page_title: Puʻu ʻŌʻō
section_title: 1992 – 2013: Steady lava effusion
hierarchical_section_title: Puʻu ʻŌʻō / Geologic history / 1992 – 2013: Steady lava effusion
caption_attribution_description: English: Lava from the Puʻu ʻŌʻō cinder cone has flowed 14 miles into the town of Pahoa. The lava has breached the boundary of the Pahoa Transfer Station.
context_page_description: Puʻu ʻŌʻō is a volcanic cone in the eastern rift zone of the Kīlauea volcano of the Hawaiian Islands. Until the end of April 2018, Puʻu ʻŌʻō had been erupting nearly continuously since January 3, 1983, making it the longest-lived rift-zone eruption of the last two centuries.
  By January 2005, 2.7 cubic kilometers of magma covered an area of more than 117 square kilometers and added 230 acres of land to the southeast coast of Hawaiʻi. The eruption claimed at least 189 buildings and 14 kilometers of highways, as well as a church, a store, the Wahaʻula Visitor Center, and many ancient Hawaiian sites, including the Wahaʻula heiau. The coastal highway has been closed since 1987, as parts of the road have been buried under lava up to 35 meters thick.
context_section_description: The volume of lava erupted from Kūpaʻianahā declined steadily through 1991, and in early 1992, the vent died. The eruption then returned to Puʻu ʻŌʻō, where flank vents on the west and southwest sides of the cone constructed a new lava shield. Soon lava tubes were feeding lava from the vents to the ocean, with few surface flows in between. The flank vents have held center stage ever since, with the exception of a two-month pause in activity, early in 1997, which followed a brief fissure eruption in Nāpau Crater, a short distance southwest of Puʻu ʻŌʻō.
  On the evening of January 29, 1997, a series of earthquakes struck Kīlauea's east rift zone. Deep within the rift zone, magma was escaping from the conduit leading to the Puʻu ʻŌʻō vent, cutting off the supply to the ongoing eruption. The lava pond at Puʻu ʻŌʻō drained, and residents 10 miles (16 km) away heard a low, rumbling roar as the crater floor dropped 500 feet (150 m) and the west wall of the Puʻu ʻŌʻō cone collapsed. A few hours later, as magma found a new path to the surface, the ground cracked in nearby Nāpau Crater, and lava fountains lit up the night sky. However, activity in this area was short-lived, and the center of activity soon shifted back to Puʻu ʻŌʻō.
  As of January 2007, 3.1 cubic km of lava had covered 117 km² (45 mi²) and added 201 hectares (500 acres) to Kīlauea's southern shore. The new shoreline was 15.6 km (9.7 mi) long. The lava flows have destroyed 189 structures and covered 14 km (8.7 mi) of highway with as much as 35 m (115 ft) of lava.
  In 2007, after a cluster of earthquakes, activity in Puʻu ʻŌʻō subsided and the crater floor collapsed, with no incandescence visible in the crater after the end of August. Lava began emerging from a series of cracks in the northeast rift zone and spread slowly east and south as a perched flow, with slow advances of ʻaʻā. The flow spread mostly over flows of 1983–1986, with minor incursions into adjoining forests.
  In late July 2008, additional flows extended from the eastern vents of Puʻu ʻŌʻō and in October multiple new fissures opened along the length of the tube expanding into Royal Gardens Subdivision and covered a large area of the coastal flats in November 2008.
  On March 5, 2011, the floor of the Puʻu ʻŌʻō crater deflated, then collapsed. Two hours later, a new eruption occurred in Kīlauea's middle east zone, between Puʻu ʻŌʻō and Napau Crater. Lava fountains were reported to be 65 feet (20 m) high.
  On March 26, 2011, lava began to refill the crater's floor, being visible in USGS HVO webcam. The USGS stated that the accumulation of lava had put the crater floor about 39 m (128 ft) below the eastern crater rim, as of June 1.
  On September 21, 2011, lava in the west lava lake in Puʻu ʻŌʻō Crater fed a series of lava flows that traveled down the west flank of Puʻu ʻŌʻō during September 20–21. At about 0225 UTC on September 21, activity in the crater and overflows to the west suddenly decreased, as lava broke through the upper east flank of Puʻu ʻŌʻō, bypassing the crater. The new fissure fed a channelized ʻaʻā lava flow that advanced rapidly downslope 2.5 km (1.6 mi) southeast. A second flow to the west of the first began the next day. In addition, a small pad of lava actively refilled the bottom of the drained east lava lake and small flows were barely active at the west edge of Puʻu ʻŌʻō Crater. The channelized ʻaʻā lava flow reached 3.7 km (2.3 mi) long on 23 September and then stalled within the Kahauale'a Natural Area Reserve. Most of the active lava spread south and west of Pu'u Halulu (1.3 km or 0.8 mi northeast of Puʻu ʻŌʻō) during 23–27 September. Minor lava activity resumed within Pu'u 'O'o Crater with short lava flows issuing from the base of the east wall on 25 September and from the west wall base during 25–26 September. The crater floor of Puʻu ʻŌʻō slowly subsided. Lava activity resumed within the east lake on 26 September. The floor of the crater continued to subside during 26–27 September, opening up cracks in the north crater floor.
  The 2011 activity ultimately destroyed all remaining home
caption: Lava from the Puʻu ʻŌʻō cinder cone has flowed 14 miles into the town of Pāhoa. The lava has breached the boundary of the Pāhoa Transfer Station.
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