Hawai'i Volcano Blog

Inflation at the summit of the Big Island volcano also remains at about its highest level in more than 5 years, returning to nearly the level seen just before the last eruption Sept. 10, which lasted less than a week.

According to Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, this episodic heightened unrest could lead to an eruption from the December 1974 vents during peaks in this current activity. The vents, located on the south end of the caldera and extending to the southwest, could emerge with as little notice as one to two hours.

Elevated seismicity beneath Kīlauea summit region began Oct. 4 18 days after an eruption, which lasted only six days.

Seismicity beneath the summit region, which began Oct. 4, also decreased with the change in deformation early Saturday morning and remained low as of about 9 a.m. Saturday.

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.

Kīlauea’s most recent eruption stopped on Sept. 16. This was the briefest of the five eruptions that have occurred at the summit of Kīlauea since 2020.  The eruption lasted about six days and, like the four eruptions before it, filled in a portion of the summit that collapsed in 2018.

Earthquake rates beneath the summit region increased overnight from less than 10 earthquakes per day to over 140 earthquakes in the last 24 hours.

The Kulanaokuaiki Tephra is part of the Uēkahuna Ash, and it has been best studied on the south flank of Kīlauea.

According to Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, it is unlikely that the recent eruption will resume based on the behavior of past, short-lived summit fissure eruptions at Kīlauea summit in 1982, 1975, 1974, and 1971, which all ended abruptly.

At least 5,000 visitors — and likely sometimes more — came each day of the eruption to see the volcanic activity from Sept. 10-16.

The people living in Puna and Hawai’i County understand the risk. Knowing they aren’t in control and can’t stop nature from happening is the first step to becoming resilient in the face of future volcanic eruptions on the Big Island.

However, intermittent spattering was seen from the westernmost large cone in the Big Island volcano’s caldera throughout last night.

Kīlauea eruptions in 2020–2021, 2021–2022, January–March 2023, and June 2023 started and remained within Halemaʻumaʻu crater, The newest eruption that began Sunday, September 10, also started as a lava fountain bursting from within Halemaʻumaʻu.

The ongoing eruption at Kīlauea summit within Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park remains confined to the downdropped block and Halemaʻumaʻu crater.

The roughly east-west trending erupting vents within the Kīlauea caldera now span approximately a half mile — down from about 1 mile — as of this morning and have lava fountain heights of up to about 32 feet.

Hawaiian Volcano Obersvatory’s Deputy Scientist-in-Charge David Phillips said the eruption started with at least six lava fountains extending nearly a mile long at heights of 130 to 150 feet.

As of Sunday, permanent air quality monitoring stations across the state report that air quality levels are elevated at the Ocean View and Pāhala air quality monitoring stations.

This is the fifth eruption in the past four years.

Tilt data was the first geodetic data collected by the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) and continues to be incredibly important both for monitoring and basic research in volcano behavior.

Steady rates of quakes have continued in an area south of the Big Island volcano’s caldera since Aug. 22 and recent tiltmeter data suggest the area is inflating.