Since the collapse of the caldera floor in 2018, groundwater has begun seeping into the bottom of the enlarged Halemaumau crater. Here that landscape is explored, along with the now altering lava fields, by Paradise Helicopters.
The crew from Paradise Helicopters provided some of the amazing videos overflying the lava fields of Kilauea’s 2018 eruption. Kilauea is the most active volcano on the island of Hawaii, but it’s neighbor next door is Mauna Loa - one of the largest peaks on earth if measured from the bottom of the ocean. Mauna Loa last erupted in the early 1980s, but its alert status was recently raised by the USGS due to increased numbers of earthquakes measured inside its structure. While that does not mean an eruption is imminent or guaranteed, it does suggest the need for caution as Mauna Loa’s eruptions can be much larger than those of Kilauea due to its size. Here the Paradise Helicopters group gives some amazing overview footage of Mauna Loa. You can see how portions of the volcano’s slopes are covered by more recent lava flows, but because this volcano is not as active as Kilauea, there are large areas that are gradually being reforested. Also some spectacular shots of craters along the rift zones and the Caldera at the top of the volcano.
Last summer’s lava flows on Hawaii are gradually beginning to be reshaped. Erosion by the ocean is turning the sharp rock into new black sand beaches all along the coastline. Some foot trails are appearing where people are walking to access these beaches. Other places, people have begun cutting roads across the lava fields to access infrastructure, while the parts of the neighborhoods cut off by lava flows wait for their roads to be similarly restored.
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A month ago, a new road was been completed from the "Y" on Highway 132 across the new lava channel to the PGV Geothermal Plant. And now, some property/homeowners in and near thew flow field have begun bulldozing their own access roads. Vents along the line of fissures in and near Leilani Estates are still lightly steaming today, but emissions are still a levels below the start of the eruption in 1983... and there is no active lava anywhere. It is now nearly seven months since the eruption went into a pause... or lull, as scientists called it. She has shown no signs of reactivation... almost no seismic... and scientists say is unlikely to resume eruptive activity in Leilani at this time. For all intents and purposes, the eruption is over. Pele created dozens of black sand beaches along the four miles of coastline between Kapoho Bay and Mackenzie Beach Park. The areas around the flows continue to green up nicely, except for the foliage that was completely burned or killed by volcanic gases. Leilani, Special Return Guest Leslie Gleim, Bruce Omori and I were back up with Paradise Helicopters' amazing pilot, Sean Regehr. Paradise Helicopters and Sean... you guys no ka oi! Mahalo plenny!
Helicopter overflight of the lava fields at Kilauea volcano. Still steaming rifts from last summer’s huge event, collapsed rocks filling the reddish crater at Pu’u O’o - the spot that hosted eruption between 1983 and 2018, and the now collapsed pit at Halemaumau crater inside Kilauea caldera. Don’t get too used to it looking like this - even when Kilauea calms down, it usually is only months to at most few years before something new will start. Original caption:
A new road has been completed from the "Y" on Highway 132 across the new lava channel to the PGV Geothermal Plant. Vents along the line of fissures in and near Leilani Estates were lightly steaming today, but emissions are still a levels below the start of the kkeruption in 1983... and there is no active lava anywhere. It is now nearly six months since the eruption went into a pause... or lull, as scientists called it. She has shown no signs of reactivation... almost no seismic... and scientists say is unlikely to resume eruptive activity in Leilani at this time. For all intents and purposes, the eruption is over. Pele created numerous beaches along the several miles of coastline between Kapoho Bay and Mackenzie Beach Park. The areas around the flows have greened up nicely, except for the foliage that was completely burned or killed by volcanic gases. The Pu'u 'O'o vent is collapsing in on itself... depositing rubble on the floor of the deep crater scientist have measured at over one-thousand feet. The vent is still void of lava. but magma intrusion has been noted by the USGS between Pu'u 'O'o and Black Sands subdivision recently, and property owners above Black Sands west of Highway 130 have reported volcanic gases that have killed plants and damaged homes. We also re-visited Halemaumau... now over a mile in diameter and 1500 feet deep. the change within Kilauea crater is absolutely mind-blowing! Leilani, Special Guest Jill Briggs, Bruce Omori and I were back up with Paradise Helicopters' amazing pilot, Sean Regehr. Paradise Helicopters and Sean... you guys still got it! Mahalo plenny!
The crew at Paradise Helicopters spent the last several months sharing incredible overflight views of lava flowing down a river into the sea. After Hurricane Lane doused the island of Hawaii with huge amounts of rain, now they’re sharing videos of rivers of water flowing as torrents to the sea.
OMG the opening shot captures the entire flow field from the cinder cone known as fissure 8 all the way to the ocean. Original caption:
As of July 12th, the USGS reports that the current Leilani eruption had covered 12.1 square miles of land. The lava delta had also added 655 acres of new land off the southeastern shore of the Big Island. The cone around Fissure 8 has slumped about 20 feet... but the vent is still issuing about the same amount of lava every day. Waves of lava roll out of the vent, sending a steady stream of hot liquid rock into the channel below, which feeds the ocean entries. The largest entry is still at Ahalanui, the scene of Monday's littoral explosion, that injured at least a dozen passengers on a lava tour boat operated by Shane Turpin of Lava Ocean Tours. When the hot lava interacted with the cold seawater, it flashed into steam, causing an explosion sending hot rock several hundred feet into the air. That entry has slowed considerably, but we saw a littoral explosion there this morning. Pele is now pushing her way south... and has crossed about 2/3rds of "Bowls" on the northeast end. She is steadily pushing toward Isaac Hale Beach Park at Pohoiki, and may even be there this weekend. Even more lava is behind the current flow, making its way south and southwest... and is carrying an enormous amount of lava. Leilani, Beach Ball Ducky, Special Return Guest Leslie Gleim, Bruce Omori and I were saddened by the turn of events in lower Puna, but want to thank Paradise Helicopters for a fine charter this morning! Mahalo pilot Sean Regehr and Paradise... you guys really can't be beat!!!
I think my favorite part of this Paradise Helicopters video featuring the recently devastated areas around Kapoho Bay, Hawaii, is the close up shots of the still-active rift vent. Extremely hot, fluid lava is churning in the vent and then rapidly pouring down slope in channels.
I haven’t shared one of these in a couple weeks but today’s Paradise Helicopters eruption update video from Kilauea’s East Rift Zone is a sight to behold. For the past several weeks, lava has continued moving east along an underground fracture called a dike. It occasionally has broken through to the surface, first in the Leilani Estates subdivision and now in land farther to the East. Today’s eruptions brought some of the most visible, most fluid lava flows and largest lava fountains of the recent eruptive phase, all captured here glowing as it spreads out over the landscape.
Finally, Paradise helicopters captures some of the initial outbreaks of lava as fissures form in the Leilani Gardens Subdivision. The subdivision is under evacuation orders as those steam clouds are superheated and contain enough sulfur to cause major breathing issues. Civil Defense has also required permits for flights, including of drones, to manage the airspace over the outbreaks. At least 6 fissures have reported open so far in this area, with larger eruptions still possible.
On May 1, the lava lake at Pu'u O'o crater collapsed as molten rock found a new path farther down the East Rift Zone. Ash is being thrown up into air as the walls of the former lava lake collapsed downwards. The ash is somewhat reddish because the lavas are high in iron content and the iron has rusted while exposed to the heat of the molten rock.
Video clips from Paradise Helicopters posted over the last week have told a spectacular story of the eruption of Kilauea as this new magma pulse arrived and passed down the East Rift Zone. Here, from just over a week ago, is the Lava lake full and overflowing from the pressure of the new molten rock arriving in the system.
Paradise Helicopters guests and pilots caught these “land spouts” over the lava fields of Kilauea a few weeks ago.
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A pink rainbow, amazing land spouts and a veritable plethora of lava flows made for a spectacular lava overflight this morning. We have often seen water spouts at the ocean entry... but this morning, due to a head downpour on the 61G flow and the right wind and heat conditions, several vortices (aka: land spouts) appeared just above the Pali. These dramatic, unusual formations look like mini tornadoes, but spin much less quickly. Easter Ducky flew solo while Leilani prepared for Merrie Monarchs... he joined Special Return Guest, Bryan Pezman, Bruce Omori and me as Paradise Helicopters' superb fly boy, Sean Regehr navigated the sky above Pele's manifestations... mahalo plenny, Sean!
This is great! On Kilauea’s east rift zone there is one steep slope known as the Pali. It’s basically a normal fault - as the volcano erupts it gradually is pushing the land at the south edge of the island out to sea to make space for the new lava, creating a large fault scarp. In fact, this fault system produced a magnitude 5 earthquake last year.
Earlier this month, the Paradise Helicopters team was out flying on a day when surface lava was pouring over this slope. Look at the lava textures - see how the active flow looks very rubbly in some places and smooth in others, while most of the surrounding lava looks smooth? That texture is the difference between an a’a lava flow and a pahoehoe lava flow. The more rapidly lava is strained, as happens on a slope like the Pali, the more likely the lava is to turn into an a’a flow. Sometimes a flow can even turn from one into the other as it moves along this slope.
This is as good of a view of this eruption as you can get.
The latest Paradise Helicopters video gives us overflights of some absolutely spectacular surface flow outbreaks from Kilauea. I think I just queued up one of these lava channels, viewed up close, for like an hour from now!
Lots of surface lava exposures from the Kilauea eruption viewed by Paradise Helicopters trip.
New video from Paradise Helicopters flies over the Pu’u O’o lava fields from Kilauea’s ongoing East Rift Zone eruption, finds skylights and tumuli (all labeled and explained!) and sees fresh lava burning its way through one of the only remaining forested areas on this part of the slope (this eruption has gone on so long that it has devoured most of the tree-filled areas between the crater and the ocean).