Guest Thinkers — September 1, 2010

Halema`uma`u Update for 8/21/2009

The Halema`uma`u Crater continues to revive itself after the rockfall that clogged the vent ever-so-briefly earlier this summer.

Erik Klemetti

The summit crater at Kilauea in Hawai’i has had a busy summer and now that fall is around the corner (yikes!), there is a bit of new info on activity in the crater.

Halema`uma`u Crater emitting a steam plume in January, 2009.

First off, the NASA Earth Observatory released an image of the steaming crater area of Halema`uma`u. The image captures the new plume of steam and volcanic gases that have been coming from the crater. The latest news reports that the glow (albeit faint) from the underlying magma has returned to the crater after the rockfall earlier this summer. Also, sulfur dioxide output has increased over the last few days, but still no new lava at the summit crater. However, lava is continuing to erupt from the Thanksgiving Eve Breakout (TEB) area on the east rift zone of the volcano.

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