Hundreds of earthquakes reported near Kīlauea summit region in the last 24 hours

Earthquakes just south of Kīlauea’s summit continue with about 320 tumblers recorded in the last 24 hours.

Hawaiian Volcano Observatory reported signs of elevated unrest beneath the summit region Wednesday. No unusual activity has been noted along Kīlauea’s East Rift Zone or Southwest Rift Zone.

Inflationary tilt is continuing at a slightly slower rate in the area just south of the summit caldera. Inflation at the summit of Kīlauea remains close to its highest level in over 5 years and has nearly returned to the level seen just before the last eruption on Sept. 10.

Most of the earthquakes are from the ongoing seismic swarm in a region south of the caldera at depths of around 1.5–2 miles below the surface. The trend of the seismic activity parallels, but is slightly south of the December 1974 eruption vents. Today, from 3-6 a.m., strong seismicity was recorded at the northeast end of this trend at the southern boundary of the caldera.

Seismicity in the area decreased around 6 a.m. but still remains elevated. Sulfur dioxide emission rates remain low and were measured at a rate of about 150 tonnes per day on Sept. 25.

Kīlauea recently concluded an eruption event from Sept. 10-17. The event brought six active vents spewing lava from within Halema‘uma‘u crater, and just outside of it in the area known as the droppeddown block. September’s eruption was the shortest recorded eruption event since 1982, which lasted only a day.

There have been five eruption events at the Kīlauea summit since 2020. Deputy Scientist-in-Charge David Phillips said this eruption ended similar to the one a few months ago, which lasted June 7-19, suddenly.

For discussion of Kīlauea hazards, see https://www.usgs.gov/observatories/hawaiian-volcano-observatory/hazards.