High lava fountaining possible at Kīlauea starting today
The last eruptive episode occurred on Oct. 17 and lasted approximately six hours.
High fountaining is possible at Kīlauea within Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park as intermittent lava flows have continued from the north vent over the past day.
According to the daily report from the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, summit inflation that continued through most of Tuesday, Nov. 3, shifted to deflation around 3 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 4. As a result, the fountaining is possible today or anytime within the next few days.
“(A) Strong glow could be seen from the southwest vent overnight, along with occasional spatter and flames,” the report states.
The precursory activity to episode 56 showed overflows over the past day that were around 15 to 20 minutes long. On Wednesday morning, two to three overflows per hour were occurring.
Background seismic tremor began increasing around 6 a.m. and remains elevated as of this morning. Periodic strong tremor bursts associated with the vigorous drain back of lava marking the end of each overflow picked up this morning.
Six small earthquakes were located at the summit in the past day, with most beneath the south caldera region.
This morning the Uēkahuna tiltmeter (UWD) had recovered a total of 17.6 microradians of tilt since the end of episode 55. Inflationary tilt that continued through yesterday and early this morning switched to deflationary tilt around 3 a.m., with deflationary tilt continuing this morning.
Rates of seismicity and ground deformation remain low in the East Rift Zone and Southwest Rift Zone. SO2 emissions from the East Rift Zone remain below the detection limit.
Kīlauea has been erupting episodically since Dec. 23, 2024, from two primary vents (north and south) within Halemaʻumaʻu at the summit. Lava fountaining episodes generally last less than 12 hours and are separated by pauses of two or more weeks.
Episode 55 occurred on Oct. 17 at 3:19 a.m. and ended abruptly at 9:03 a.m. on the same day. The maximum lava fountain height was approximately 720 feet above ground level from the north vent.
The south and west vents never fountained during this episode but did produce overflows before the fountaining episode.
The maximum plume height was approximately 25,000 feet above mean sea level. Tephra (volcanic debris) fall was restricted mostly to the closed area of Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park, southwest of the active Halemaʻumaʻu vents.
