Since early May 2018, the floor of Halema‘uma‘u crater has dropped 450 meters (about 1,480 feet). Extensive cracking and faulting around the crater, along with inward slumping of the crater rim, has more than doubled its diameter. Images collected during a helicopter overflight of the summit area on July 13, 2018, were used to produce this digital elevation model showing current conditions at Kilauea volcano’s summit in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.
Since early May 2018, the floor of Halema‘uma‘u crater has dropped 450 meters (about 1,480 feet). Extensive cracking and faulting around the crater, along with inward slumping of the crater rim, has more than doubled its diameter. Images collected during a helicopter overflight of the summit area on July 13, 2018, were used to produce this digital elevation model showing current conditions at Kilauea volcano’s summit in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.
Like a balloon slowly losing air, subsidence occurs because magma in Kilauea’s shallow summit reservoir is moving into the East Rift Zone more rapidly than magma is being supplied from depth.
