Lava subsides at Kamoamoa fissure on Kilauea
The western vent complex continues to erupt Wednesday, and had been doing so for about 30 hours as of the time of this photo. Lava erupting from the vent complex is flowing into a channel with levees.
The front of the advancing 'a'? flow from the western vent is about 13 teet thick.
The eastern vent complex of the Kamoamoa eruption was inactive yesterday but it continued to emit a thick gas plume.
By Wednesday morning, the front of the 'a'? flow fed from the western vent had intercepted the edge of the 2002-2004 Mother's Day flow. The flow advanced about 1.8 miles in 30 hours.
This thermal image shows the channelized 'a'? flow that was being fed by the fountains at the west end of the fissure system Wednesday. Near the end of the flow, the channel empties into the delta-like flow front.
The channelized flow from the western vent complex advanced significantly downslope Wednesday through forest within the Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park.
The fountaining and surface lava activity at the Kamoamoa fissure on Kilauea volcano’s east rift zone stopped by 10:30 p.m. Wednesday, the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory reported this morning.
Lava started to recede after 5 p.m. Wednesday and spattering stopped by 10:30 p.m., signaling a pause in the eruption, officials said.
The amount of sulfur dioxide coming from the volcano decreased to about 5,000 tons a day, but that is still a significantly higher amount of emissions than before the latest eruption began on Saturday.
Seismic activity, an indication of lava movement, also remains high in the east rift zone, but not around Pu’u O’o Crater, which has been mostly quiet since the crater floor collapsed and the Kamoamoa fissure eruption began on Saturday.
At the summit, the lava lake remained deep — estimated at 720 feet — below the rim of the vent within the east wall of Halemaumau Crater.
On Tuesday, geologists estimated that more than 2.5 million cubic meters of lava a day was pouring out of Kamoamoa fissure near the Pu’u ‘O’o Crater, covering more than 120 acres.
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The U.S. Geological Survey also released new pictures of the eruption yesterday on the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory website, including thermal images of the fountaining and lava flow.
