):

The tiltmeter on the north flank of Pu`u `O`o recorded slow inflation totaling 0.4 microradians over 16 hours followed by an abrupt increase – 0.85 microradians of inflation between 4:30 and 6:45 am this morning. The hole on the north floor of Pu`u `O`o Crater that began erupting on Wednesday morning effused lava onto the crater floor through Friday morning showing no effect from the earlier episode of rapid inflation. GOES satellite thermal imagery shows a strong thermal anomaly associated with this activity. In addition, small flows continued to emanate from the vent located on the northwest edge of the crater floor.

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