Triple lava fountain appears during Episode 38 of ongoing Halemaʻumaʻu Crater eruption

Episode 38 of the ongoing episodic eruption within Halemaʻumaʻu Crater at the summit caldera of Kīlauea volcano on the Big Island is underway — and brought a new feature not seen yet or very often at all.

A triple lava fountain.

Hawaiian Volcano Observatory reports that the latest episode of the eruption — which began almost a year ago on Dec. 23, 2024 — started with steeping increasing tremor and decreasing inflation at 8:45 a.m. today (Dec. 6), which was followed by sustained lava fountains of between about 50 and 100 feet tall from the north vent in the southwest portion of the crater.

By the time of the observatory sent out its volcano activity notification via email just after 9 a.m., fountain heights were rapidly increasing and erupting from the left and right vents within the north cone.

All eruptive activity is confined to Halemaʻumaʻu Crater and inside Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park.

Past episodes produced incandescent lava fountains of more than 1,000 feet high. The spilt nature of the north vent suggests Episode 38 could produce lower fountains similar to Episode 37, when the same two vents existed in the north cone.

A view of the livestreams just before 11 a.m. showed at least the north and south vents of the volcano still fountaining and one lava geyser extending well more than 500 feet.

Low fountains and overflows were confined to the two sub vents within the north cone for several hours prior to the onset of Episode 38.

Fountains and flows from the south vent began at 8:49 a.m.

Hawaiian Volcano Observatory reported at 10:41 a.m. that all three vents continued to produce fountains, with the south vent reaching up to 1,200 feet tall and north vent fountains dropping to less than their maximum of 500 feet so far during this latest episode.

Prior to the south vent becoming dominant, there were three roughly equal sized 500-foot-high fountains with two from the north vents and one from the south vent.

The triple fountain is an extremely rare event, and this is the first time during this eruption it has been observed.

If you can’t make it to the park to see Episode 38 in person, there are still two Kīlauea summit livestream cameras that show eruptive lava fountains — they are available here: V1cam and V2cam.

Hot lava and pumice from the south vent fountained destroyed the V3cam site just before 10 a.m. Saturday.

The associated plume — composed of water vapor and sulfur dioxide gas (possibly with Pele’s hair and fine ash) — currently has a maximum height of about 15,000 feet above ground level.

National Weather Service forecasters in Honolulu show winds are blowing from the north-northeast at about 10 mph, suggesting volcanic gas emissions and volcanic material could be distributed south of Halemaʻumaʻu.

The summit deflated about 9.5 microradians as measured on the Uēkahuna tiltmeter in about 1 hour and 45 minutes.

The rapid tilt drop and very high output from both vents suggest this might be another relatively short episode, lasting less than 6 to 8 hours, similar to episode 37.

Episode 38 was preceded by small, sporadic spatter fountains and six precursory overflows from the north vent that began at about 12:50 p.m. Friday (Dec. 5).

Continuous overflows began at 3:37 a.m. and increased in intensity until 8:45 a.m., when sustained fountaining began.

Inflation reached just more than 16.6 microradians since the end of Episode 37 before the newest episode began this morning.

Seismic tremor began increasing and tilt at the summit switched from inflationary to deflationary at about 7:45 a.m., about the same time increased lava output began from the north vent.

Most episodes of Halemaʻumaʻu lava fountaining since Dec. 23, 2024, continued for about a day or less and were separated by pauses in eruptive activity lasting generally at least several days.

No changes have been detected in Kīlauea’s East Rift Zone or Southwest Rift Zone.

Vog — or volcanic smog created when sulfur dioxide emitted from the volcano during an eruption reacts with the atmosphere to create the visible haze — and volcanic fallout such as Pele’s hair and tephra continue to be the main hazards associated with the ongoing episodic eruption.

Hawaiian Volcano Observatory continues to closely monitor Kīlauea volcano.

Big Island Now news reporter Nathan Christophel contributed to this story.