~ From mountain to sea – Kilauea Volcano is pumping lava full-on! ~

Pu`u O`o crater and a little rainbow at 9:00 AM this morning
(Click on any image for a slightly larger view size)

From the D-vent eruption conduits near Pu`u O`o crater, down through a well established tubing system, across a sprawling & inflating coastal flats, along a subdivision, through forests and into the ocean – Kilauea is producing a large volume of molten lava right now. Above -Looking southeast from overtop the Pulama pali area

I was generously offered to hop aboard a charted Paradise Helicopter flight early this morning (Mahalo nui loa Greg!). The flight was piloted by the infamous Chief himself, Steve Kittrell; and he lived up to his reputaion today ~ Thanks Steve ;) I shot some movie clips but also a few stills, which I post above and below: Above is the widest section of the continually expanding lava bench of new and unstable land. In the background you can see the scorched jungle where the lava poured through two weeks ago.

Powerful ocean entry plumes

Below: One of many locations along the fuming coastline where rivers of lava are pouring into the ocean:

Above: A large skylight part way up the Pulama pali-- we could see the river of lava moving rapidly inside it.

Above: This is a fairly large break-out-of-the-tube river of lava coming down the Pulama pali; it broke out during my flight (about 8:30 AM)and was growing longer by the minute.

Below:USGS/HVO maps of hot lava zones as of August 5th, 2010 You can compare these with my aerial images for orientation on some of the photos. (Click on these for a nice large image size)



Above: Dated August 6th, USGS has provided another valued update of a thermal aerial view showing exactly where the heat is located within the coastal flats to the sea. This time the notes on the image were added by USGS/HVO personnel—Mahalo to them for posting these on their IMAGES webpage. Check out their other images on there too.

Inflation kicked back into to an already strong flow… we may be seeing some broader coastal flats inflation and breakouts because of that in the days ahead. Part way up the Pulama pali we witnessed a large river of lava that had just started at around 8:30 AM, which was likely a result if this new inflation period. (see photo with caption of that above on here)