Eruption Quick Take: Heavy Rains on the Lava Lake

In today’s quick take we examine the effects of the last two days of heavy rain on the filling lava lake at Kīlauea volcano's summit on Hawaiʻi Island. The rainwater vaporizes to steam as it hits the lava lake, while groundwater creates a steaming ring higher than the lava on the crater walls. We present a time-lapse compilation from three web-cams by the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory looking into Kīlauea volcano, in the pit of Halemaʻumaʻu. The upper image shows the visible image S1cam with a view towards the north, the lower left image shows the visible image KWcam with a view towards the east, and the lower right image shows the thermal image F1cam with a similar view towards the east. We share NWS and USGS Water Resources data documenting the rain event, and clip USGS-HVO video footage from 2019 by geophysicist Jim Kauahikaua explaining the interaction of lava and water, including what is thought to be required for the largest such explosions documented in the geologic record. #Kilauea2021 Images from F1cam, S1cam, KWcam & Video courtesy of USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, Weather data from NWS / NOAA, Stream gage data from USGS Water Resources Image collection: Bob Martin Compilation & narration: Philip Ong https://youtu.be/hQaJ1qsQXVg