May 5: Pu’u O’o, Before and After

Screencaps from Mick Kalber flyover videos April 28 and May 4(?) as noted by @ReelNewsHawaii on Twitter.

May 3: Earthquakes, Empty Pu’u O’o

Foggy/rainy weather had limited visibility, but the skies cleared May 3. A USGS overflight revealed the crater was completely drained:

USGS Overflight reveals drained crater of Pu’u O’o. From HVO Photo & Video Chronology blog. Full Size image is worth seeing.

At 10:30 AM, a magnitude-5 earthquake caused more of the crater to collapse, throwing up a cloud of pink ash.

Pu’u O’o crater sends up cloud of ash after M5.0 earthquake. HVO Photo/Video blog. Again, Full-sized image is dramatic.

Pu’u O’o crater sends up cloud of ash after M5.0 earthquake. HVO Photo/Video blog. Again, Full-sized image is dramatic.

See also Mick Kalber’s May 2 flyover video.

Meanwhile, increased seismicity at the summit coincided with the summit lava lake changing from inflation to deflation— this is when it began to drop (source: HVO Volcano Watch).

May 1: Pu’u O’o’s Pink Ash Plume

On May 1st, the night after Pu’u O’o’s floor fell in, the newly-drained crater was sending up a huge plume of pink ash.*

Source: Mick Kalber of Tropical Visions, flying with Paradise Helicopters, annotated by Big Island Video News. Here’s Mick’s observations about this flyover on his vimeo page).

MORE VIDEO, LINKS, INFO ON PLUME:

Continue reading May 1: Pu’u O’o’s Pink Ash Plume

Apr 30: Pu’u O’o Crater Collapse

The floor of Pu’u O’o collapsed in stages starting at 2PM in the afternoon and evening of April 30. Poor weather, fog and clouds obscured the view, but the thermal webcam positioned on Pu’u O’o’s  north rim captured it. Timelapse April 28-May 1:

This isn’t the first time it’s collapsed. Here’s a regular webcam timelapse movie of Pu’u O’o’s crater floor collapsing on March 5, 2011.

So there’s a chance the lava may return.

 

Apr 28: Pu’u O’o Lava Lake

Pu’u O’o: What it looked like just before it collapsed. See also this USGS timelapse movie of Pu’u O’o’s crater lava lake from March 20-April 18, and a blog post with a few good flyover photos on April 29.

(Pu’u O’o is a large vent on Kilauea’s shoulder that’s been erupting since 1983. See USGS / HVO photo history of the Pu’u O’o eruption.)

Dec 2011: Lava from Pu’u O’o Entering Ocean

Video by Bryan Lowry of Lavapix.com in 2011.

Back when Pu’u O’o was healthy, it sent lava flows south down the flanks of Kilauea to the ocean, mostly away from populated areas (although unfortunately it did take out the community of Kalapana plus the half-built Royal Gardens Subdivision). See HVO’s photo history of Pu’u O’o from 1983 to the present.