Day: July 29, 2018

July 28: Mini-Update Plus New Images of Summit

New Image of Halema’uma’u – July 28, 2018
July 28, 2018. USGS: “Aerial view of the summit crater from this morning’s overflight. Zoom in to see HVO and the Park’s Jaggar Museum on the caldera rim (right side of photo).” (Full-sized)

Note the light green mostly-treeless area in background at left, and then zoom in to find museum & observatory on rim at right. Then compare with:

April 13, 2018
BEFORE the big event: Kilauea caldera, April 13, 2018. USGS: “The museum and HVO are perched on the caldera rim (middle right), with the slopes of Mauna Loa visible in the background.” (Full-sized)
Today’s Eruption Summary

Summit collapse event at 2:37 am HST, July 28, 2018. Energy release equivalent to M5.4. Minor overflows on Fissure 8’s channel reported a few hours afterwards. At the coast, the SW edge of the flow remains stalled 175 m from Pohoiki boat ramp, with ocean entry a few hundred meters to its east.

Road crews are monitoring cracks on Highway 130 after increased gas emissions were detected there.

Also, notwithstanding longer intervals between recent summit collapses and a few days where the lava channel seemed lower, HVO doesn’t see any strong indications the eruption is weakening:

More photos from today

Continue reading July 28: Mini-Update Plus New Images of Summit

July 28: KÄ«lauea LIDAR Data – 3D Renders by Fumihiko Ikegami

Remember how OpenTopography.org recently posted LIDAR surveys of Kilauea from 2009, June and July 2018?

Well, volcanology PhD student Fumihiko Ikegami (@fikgm on Twitter) has been creating great 3D renders using this data.  Click on images below for large-size views of each render.

You can turn, zoom, and view this 3D model from any angle:

Before it all started— years ago, Ikegami created these using the 2009 data:

Continue reading July 28: KÄ«lauea LIDAR Data – 3D Renders by Fumihiko Ikegami