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Lava level and crater geometry data during the 2018 lava lake draining at Kīlauea Volcano, Hawaii

Metadata Updated: December 11, 2025

In May 2018, the onset of new eruptive activity on the lower flank of Kīlauea Volcano, Hawaiʻi, accompanied the draining of the lava lake at the summit, 40 km upslope. The lava lake draining lasted over seven days, and transitioned into the largest collapse event at the summit of Kīlauea in over 200 years, with the paired flank and summit activity marking a historic episode in the modern record of Kīlauea. We present two important datasets that characterize draining of the Kīlauea summit lava lake in 2018. First, we present high-precision elevation data of the lava lake surface measured by an industrial laser rangefinder. To our knowledge, this is the highest-precision lava lake elevation data ever collected over a sustained period. Second, we present three-dimensional models of the drained crater on three dates during the draining sequence. The models were constructed from oblique airborne thermal images using structure-from-motion processing. These models constrain the crater geometry and can be used for measuring the volume of the lava lake during its draining. This combined dataset may be useful for future research on the 2018 eruption.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

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Dates

Metadata Created Date September 13, 2025
Metadata Updated Date December 11, 2025

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI USGS DCAT-US

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date September 13, 2025
Metadata Updated Date December 11, 2025
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
Identifier http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/usgs-5d92dd71e4b0c4f70d0d1cac
Data Last Modified 2020-08-31T00:00:00Z
Category geospatial
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 010:12
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Metadata Catalog ID https://ddi.doi.gov/usgs-data.json
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id 9826975b-cca2-4360-b77c-90bbd77b8803
Harvest Source Id 2b80d118-ab3a-48ba-bd93-996bbacefac2
Harvest Source Title DOI USGS DCAT-US
Metadata Type geospatial
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash a578de76a7c605c17bf00694712838236eac1e30131364ea85d95552cb622374
Source Schema Version 1.1

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