Rockfall into lava lake triggers explosion Sunday (May 3)


A small explosive event that occurred at 1:20 p.m. Sunday, May 3, 2015 at the summit lava lake. A collapse of a portion of the Halemaʻumaʻu Crater wall impacted the lake and triggered an explosion of spatter. Fist-size clasts were found scattered along the rim of Halemaʻumaʻu Crater near the closed visitor overlook. Video courtesy of USGS/HVO

A portion of the Halemaʻumaʻu Crater wall collapsed at 1:20 p.m. Sunday, May 3, 2015, impacting the lava lake and triggering a small explosion of spatter and a robust particle-laden plume. Fist-size clasts were deposited around the closed Halemaʻumaʻu visitor overlook. Photo taken Sunday, May 3, 2015 courtesy of USGS/HVO

A portion of the Halemaʻumaʻu Crater wall collapsed at 1:20 p.m. Sunday, May 3, 2015, impacting the lava lake and triggering a small explosion of spatter and a robust particle-laden plume. Fist-size clasts were deposited around the closed Halemaʻumaʻu visitor overlook. Photo taken Sunday, May 3, 2015 courtesy of USGS/HVO

A sequence of still images taken from the webcam positioned at the closed Halemaʻumaʻu overlook, spanning about six seconds. The collapse originated from a portion of the wall directly below the webcam, but just out of view. Large pieces of molten spatter can be seen flying through the air and being deposited on the crater walls below the camera. Photos taken Sunday, May 3, 2015 courtesy of USGS/HVO

A sequence of still images taken from the webcam positioned at the closed Halemaʻumaʻu overlook, spanning about six seconds. The collapse originated from a portion of the wall directly below the webcam, but just out of view. Large pieces of molten spatter can be seen flying through the air and being deposited on the crater walls below the camera. Photos taken Sunday, May 3, 2015 courtesy of USGS/HVO

2 Responses to “Rockfall into lava lake triggers explosion Sunday (May 3)”

  1. Sherrie Moore says:

    Can someone please define what a “clast” is? There is no definition on the HVO/USGS page that I can find. Mahalo.

Trackbacks/Pingbacks


Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

RSS Weather Alerts

  • An error has occurred, which probably means the feed is down. Try again later.

 

Quantcast