December 15, 2016 Lava Lake Exposed from Mick Kalber on Vimeo.

Video courtesy of Tropical Visions Video with air transportation by Paradise Helicopters.

Time-lapse movie of Halemaumau Overlook Vent. December 8-15, 2016. Images courtesy of USGS/HVO

Time-lapse thermal image movie of Halemaumau Overlook Vent. December 8-15, 2016. Images courtesy of USGS/HVO

Time-lapse movie of Halemaʻumaʻu Overlook Vent from Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. December 8-15, 2016. Images courtesy of USGS/HVO

Time-lapse movie of KÄ«lauea Caldera from Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. December 8-15, 2016. Images courtesy of USGS/HVO

Time-lapse movie of Halemaumau Crater looking Southwest. December 8-15, 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. This past week, the summit lava lake level varied between about 9 and 31.5 m (30–103 ft) below the vent rim. The 61g lava flow continued to enter the ocean near Kamokuna. Recent breakouts from the 61g vent area on the flank of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō remained active, with a small surface flow slowly advancing to the east. The 61g lava flows do not pose an immediate threat to nearby communities.

Mauna Loa is not erupting. During the past week, earthquakes occurred primarily at the upper Southwest Rift Zone at depths less than 5 km (3 mi). A magnitude-3.3 earthquake occurred in the upper Southwest Rift Zone at a depth of 2.4 km (1.5 mi) on Dec. 12. Deformation related to inflation of a magma reservoir beneath the summit and upper Southwest Rift Zone continued.

Three earthquakes were reported felt on the Island of Hawaiʻi during the past week. On Dec. 10, at 4:49 a.m., HST, a magnitude-3.1 earthquake occurred 32 km (19.9 mi) southwest of Hawi at a depth of 40.6 km (25.2 mi). On Dec. 9, a magnitude-3.0 earthquake occurred 14.5 km (9.0 mi) northwest of Kailua at a depth of 11.4 km (7.1 mi) at 2:55 p.m., and a magnitude -2.9 earthquake occurred 9.2 km (5.7 mi) west of Kawaihae at a depth of 9.9 km (6.2 mi) at 11:01 a.m.

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 of Pu’u ‘O’o Crater East Flank. December 8-15, 2016. Images courtesy of USGS/HVO

Time-lapse multi-image movie of Mokuʻāweoweo Caldera from the Northwest Rim on Mauna Loa. December 8-15, 2016. Images courtesy of USGS/HVO

This map shows recent changes to Kīlauea’s East Rift Zone lava flow field. The area of the active flow field as of November 29 is shown in pink, while widening and advancement of the active flow as of December 14, based on satellite imagery, is shown in red. Older Puʻu ʻŌʻō lava flows (1983–2016) are shown in gray.
The blue lines over the PuÊ»u ʻŌʻō flow field are steepest-descent paths calculated from a 2013 digital elevation model (DEM), while the blue lines on the rest of the map are steepest-descent paths calculated from a 1983 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 the 1983 10-m digital elevation model (DEM).