Kilauea Summit Update – 5/8/15

Kilauea summit activity and activity at the Puʻu ʻŌʻō vent remains elevated going into the weekend. Over the past day, lava lake spills have expanded past the area of the existing overflows onto the Halema’uma’u Crater. In addition, two lava eruptions at the Puʻu ʻŌʻō vent have occurred.

Hawaiian Volcano Observatory said Friday morning that inflationary tilt at Kilauea’s summit over the past day has been recorded. The lava lake in the Overlook crater spent the majority of the day Thursday at or just below the rim. Several times throughout the day, lava spilled from the Overlook crater onto the floor of Halema’uma’u. According to HVO, one of the largest overflows occurred Thursday evening at about 5:30 p.m., which led to an expansion of the area in which previous flows have covered the floor of Halema’uma’u Crater.

The lava lake has surfaced about 7 yards from the original floor of Halema’uma’u, HVO officials reported Friday morning.

Below Kilauea’s summit and the upper East and Southwest Rift Zones, seismicity continues to remain elevated.

HVO reports that the sulfur dioxide emission rates have averaged 3,600-6,800 tonnes/day for the week ending on May 5.

This satellite image was captured on Wednesday, May 6, by the Landsat 8 satellite. Although this is a false-color image, the color map has been chosen to mimic what the human eye would expect to see. Bright red pixels depict areas of very high temperatures and show active lava. White areas are clouds. USGS/HVO map.

At the north flank of Puʻu ʻŌʻō the tiltmeter has recorded both a slight deflationary and inflationary tilt in the past day. On Thursday afternoon, officials say lava erupted onto the Puʻu ʻŌʻō crater floor twice. One of the eruptions occurred happened during the afternoon hours and the other late at night.

Sulfur dioxide emission rates from all of the East Rift Zone vents were at about 900 tonnes/day when last measured on May 4, according to HVO scientists.

Observations of the June 27 lava flow continue through webcam imagery. HVO scientists say that nighttime incandescence and daytime smoke lead them to believe that the surface flows northeast of Puʻu ʻŌʻō are still active. When mapped on May 5, the most distant flows were about 5 miles northeast of the Puʻu ʻŌʻō crater. Most of the surface flows, located less than 2 miles from the northeast rim of Puʻu ʻŌʻō, were being supplied by the February 21 breakout.