In these pictures researchers work on the top of the 4,000ft Kilauea volcano. The shots were taken by local photographer G. Brad Lewis, 56, who said: 'Erupting volcanoes have always fascinated me.

But as a shield volcano, Kilauea doesn’t have explosive, Mt. St. Helens-type eruptions. Instead, it emits a steady stream of fluid lava that generally flows gently down the side of the mountain ...

They're also called composite volcanoes. Mount Rainier in Washington is a famous stratovolcano. Shield volcanoes are big, broad volcanoes made up of oozy lava flows that erupt from multiple vents.

Olympus Mons might not look impressive in the top-down photos you've seen in ... Earth's largest volcano is Hawaii's Mauna Loa, a shield volcano with a volume of 18,000 cubic miles.