Kilauea: Views before sunrise

Hawaiian Volcano Observatory has great new Kilauea photos here. But we have one of our own.

Taken by Donna and Stephen O’Meara, it shows incandescent fragments of rock shooting out of the Halemaumau crater vent on Kilauea’s summit. HVO geologists say most of the fragments fell back into the vent, whose now familiar plume is producing less ash and more volcanic glass particles.

This is why the plume, in recent days, has appeared more powdery white than sooty black.

The O’Meara’s took the photo before sunrise on Friday morning from the Thomas A. Jaggar Museum lookout.

As always, we thank them for sharing.