Pu'u'o'o Cone, Kilauea, Hawai'i on 16th January 2007

Pu'u'o'o is a satelite volcano of Kilauea about 8 miles from the main caldera.  It started as a spatter cone, and has evolved into a mini shield mount about 3000ft above sea level.  These Photos were taken on an Island Hoppers Flight (pilot Mike) at around 2pm with a Canon SD500 7.1 megapixels.
Pu'u'o'o is constantly changing; the summit was once one large crater which collapsed and then filled in again.  Its current dimensions are about 500x220m. The vents build up small spatter cones which then collapse into small craters, typically 10 - 50 m wide.  Lava spurts into these craters from the sides, and then drains into cracks, eventually travelling to the sea through tubes.

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Firstly, the approach from the northwest, briefly skirting Kilauea caldera.

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The first fly-past, looking towards the lava egress into the ocean, approximately 7 miles away.
 
We flew around the cone twice; the wind direction was from the north and we had exceptionally clear viewing conditions.
     

   

These are 3x zoomed views inside the large West Gap Pit crater, perhaps 30 - 40 m wide.
   

After circling the cone we headed south to where the lava spills into the ocean, creating new land.

     

   

Finally, some pictures of the lava flows.
 
Note that lava tubes often have cracks and vents in them.  If a tube gets blocked, these leak onto the surface.  The following photographs were taken on a trip with Paradise Helicopters (pilot Kiwi) in April 2005.  The last picture is a still from a video clip.
 

Guide to the Summit

There is a good map of the area on the USGS Hawaii Volcano Observatory Website linked below.


Mike, his Cessna and I

Links (each opens in a new page)

My Home Page (including pictures of Captain Cook's Monuments)
The Wikipedia article on Kilauea
Hawaiian Volcano Observatory's Kīlauea website
Hawaiian Volcano Observatory's Kīlauea eruption update website (updated daily)
Live Webcam from Puu'u'O'o

Email me (but remove the asterisks first - this is an anti-spam precaution)