Unrest continues near Kīlauea caldera

A seismic swarm at near Kīlauea continues with most earthquakes occurring beneath the Koaʻe fault zone 5-8 miles southwest of the caldera.

There have been roughly 15-20 earthquakes per hour in this region for most of the day. There continue to be a few scattered earthquakes within Kīlauea caldera, but no significant clusters of activity. Tiltmeters at Sand Hill and Uēkahuna Bluff continue to show ground motion at consistent directions and rates, suggesting that the summit region is deflating as magma moves from this region to the southwest.

According to Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, a significant amount of lava has been intruded south and southwest of Kīlauea caldera since Jan. 27. Models suggest an accumulation of as much as 40 million cubic yards in the region to the southwest of the caldera during this event.

As long as the intrusion continues, there is a chance that an eruption could occur within or southwest of the caldera with little advanced warning.

Upgrades to the network may continue to cause intermittent outages affecting public access to monitoring data. HVO maintains internal access to volcano monitoring data and will continue to report on volcanic activity.

Kīlauea volcano alert level and aviation color code remain at WATCH/ORANGE as the situation remains dynamic. HVO will continue to issue daily Kīlauea updates; additional notices will be issued as activity warrants.