Kilauea Summit Update – 5/13/15

Tiltmeters at Kilauea’s summit continue to record deflationary tilt since Tuesday morning, according to Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. The Overlook crater lava lake has had a continuous deflationary trend since Friday and has dipped below view from the Jagger Museum Overlook, according to multiple reports.

HVO says the current level of the lava is about 65 feet below Halema’uma’u’s original floor.

Seismicity below Kilauea’s summit and the Southwest Rift Zones remains elevated. In addition, HVO officials say seismicity has also shown heightened activity in the Kaoiki Pali area, northwest of Kilauea’s summit.

At the Puʻu ʻŌʻō summit, the tiltmeter on the north flank has recorded a slight fluctuation since Tuesday morning. Observations of thermal webcam imagery made by HVO scientists show that there were no visible flows within the crater. Officials say small amounts of nighttime incandescence near the western collapsed pit have suggested that there is a presence of lava in that area.

Northeast of Puʻu ʻŌʻō, webcam images continue to show active June 27 surface flows when they were last mapped by HVO.

This sequence of HVO webcam images of Kīlauea Volcano’s summit vent, recorded between 1:28 and 1:32 p.m., HST, on May 12, 2015, captures the moment a section of the dark-colored “bathtub ring” (a veneer of fresh lava that coats the vent wall as the lava lake level drops) fell into the lava lake (center). USGS/HVO photos.