Kīlauea awakens: 200-foot lava fountain emerges with 4th eruptive episode underway

This story was updated at 11:17 a.m. Jan. 15.

Livestream images from the southwest side of the summit caldera of Kīlauea volcano inside Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park on the Big Island once again showed lava fountaining by 10 a.m. Wednesday from one of the vents in Halemaʻumaʻu Crater.

The fourth eruptive episode of the of the summit eruption that started Dec. 23, 2024, is definitely underway after a 12-day pause.

Hawaiian Volcano Observatory reported in its daily Kīlauea update that the newest eruptive activity began at about 9:15 a.m. Wednesday, with a small lava flow exiting the north vent following low-level continuous lava spattering that started at about 5:40 a.m. from the same vent.

Lava flow activity increased by 9:50 a.m. and at about 9:55 a.m., low-level lava fountaining started, with more rigorous lava flow activity.

About 10% of the Halemaʻumaʻu Crater floor had been covered with new lava by 10:53 a.m., and based on webcam imagery, the lava fountain appears to be 200 feet high.

The sluggish, low effusion rate eruptive activity at the start of this episode was shorter than the sluggish start of second episode, which lasted about 3 to 4 hours, and third eruptive episode, which spanned 2 and a half days.

There are no signs of activity at the south vent.

If fountaining continues, it is possible heights will increase as more gas-rich lava is erupted.

While it is not possible to estimate how high the fountains might get or how long the fountaining will last, prior eruptive episodes produced fountains of 200-plus-feet high that lasted up to 24 hours.

Each episode of lava fountaining has continued for 14 hours to 8 days, and episodes have been separated by pauses in eruptive activity lasting less than a day to 12 days.

Minor degassing has been seen across the crater floor and at the north and main vent. Livestream images show there also appears to be volcanic gas coming from another area in the caldera that does not seem to have any lava erupting.

Hawaiian Volcano Observatory says all activity remains confined to the north vent area.

No unusual activity has been noted along the volcano’s East or Southwest Rift Zones.

Seismicity in the summit region remains low, with only 5 small earthquakes detecte during the past 24 hours. Tremor increased when fountaining began, but is still lower than the first two episodes of vigorous high fountains.

Summit tiltmeters have been tracking gradual inflation during the past day.

The tiltmeter at Uēkahuna continued to record inflation beneath Halemaʻumaʻu, starting at about 9 a.m. Tuesday, and could be starting to show signs of leveling off.

The most recently measured sulfur dioxide emission rate was aboout 560 tonnes per day on Jan. 14.

Though significantly lower than rates measured during more energetic eruptive activity, this value still represents above-background sulfur dioxide emissions, and the resulting hazard will be affected by wind conditions.

As sulfur dioxide is continuously released from the summit, it will react in the atmosphere to create the visible haze known as vog, or volcanic smog, downwind of Kīlauea.

While other hazards still exist, high levels of volcanic gas — primarily water vapor, carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide — continue to be the primary hazard of concern with this summit eruption.

This is the sixth eruption within Kaluapele, the summit caldera of Kīlauea, since 2020. They typically last from 1 week to more than a year.

Summit eruptions observed throughout the past 60 years can episodically wax and wane, drop with time to more sustainable low effusion rates or slowly diminish and end. This eruption has paused three times already.

The most recent pause began the night of Jan. 3.

Kīlauea’s volcano alert level remains at watch and its aviation color code at orange.

Hawaiian Volcano Observatory continues to closely monitor the volcano and is in contact with Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park and Hawai‘i County Civil Defense about eruptive hazards.

See the Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park website for visitor information.