Pu`u O`o eruptive lava overflowing craters rim on two sides

Above: East rim of Pu`u O`o overflowing yesterday.

Filling fairly rapidly inside the Pu`u O`o crater walls these past 3 ½ weeks, lava has more than reclaimed the 275 feet lost to the August 3rd crater floor collapse and subsequent west flank eruption.

Lava began reclaiming the crater on August 21st and, as of now, periodically spills off two opposite edges of the raised floor. For those of you following the USGS/HVO web pages you will have been kept up to date on these events. The aerial shots I post here are all from their images page and are date-stamped.

Above: The western edge of Pu`u O`o spilling molten lava down a channel yesterday.

Below: Pu`u O`o Crater just five days ago; persistent crater floor flows adding new layers.

Above: The crater on August 23rd, showing just how much lava has filled that area in just a few weeks when compared with the images taken recently.

Click here to see the Pu`u O`o crater cam day or night. The new cam is of way better quality than previous years.

Halema’uma’u crater has also filled back up quite high but remains fairly stable at this time.

I am excited to watch this new activity unfold and am very curious about what form the ongoing eruption will take…. And where it may flow next.

Viewing options: Inside the Halema’uma’u crater: glow by night and fumes by day can be easily seen from the Jaggar Museum at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.

The Pu`u O`o crater eruption can most easily be spotted after dark from part way down the national park's Chain of Craters road and from the Hawaii County lava viewing area located off the very end of Highway 130 near Kalapana. The viewing area road is open daily from 2:00 PM until around 9:00 PM and has security staff for parking, information and safety. The fresh lava fields visible off the end of the road are spectacular by day as well.