Scattered breakouts persist northeast of Puʻu ʻŌʻō, with no significant advancement over the past month. Today, the farthest active breakouts were 5.8 km (3.6 miles) from the vent on Puʻu ʻŌʻō. Several small breakouts were burning vegetation along the north margin of the flow, at the forest boundary. This photo looks upslope, towards the vent. Puʻu ʻŌʻō can be seen on the skyline in the upper right portion of the image. Photo taken Monday, May 9, 2016 courtesy of USGS/HVO

The small lava pond in the western portion of Puʻu ʻŌʻō Crater was at a higher level Monday (May 9) compared to previous visits, and closer to the pit rim. A disruption in the pond created increased spattering and agitation during our observation period. For scale, the pond is about 25 meters (80 ft) in diameter. Photo taken Monday, May 9, 2016 courtesy of USGS/HVO

A closer look at the spattering and agitation in the small lava pond in Puʻu ʻŌʻō. Photo taken Monday, May 9, 2016 courtesy of USGS/HVO

An HVO geologist approaches one of the small vents in Puʻu ʻŌʻō Crater to obtain a spatter sample. Photo taken Monday, May 9, 2016 courtesy of USGS/HVO

Time-lapse thermal image movie of Halemaumau Overlook Vent. May 5-12, 2016. Images courtesy of USGS/HVO

Time-lapse movie of Halemaumau Overlook Vent. May 5-12, 2016. Images courtesy of USGS/HVO

Time-lapse movie of Halemaʻumaʻu Overlook Vent from Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. May 5-12, 2016. Images courtesy of USGS/HVO

Time-lapse movie of KÄ«lauea Caldera from Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. May 5-12, 2016. Images courtesy of USGS/HVO

Time-lapse movie of Halemaumau Crater looking Southwest. May 5-12, 2016. Images courtesy of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park

(Activity updates are written by scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.)

Kīlauea continues to erupt at its summit and East Rift Zone. During the past week, the summit lava lake level varied between about 26 and 38 m (85–125 ft) below the vent rim within Halema‘uma‘u Crater. On the East Rift Zone, scattered lava flow activity remained within about 5.8 km (3.6 mi) northeast of Puʻu ʻŌʻō and was not threatening nearby communities.

Mauna Loa is not erupting. Seismicity remains elevated above long-term background levels, but no significant changes were recorded over the past week. Deformation related to inflation of a magma reservoir beneath the summit and upper Southwest Rift Zone continues, with inflation recently occurring mainly in the southwestern part of Mauna Loa’s magma storage complex.

Two earthquakes were reported felt on the Island of Hawai‘i this past week. On Tuesday, May 10, 2016, at 3:14 p.m., HST, a magnitude-3.5 earthquake occurred 8.8 km (5.4 mi) southeast of Kīlauea’s summit at a depth of 3.1 km (1.9 mi). On Saturday, May 7, 2016, at 10:51 p.m., HST, a magnitude-3.1 earthquake occurred 5.4 km (3.4 mi) southeast of Kīlauea’s summit at a depth of 2.1 km (1.3 mi).

Please visit the HVO website (http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov) for past Volcano Watch articles, KÄ«lauea daily eruption updates, Mauna Loa weekly updates, volcano photos, recent earthquakes info, and more; call for summary updates at 808-967-8862 (KÄ«lauea) or 808-967-8866 (Mauna Loa); email questions to askHVO@usgs.gov

Time-lapse movie from images gathered from a temporary thermal camera looking into Pu’u ‘O’o Crater. The temperature scale is in degrees Celsius up to a maximum of 500 Celsius (932 Fahrenheit) for this camera model, and scales based on the maximum and minimum temperatures within the frame. Thick fume, image pixel size and other factors often result in image temperatures being lower than actual surface temperatures. May 5-12, 2016. Images courtesy of USGS/HVO

Time-lapse multi-image movie of Pu’u ‘O’o Crater. May 5-12, 2016. Images courtesy of USGS/HVO

Time-lapse movie of Pu’u ‘O’o Crater North Flank from the North Rim. May 5-12, 2016. Images courtesy of USGS/HVO

This small-scale map shows Kīlauea’s active East Rift Zone lava flow field in relation to the eastern part of the Island of Hawaiʻi. The area of the flow field on March 25 is shown in pink, while widening and advancement of the flow field as mapped on May 9 is shown in red. Puʻu ʻŌʻō lava flows erupted prior to June 27, 2014, are shown in gray. The black box shows the extent of the accompanying large scale map.
The blue lines show steepest-descent paths calculated from a 1983 digital elevation model (DEM; for calculation details, see http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2007/1264/). Steepest-descent path analysis is based on the assumption that the DEM perfectly represents the earth’s surface. DEMs, however, are not perfect, so the blue lines on this map can be used to infer only approximate flow paths. The base map is a partly transparent regional land cover map from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Office of Coastal Management draped over a 1983 10-m digital elevation model (DEM). The bathymetry is also from NOAA.
Because the flow field is changing very little at the moment, mapping of the lava flow is being conducted relatively infrequently. We will return to more frequent mapping if warranted by an increase in activity.

This map shows recent changes to Kīlauea’s active East Rift Zone lava flow field. The area of the flow field on March 25 is shown in pink, while widening and advancement of the flow field as mapped on May 9 is shown in red. The yellow lines show the mapped portion of the active lava tube system. Puʻu ʻŌʻō lava flows erupted prior to June 27, 2014, are shown in gray. Puʻu ʻŌʻō is at lower left.
The blue lines show steepest-descent paths calculated from a 1983 digital elevation model (DEM; for calculation details, see http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2007/1264/). Steepest-descent path analysis is based on the assumption that the DEM perfectly represents the earth’s surface. DEMs, however, are not perfect, so the blue lines on this map can be used to infer only approximate flow paths. The base map is a partly transparent 1:24,000-scale USGS digital topographic map draped over a 1983 10-m digital elevation model (DEM).