Volcano news & updates: Kilauea volcano (Big Island, Hawaii)
Kilauea volcano update: Lava lake at high level, fire hose stopped
Tuesday Mar 21, 2017 21:29 PM | BY: T
Kilauea's summit lava lake as of this morning (image: HVO webcam)
Tilt at Kilauea showin the current inflation (image: HVO)
At the Kamokuna ocean entry, the fire hose - which was going on very strongly last week (see video below) - had stopped over night and when observed this morning by boat, only a much weaker lava fall was visible. In addition, a new lava bench has finally started to form at the entry point, suggesting that after 2 1/2 months of fire hose activity, the submarine landslide scar seems to have been "healed" (filled-in with lava) sufficiently to support a new bench. Whether this will be stable for at least some time or soon collapse again, and whether the lava output from the exposed tube will again increase sufficiently to produce a free, arched fire hose is impossible to predict.
The surface lava flow at the eastern margin of the episode 61g lava flow remains well active between near the base of the pali and about half way to the coast, with multiple active pahoehoe breakouts when we visited the area last evening.
A possibility is that the amount of lava being diverted from the main tube into these breakouts caused the fire hose at the ocean entry to weaken.
Despite these events at the surface, there is no fundamental change in the ongoing eruption as such and other parameters monitored by HVO are currently not showing any significant variations (low seismicity, average gas output etc).
Short video of Kilauea's Fire Hose into the ocean (18 Mar 2017):
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Previous news
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Friday, Mar 17, 2017
No significant changes have occurred over the past weeks. Kīlauea volcano continues to erupt from at its summit (active lava lake in Halema'uma'u) and from the Puʻu ʻŌʻō vent on the East Rift Zone. From the latter, the s-called 61g lava flow travels southeast, mostly through a lava tube, which enters the ocean in form of a spectacular fire hose at Kamokuna. ... [more]
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Wednesday, Feb 15, 2017
The dual eruption of Kilauea volcano, both at the summit (maintaining an active lava lake in Halema'uma'u crater) and from the east rift zone (lava flows from Pu'u 'O'o) continues with no significant changes. ... [more]
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Monday, Nov 28, 2016
Essentially, the eruption continues unchanged. The lava lake in the summit caldera fluctuates in level and was 17 m (56 ft) below the floor of Halema'uma'u crater yesterday. It is expected to rise again now that a new inflation cycle has started. ... [more]
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Tuesday, Nov 15, 2016
The eruption continues both at the summit and on the eastern rift zone with no significant changes. ...
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Saturday, Nov 05, 2016
No significant changes have occurred over the past weeks. Currently, the summit lava lake inside Halema'uma'u crater stands relatively high at 12 m below the floor of the main crater and is clearly visible from the Jagger museum viewpoint. ... [more]
