~ Western ocean entries back to life ~ Pu`u O`o very active ~

Perhaps due to the recent increase of magma pressures beneath the Kilauea Caldera, which are leveling off now, a resurgence of surface lava has occurred along the more western lobes of coastal lava flows from the December advancement. The result is numerous new ocean entries near the sea arch where lava was flowing about three weeks ago. Ron Boyle documented the event yesterday and has kindly submitted his images for the blog.
Lava flowing above the western ocean entry.


The easterly ocean entry and surface flows out on the west-end of the July 25-Dec 1, 2010 lava delta also continue, as posted previously.

Random surface lava breakouts continue across the coastal flats west of the terminus of the highway – the Hawaii County Civil Defense lava-viewing site. To the West-northwest there is more kipuka forest and brush burning from a small breakout. The Pulama Pali also continues exhibiting scattered surface flows that are easily seen after dark. No homes southeast or east of these flows appeared threatened as of 10:00 PM last night.

USGS crater cam continue recording a very active Pu`u O`o crater floor with spewing cone and molten lava rivers. Check out the cam even now and see it changing by the hour; at night it is lit up with lava flows too. Below is a rough composite of this mornings crater images:Notice the growing spatter-cone in the center.

Last night, as seen often lately, the Halema’uma’u crater cam as viewed from the Jaggar Museum was recording very pronounced glow from the broiling lava lake that has been rising and falling from around 435-feet down inside the pit vent to recently as high as 330 (100 meters) from the main crater floor according to the USGS volcano updates. The Halema’uma’u overlook cam looks straight down inside the vent and here is a cam-capture from this morning of that:All the USGS-HVO webcams can be found HERE

I will post my next update as soon as eruptive conditions on the coastal plain have changed, or if other significant volcano news takes place.

Onsite coastal lava flow information and viewing conditions can be found by phoning Janguard lava viewing security management who are stationed along the access road at the end of Highway 130 from 2:00 PM until 10:00 PM daily: 430-1966