June 16, 2010 – Volcano, Hawaii

Video courtesy USGS, voice of Tim Bryan

The video of the active Pu’u O’ o volcano vent on Hawaii Island keeps coming, courtesy the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.

The first portion of this footage, taken at the rim of Pu`u `Ō `ō crater, shows the north vent feeding the lava pond. The USGS says the lava surface undulates due to rising gas bubbles, and a small overturn is triggered. The second portion of the video shows an open stream of lava at the summit of one of the rootless shields on the Quarry flow. 

According to the most recent USGS update from the east rift zone: An active lava pond was perched on an estimated 300 by 150 m (1,000 by 500 ft) lava crater floor less than 80 m (260 ft) below the eastern rim; activity in the perched pond surface seems to have decreased although webcam views were mostly obscured by fume over the last three days.

The tiltmeter on the north flank of Pu`u `O`o recorded overall weak deflation since the evening of June 10. GPS receivers on and around Pu`u `O`o cone recorded extension across the crater since May 25; the receiver network had been recording contraction since July 2007 and stable distances (no contraction or extension) since early March, 2010. Seismic tremor levels have been low and steady near Pu`u `O`o and the TEB vent.

The most recent sulfur dioxide emission rate measurement from east rift zone vents was 500 tonnes/day on June 4, 2010, much lower than the 2003-2007 (pre-summit eruption) average of 1,700 tonnes/day but typical of the low rates since early March, 2010.

Lava from the TEB vent, which glowed early this morning, flowed through tubes that carried lava down-slope to feed a growing rootless shield field at and below the 1,900′ elevation; the shields continued to shed lava into several surface flows through dawn as suggested by thermal anomalies visible in GOES-WEST satellite imagery overnight.

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