Lava Update | August 6, 2018

A bird’s eye view of fissure 8 and its small lava lake.

A frontal view of fissure 8 and the receded channel.

An increase in activity along the coast nearest to Pohoiki was observed this morning… 😦

Activity along the water’s edge is creeping closer and closer to Pohoiki… 😦

An overhead view of Pohoiki and the flow that threatens it… 😦

Lava effuses from the base of an obstruction in the channel downslope of shipwreck corner.

Multiple fingers of lava pour into the sea, generating plumes of toxic laze, and creating turbidity in the water.

Fissures on the east rift zone still are venting gas, even as lava levels within F8 recede.

A view of one of the braids, with homes situated close to it giving scale to the scene. The elevated channels are approximately 50-60 feet high in this area.

The walls of ‘a‘a on the north side of the channel are approximately 20 feet high in this area.

This overall perspective on the eruption zone still fails to capture the magnitude of this disaster.

Gases still rise from cracks along the east rift zone, created by the movement of magma that fueled this eruption.

The perched channel’s surface has crusted over in its entirety.

Crepuscular rays beam down upon the braided channels and Kapoho Crater in the distance, as wisps of laze rise from the ocean entry at Ahalanui.

Looking back upslope at fissure 8 and the line of rising gas from the east rift zone.

Sunrise over the eastern tip of the island of Hawai‘i, where this eruption essentially wiped two coastal communities, Kapoho Beach Lots and Vacationland, off of the map.

The channelized system continues to empty out, as lava effuses from the bottom of the blockage at shipwreck corner in the lower right, and feeds into the mass of ‘a‘a on the coastal plain on the left.