Pu`u O`o crater floor collapse and a new lava flow on Kilauea

Between 1 and 2 PM (Hawaiian time) on August 3, the floor to the Pu`u O`o crater collapsed in spectacular fashion - and luckily for us, many Eruptions readers were watching the webcams at the time and saw the event unfold. We even have a great time-lapse video of the event thanks to Eruptions reader Pgen Pgen. In it, you can clearly see the hardened floor of the crater begin to slump in the middle and over the course of 30-40 minutes, collapse into the Pu`u O`o crater. At the same time this was happening, a breach formed in the Pu`u O`o cone and a lava flow began on the flanks of Kilauea - this is typical for a spatter cone like Pu`u O`o as they are made of loosely consolidated material spit out during the basaltic eruptions of the vent. So, sometime lava will punch through a weak spot ...