East Rift Research Articles

Connecting caldera collapse

Volcanology The Kīlauea Volcano on the island of Hawai‘i erupted for 3 months in 2018. Neal et al. present a summary of the eruption sequence along with a variety of geophysical observations collected by the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. The cyclic inflation, deflation, and eventual collapse of the summit was tied to lava eruption from lower East Rift Zone fissures. A total volume of 0.8 cubic kilometers of magma erupted, roughly the equivalent of 320,000 swimming pools, which matched the change in volume at the summit. Science , this issue p. [367][1] [1]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.aav7046

SBAS interferometric analysis for volcanic eruption of Hawaii island

The Kilauea volcano on the Hawaii island started erupting on 3rd May 2018 after an earthquake of magnitude 5.0. The initial volcano eruption and the subsequent earthquakes resulted in the opening of new volcanic fissures, continuous lava flow at the lower east rift zone and the collapse of the summit caldera floor. All these activities continued until the 1st week of August 2018. The Small Baseline Subset (SBAS) technique is an advanced form of Differential Interferometry (DInSAR) which is capable of monitoring surface deformations with millimetre level accuracy. SBAS technique was utilised here for estimating the surface deformation on Hawaii island due to the volcanic episode. InSAR coherence technique was also utilised in this study for localised analysis at the summit and at the lower east rift zone to detect the time series deformation information and lava flow patterns. 14 interferometric datasets acquired by the ESA's Sentinel-1 C-band satellite from April 2018 to September 2018 were used in this study. The data acquired by the seismometers installed at Kilauea by Hawaii Volcano Observatory, the SWIR band of Sentinel-2 and the thermal band of Landsat-8 were used to correlate and verify the results obtained through the SBAS and InSAR coherence analysis. The combined interpretation of results obtained from all the sources gave insights about the underground magma conduit system, surface deformations, lava flow channels and the correlation between the magmatic and seismic activity happened there which are discussed in detail in this paper.

Measuring SO2 Emission Rates at Kīlauea Volcano, Hawaii, Using an Array of Upward-Looking UV Spectrometers, 2014–2017

The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory uses an array of ten fixed, upward-looking ultraviolet spectrometer systems to measure SO2 emission rates at 10-second sample intervals from the Kīlauea summit. We present Kīlauea SO2 emission rates from the volcano’s summit and Middle East Rift Zone during 2014-2017 and discuss the major sources of error for these measurements. Due to the wide range of SO2 emissions encountered at the summit vent, we used a variable wavelength spectral analysis range to accurately quantify both high and low SO2 column densities. We present case studies comparing the measured emission rates from the fixed spectrometer array to independent road and helicopter-based traverse measurements and evaluate the magnitudes and sources of uncertainties for each method. To address the challenge of obtaining accurate plume speed measurements, we examine ground-based wind-speed, plume speed tracking via spectrometer, and SO2 camera derived plume speeds. Our analysis shows that 1) the summit array column densities calculated using a dual fit window, are within -6 to +22% of results obtained with a variety of other conventional and experimental retrieval methods 2) emission rates calculated from the summit array located ~3 km downwind of the Overlook vent provide the best, practical estimate of summit SO2 release under normal trade wind conditions 3) ground-based anemometer wind speeds are 22% less than plume speeds determined by cross-correlation of plume features 4) our best estimate of average Kīlauea SO2 release for 2014-2017 is 5100 t/d, which is comparable to the space-based OMI emissions of 5518 t/d 5) short-term variability of SO2 emissions reflect Kīlauea lava lake dynamics.

The 2018 rift eruption and summit collapse of Kīlauea Volcano.

In 2018, Kīlauea Volcano experienced its largest lower East Rift Zone (LERZ) eruption and caldera collapse in at least 200 years. After collapse of the Pu'u 'Ō'ō vent on 30 April, magma propagated downrift. Eruptive fissures opened in the LERZ on 3 May, eventually extending ~6.8 kilometers. A 4 May earthquake [moment magnitude (M w) 6.9] produced ~5 meters of fault slip. Lava erupted at rates exceeding 100 cubic meters per second, eventually covering 35.5 square kilometers. The summit magma system partially drained, producing minor explosions and near-daily collapses releasing energy equivalent to M w 4.7 to 5.4 earthquakes. Activity declined rapidly on 4 August. Summit collapse and lava flow volume estimates are roughly equivalent-about 0.8 cubic kilometers. Careful historical observation and monitoring of Kīlauea enabled successful forecasting of hazardous events.

Eruptions in sync: Improved constraints on Kīlauea Volcano's hydraulic connection

Kīlauea Volcano is an archetype for the complex interactions that can occur between a volcano's summit and flanks. Decades of monitoring at Kīlauea have demonstrated that magma rises beneath the summit and flows laterally at shallow depths to erupt along the rift zones. Kīlauea's recent eruptions at Halema‘uma‘u and Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō mark the first time in the historic record that long-term (>1 year) eruptions have been concurrent at the summit and a rift zone, offering a new opportunity to improve our understanding of the relationship between these two segments of the magmatic system. While magma supply rate beneath the summit has been shown in previous studies to be a primary control on magmatic system pressure and eruptive activity, the role of the eruptive vent has been less clear. Our study shows that a dynamic equilibrium is maintained between Kīlauea's summit and East Rift Zone (ERZ) eruptive vent—and lava lake level fluctuations are closely coupled at the two eruption sites—providing new constraints on the hydraulic connection and ERZ conduit. We show that localized changes at the ERZ eruption site during 2010–2011 regulated summit behavior in an uprift direction over distances of ∼20 km. Changes in the elevation and efficiency of the ERZ vent affect pressure in Kīlauea's magmatic system and impact summit behavior. Thus, the hydraulic connection between the summit and rift zone is a “two-way street” that transmits both downrift- and uprift-directed changes. Our results support recent work at other volcanoes that shows a complex interplay between a volcano's summit reservoir and flank conduit during flank eruptions, and suggest that explosive summit activity may in some cases be triggered by changes far away on a volcano's rift. These concepts were reinforced by the historic eruptive activity on Kīlauea that occurred during May–August 2018, when the manuscript was being revised.

Eruption and fountaining dynamics of selected 1985–1986 high fountaining episodes at Kīlauea volcano, Hawai'i, from quantitative vesicle microtexture analysis

Tephra from the early Hawaiian fountaining episodes of the ongoing eruption of Pu'u 'Ō'ō in the East Rift Zone (ERZ) of Kīlauea provides an opportunity to study the vesicle microtextures of pyroclasts erupted from a single vent over a prolonged period of time. We report the results of microtextural analysis of pyroclasts from five of Pu'u 'Ō'ō's high (>200 m) Hawaiian fountaining episodes (episodes 32, 37, 40, 44 and 45) erupted during 1985–1986. This analysis was carried out to constrain the parameters that led to large variations in fountain height at Pu'u 'Ō'o, and the extent to which pyroclast residence times in the fountain modified microtextures. Our results confirm the finding of Stovall et al. (2011, 2012) that pyroclasts from a single Hawaiian fountain can vary greatly in texture (from bubbly to foamy), and have vesicle volume densities (Nmv) and vesicle to melt ratios (VG/VL) that vary by an order of magnitude. This range in vesicle texture and population is due to extensive growth and coalescence of vesicles within the fountain after fragmentation. Only one pyroclast from four of five episodes was found to have textures interpreted as indicative of the vesicle population near the moment of fragmentation: bubbly texture, high density (typically >500 kg m−3), high Nmv (2.2 × 106 to 4.4 × 106), and low VG/VL of 2.06 to 4.65. We demonstrate a linear correlation between Δ(VG/VL) and peak fountain height across a range of Hawaiian fountains from Kilauea. This correlation could be used to infer peak heights of unobserved Hawaiian fountaining eruptions after further testing using well-recorded events.

Rupture in the 4 May 2018 MW 6.9 Earthquake Seaward of the Kilauea East Rift Zone Fissure Eruption in Hawaii

AbstractThe 4 May 2018, MW 6.9 thrust‐faulting earthquake occurred a day after the first fissure eruption in Leilani Estates along the East Rift Zone of Kilauea, Hawaii, relatively early in the 2018 eruptive sequence. The earthquake's location and geodetic deformation pattern are similar to those of the larger 1975 Kalapana earthquake (MW 7.7), which is thought to have occurred on the décollement between the island volcanics and the former Pacific seafloor. The 2018 event has a shallow‐dipping thrust plane and shallow epicenter located just offshore. A finite‐fault kinematic slip model is determined by inversion of teleseismic body waves, strong‐ground motion recordings, and coseismic Global Positioning System offsets along the southeastern coast of Hawaii. Inversions indicate a preferred dip of 7°, slip of up to 3.0 m near 5‐km deep offshore of the coast, and low average rupture speed of ~1 km/s. These are consistent with rupture of a weak décollement.

Synthetic lava brings eruption into the lab

In early May, Kilauea, a volcano on the southeast corner of Hawaii’s Big Island, began erupting, and a suite of earthquakes, the largest with a 6.9 magnitude, shook the island. The quakes caused fissures and cracks to open in the ground, and lava has been pouring down the flanks of the volcano ever since. The exact path the lava has taken has been as unpredictable as it has been destructive. As C&EN went to press, the encroaching lava had destroyed 668 homes and had flowed over at least 26 sq km, reaching the sea. Monitoring the damage from the red-hot rock is hazardous, to say the least. But that is what a number of scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey are doing, both on the summit and on the lower East Rift Zone, with help from drones. Although this on-site data collection is invaluable to scientists seeking new information about

A retrospective look at the February 1993 east rift zone intrusion at Kīlauea volcano, Hawaii

The February 1993 dike intrusion in the East Rift Zone (ERZ) of Kīlauea Volcano, Hawai'i, was recognized from tilt and seismic data, but ground-based geodetic data were too sparse to constrain the characteristics of the intrusion. Analysis of Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) JERS-1 satellite reveals a maximum of ~30 cm of line-of-sight (LOS) displacement occurring near Makaopuhi Crater in the middle ERZ of Kīlauea. We model this deformation signal as a subvertical dike using a 3D-Mixed Boundary Element Method (3D-MBEM) paired with a nonlinear inversion algorithm to find the best-fit model. The best-fit dike is located just to the west of Makaopuhi Crater striking N50°W, extends to within 100 m of the surface, is ~1.3 km in length by ~4.2 km in width along strike, and has a total volume of ~7.4 × 106 m3. In addition, a post-intrusion interferogram from JERS-1 spanning 1993–1997 was analyzed. Guided by previous results, our model for the 4-year period consists of opening of the deep rift zones by about 0.5 m at 3–8.5 km depth beneath the Southwest Rift Zone (SWRZ), ERZ and the summit. A sub-horizontal detachment fault is connected to the seaward side of the vertical dike-like source to mimic the décollement known to exist beneath the volcano. We classify the 1993 dike intrusion as a passive intrusion similar to those that occurred in 1997 and 1999. Passive intrusions lack precursory inflation at Kīlauea's summit, and the likely triggering mechanism is persistent deep rift opening combined with seaward motion of the south flank along the basal décollement. Passive intrusions make forecasting and hazard assessment difficult since they are not preceded by inflation nor by large increases in seismicity.

Focused seismicity triggered by flank instability on Kīlauea's Southwest Rift Zone

Swarms of earthquakes at the head of the Southwest Rift Zone on Kīlauea Volcano, Hawaiʻi, reveal an interaction of normal and strike-slip faulting associated with movement of Kīlauea's south flank. A relocated subset of earthquakes between January 2012 and August 2014 are highly focused in space and time at depths that are coincident with the south caldera magma reservoir beneath the southern margin of Kīlauea Caldera. Newly calculated focal mechanisms are dominantly dextral shear with a north-south preferred fault orientation. Two earthquakes within this focused area of seismicity have normal faulting mechanisms, indicating two mechanisms of failure in very close proximity (10's of meters to 100m). We suggest a model where opening along the Southwest Rift Zone caused by seaward motion of the south flank permits injection of magma and subsequent freezing of a plug, which then fails in a right-lateral strike-slip sense, consistent with the direction of movement of the south flank. The seismicity is concentrated in an area where a constriction occurs between a normal fault and the deeper magma transport system into the Southwest Rift Zone. Although in many ways the Southwest Rift Zone appears analogous to the more active East Rift Zone, the localization of the largest seismicity (>M2.5) within the swarms to a small volume necessitates a different model than has been proposed to explain the lineament outlined by earthquakes along the East Rift Zone.

SectorInsight.gov–Crisis Remote Sensing during the 2018 Lower East Rift Zone Eruption of K lauea Volcano

SectorInsight.gov–Crisis Remote Sensing during the 2018 Lower East Rift Zone Eruption of K lauea Volcano

The visible dead: dolmens and the landscape in Early Bronze Age Jordan

Overview:Dolmens are usually described as part of a regional megalithic phenomenon that spanned the 5th-2nd millennia BC. However, this presentation assumes that most ‘dolmens’ are mis-identified. When strictly defined, dolmens better reflect a local funerary tradition of the 4th millennium BC.Definitions:The term dolmen includes a variety of features whose only similarity is their use of large stone slabs. This presentation defines a dolmen as a freestanding,rectangular chamber formed by two upright orthostats along each long side, and a single roof slab over the top. Dolmens have often been conflated with cairns. This presentation defines a cairn as a large pile of small stones. Such features may have contained a low, cist burial chamber; others may simply be piles of field clearance.Distribution:Dolmens, as defined above, concentrate within a limited area of the east rift escarpment of the Jordan Valley, consistent with a local funerary tradition.Chronology: Recent dolmen excavations have yielded assemblages that date exclusively to the EB I (c.3700-3000 BC). This talk examines the close spatial relationship between dolmens and EB I settlement sites in a discrete geographical zone.

Thermal mapping of a pāhoehoe lava flow, Kīlauea Volcano

Pāhoehoe lava flows are a major component of Hawaiian eruptive activity, and an important part of basaltic volcanism worldwide. In recent years, pāhoehoe lava has destroyed homes and threatened parts of Hawai'i with inundation and disruption. In this study, we use oblique helicopter-borne thermal images to create high spatial resolution (~1m) georeferenced thermal maps of the active pāhoehoe flow on Kīlauea Volcano's East Rift Zone. Thermal maps were created on 27days during 2014–2016 in the course of operational monitoring, encompassing a phase of activity that threatened the town of Pāhoa. Our results illustrate and reinforce how pāhoehoe flows are multicomponent systems consisting of the vent, master tube, distributary tubes, and surface breakouts. The thermal maps accurately depict the distribution and character of pāhoehoe breakouts through time, and also delineate the subsurface lava tube. Surface breakouts were distributed widely across the pāhoehoe flow, with significant portions concurrently active well upslope of the flow front, often concentrated in clusters of activity that evolved through time. Gradual changes to surface breakout distribution and migration relate to intrinsic processes in the flow, including the slow evolution of the distributary tube system. Abrupt disruptions to this system, and the creation of new breakouts (and associated hazards), were triggered by extrinsic forcing—namely fluctuations in lava supply rate at the vent which disrupted the master lava tube. Although the total area of a pāhoehoe flow has been suggested to relate to effusion rate, our results show that changes in the proportion of expansion vs. overplating can complicate this relationship. By modifying existing techniques, we estimate time-averaged discharge rates for the flow during 2014–2016 generally in the range of 1–2m3s−1 (mean: 1.3±0.4m3s−1)—less than half of Kīlauea's typical eruption rate on the East Rift Zone and suggestive of a weak eruptive regime during 2014–2016. We caution, however, that this discharge rate approach requires further independent corroboration. The thermal maps provide the first synoptic characterization of pāhoehoe flow activity at high spatial resolution, essential both for operational hazard assessment and fundamental understanding of pāhoehoe behavior.

Quantification of the intrusion process at Kīlauea volcano, Hawai'i

The characteristic size of two types of intrusions identified beneath Kīlauea's East Rift zone are uniquely estimated by combining time constraints from fractional crystallization and the rates of magma solidification during cooling. Some intrusions were rapidly emplaced as dikes, but stalled before reaching the surface, and cooled and crystallized to feed later fractionated eruptions. More specifically, using the observed time interval between initial emplacement and eruption of fractionated lava, whose degree of fractionation is estimated from petrologic mixing calculations, the extent of solidification or cooling needed to produce this amount of fractionation can be directly inferred. And from the known erupted volumes the spatial extent or size of this fractionated volume can be analytically related to the full size of the source body itself. Two examples yield dike widths of 82 and 68m. Other intrusions remain close to the east rift magma transport path and are observed to last for decades or longer as viable magma bodies that may participate in feeding later eruptions. The thickness of semi-permanent reservoirs near the East Rift Zone magma transport path can be estimated by assuming a resupply rate that is sufficiently frequent to restrict cooling to <10°C. It is inferred that both types of intrusions likely began as dike offshoots from the East Rift Zone magma transport path, but the frequently resupplied bodies may have later been converted to sills or laccoliths of heights estimated at 43–62m. Our modeled intrusions contrast with models of rapidly emplaced thinner dikes feeding shallow intrusions, which are accompanied by intense rift earthquake swarms and are often associated with eruptions.These calculations show that long-term heating of the wallrock of the magma transport paths serves to slow conduit cooling, which may be partly responsible for sustaining long East Rift Zone eruptions. Adjacent to the vertical transport path beneath Kīlauea's summit, the combined effects of heating and ever-increasing magma supply rate may have forced a commensurate enlarging of the conduit, perhaps explaining the occurrence of a temporary burst of deep (5–15km) long-period earthquake swarms between 1987 and 1992.

Magma transport and olivine crystallization depths in Kīlauea’s east rift zone inferred from experimentally rehomogenized melt inclusions

Concentrations of H2O and CO2 in olivine-hosted melt inclusions can be used to estimate crystallization depths for the olivine host. However, the original dissolved CO2 concentration of melt inclusions at the time of trapping can be difficult to measure directly because in many cases substantial CO2 is transferred to shrinkage bubbles that form during post-entrapment cooling and crystallization. To investigate this problem, we heated olivine from the 1959 Kīlauea Iki and 1960 Kapoho (Hawai‘i) eruptions in a 1-atm furnace to temperatures above the melt inclusion trapping temperature to redissolve the CO2 in shrinkage bubbles. The measured CO2 concentrations of the experimentally rehomogenized inclusions (⩽590ppm for Kīlauea Iki [n=10]; ⩽880ppm for Kapoho, with one inclusion at 1863ppm [n=38]) overlap with values for naturally quenched inclusions from the same samples, but experimentally rehomogenized inclusions have higher within-sample median CO2 values than naturally quenched inclusions, indicating at least partial dissolution of CO2 from the vapor bubble during heating. Comparison of our data with predictions from modeling of vapor bubble formation and published Raman data on the density of CO2 in the vapor bubbles suggests that 55–85% of the dissolved CO2 in the melt inclusions at the time of trapping was lost to post-entrapment shrinkage bubbles. Our results combined with the Raman data demonstrate that olivine from the early part of the Kīlauea Iki eruption crystallized at <6kmdepth, with the majority of olivine in the 1–3kmdepthrange. These depths are consistent with the interpretation that the Kīlauea Iki magma was supplied from Kīlauea’s summit magma reservoir (∼2–5kmdepth). In contrast, olivine from Kapoho, which was the rift zone extension of the Kīlauea Iki eruption, crystallized over a much wider range of depths (∼1–16km). The wider depth range requires magma transport during the Kapoho eruption from deep beneath the summit region and/or from deep beneath Kīlauea’s east rift zone. The deeply derived olivine crystals and their host magma mixed with stored, more evolved magma in the rift zone, and the mixture was later erupted at Kapoho.

Local earthquake tomography with the inclusion of full topography and its application to Kīlauea volcano, Hawai'i

We develop a new three-dimensional local earthquake tomography algorithm with the inclusion of full topography (LETFT). We present both synthetic and real data tests based on the P- and S-wave arrival time data for Kīlauea volcano in Hawai'i. A total of 33,768 events with 515,711 P-picks and 272,217 S-picks recorded by 35 stations at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory are used in these tests. The comparison between the new and traditional methods based on the synthetic test shows that our new algorithm significantly improves the accuracy of the velocity model, especially at shallow depths. In the real data application, the P- and S-wave velocity models of Kīlauea show several intriguing features. We observe discontinuous high Vp (>7.0km/s) and Vs (>3.9km/s) zones at 5–14km depth below Kīlauea caldera, its East Rift Zone (ERZ) and the Southwest Rift Zone, which may represent consolidated intrusive gabbro-ultramafic cumulates. At Kīlauea caldera, Vp and Vs decrease from ~3.9km/s and ~2.6km/s from the surface to ~3.7km/s and ~2.3km/s at 2km depth. We resolve a high Vp zone (>7.0km/s) at 5–14km depth and high Vs zone (>3.9km/s) at 5–11km depth. This high Vp and Vs zone extends to the north of the ERZ at 5–10km depth and to the upper ERZ at 8–12km depth. In the Hilina Fault System, there is a high Vp layer (~7.0km/s) at 4–6km depth and a low Vp body of ~5.7km/s at 6–11km depth. The high Vp layer could be associated with the intrusive ultramafic gabbro sills. The velocity contrast on the north and south sides of the Koa'e Fault System indicates that the intrusive activities mainly occur to the north of the fault. Our new LETFT method performs well in both the synthetic and real data tests and we expect that it will reveal more robust velocity structures in areas with larger topographic variations.

Location and size of the shallow magma reservoir beneath Kīlauea caldera, constraints from near‐sourceVp/Vsratios

We present high-resolution compressional wave to shear wave velocity ratios (Vp/Vs) beneath Kīlauea’s summit caldera by applying an in situ estimation method using waveform cross-correlation data for three similar earthquake clusters. We observe high Vp/Vs ratios (1.832 and 1.852) for two event clusters surrounded by the low background Vp/Vs value of 1.412 at ∼2.1 km depth below the surface. These high and low Vp/Vs ratios can be explained by melt- and CO2-filled cracks, respectively, based on a theoretical crack model. The event cluster with the highest Vp/Vs ratio consists of long-period events that followed the 1997 East Rift Zone eruption, indicating their association with fluid and magma movement. The depths of the two clusters with high Vp/Vs ratios are consistent with the magma reservoir location inferred from geodetic observations. Their locations east and north of Halema‘uma‘u crater suggest a horizontal extent of a few kilometers for the reservoir.

The Recovering Process of Vegetation on the East Rift Zone of Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii Island

The Recovering Process of Vegetation on the East Rift Zone of Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii Island

Measurement of three-dimensional surface deformation by Cosmo-SkyMed X-band radar interferometry: Application to the March 2011 Kamoamoa fissure eruption, Kīlauea Volcano, Hawai'i

Abstract Three-dimensional (3D) surface deformation is retrieved for the March 6–10, 2011 (UTC dates), Kamoamoa fissure eruption along the East Rift Zone of Kīlauea Volcano, Hawai'i, through the integration of multi-temporal synthetic aperture radar (SAR) interferometry (InSAR) and multiple-aperture interferometry (MAI) measurements from the COSMO-SkyMed X-band SAR. The measurement accuracies of 1) the individual and multi-stacked MAI interferograms and 2) the 3D deformation, which is measured from COSMO-SkyMed data, are assessed using continuous GPS stations. The root-mean-square (RMS) errors of individual MAI interferograms for descending and ascending data are 2.97 ± 0.6 cm and 3.20 ± 0.62 cm, respectively. The MAI interferograms stacked from multi-temporal observations can produce better results by emphasizing surface deformation signals, with the RMS errors of 1.06 and 1.24 cm for descending and ascending data, respectively. The empirical equations for measurement uncertainties are determined with respect to interferometric coherence for individual and stacked MAI interferograms. An assessment of the 3D components of deformation was performed as well, and RMS errors of 0.75, 0.83, and 0.68 cm were estimated in the east, north, and up directions. A performance test of magma source model parameter estimations was carried out by using the InSAR and 3D measurements. From the 3D deformation field, we found that the magma chamber source at the Kīlauea caldera should be modeled by the spheroid source rather than the simple point source. The performance comparison between the InSAR and 3D modeled results showed that the 3D deformation field allows for precise model parameter estimation.

Operational thermal remote sensing and lava flow monitoring at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory

Abstract Hawaiian volcanoes are highly accessible and well monitored by ground instruments. Nevertheless, observational gaps remain and thermal satellite imagery has proven useful in Hawai‘i for providing synoptic views of activity during intervals between field visits. Here we describe the beginning of a thermal remote sensing programme at the US Geological Survey Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO). Whereas expensive receiving stations have been traditionally required to achieve rapid downloading of satellite data, we exploit free, low-latency data sources on the internet for timely access to GOES, MODIS, ASTER and EO-1 ALI imagery. Automated scripts at the observatory download these data and provide a basic display of the images. Satellite data have been extremely useful for monitoring the ongoing lava flow activity on Kīlauea's East Rift Zone at Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō over the past few years. A recent lava flow, named Kahauale‘a 2, was upslope from residential subdivisions for over a year. Satellite data helped track the slow advance of the flow and contributed to hazard assessments. Ongoing improvement to thermal remote sensing at HVO incorporates automated hotspot detection, effusion rate estimation and lava flow forecasting, as has been done in Italy. These improvements should be useful for monitoring future activity on Mauna Loa.