Breakouts persist northeast of Puʻu ʻŌʻō, with scattered activity along the north margin of the flow field at the forest boundary. One narrow lobe of lava has pushed through forest over the past few weeks, and is 7.6 km (4.7 miles) northeast of the vent on Puʻu ʻŌʻō. This photo looks southwest, and the front of the narrow lobe is in the foreground, with Puʻu ʻŌʻō near the top of the photo. The breakouts active at the forest boundary along the northern flow margin can be seen by their smoke plumes along the right side of the photo. Photo taken Saturday, March 25, 2016 courtesy of USGS/HVO

Another view, looking west, showing the activity along the forest boundary and northern flow margin. Scattered breakouts were burning forest in this area. In the upper left portion of the image, Puʻu ʻŌʻō can be seen. Photo taken Saturday, March 25, 2016 courtesy of USGS/HVO

The altered and fractured rim of Puʻu ʻŌʻō Crater is prone to small collapses. Portions of the eastern crater rim, shown here, have collapsed onto the crater floor, covering the recent lava flows with rubble. Photo taken Saturday, March 25, 2016 courtesy of USGS/HVO

In the western portion of Puʻu ʻŌʻō Crater, there has been a small pit for nearly a year. The pit is about 60 m (200 feet) wide, and a small circular lava pond resides beneath the overhanging west rim of this pit. Photo taken Saturday, March 25, 2016 courtesy of USGS/HVO

HVO geologists walk along the edge of the inner crater in Puʻu ʻŌʻō, making stops periodically to perform laser rangefinder measurements of crater dimensions. Photo taken Saturday, March 25, 2016 courtesy of USGS/HVO

Saturday (March 19) marked the 8-year anniversary of the start of KÄ«lauea’s ongoing summit eruption in HalemaÊ»umaÊ»u Crater. HalemaÊ»umaÊ»u spans much of the width of this photo, and the small inner crater in the foreground is the Overlook crater, which contains the active lava lake. The gas plume at this time was originating from a spattering area in the southern portion of the lake, obscured by the crater wall from this angle. Photo taken Saturday, March 25, 2016 courtesy of USGS/HVO

Vigorous breakouts on the Puʻu ʻŌʻō flow field. Video taken Friday, March 25, 2016 courtesy of USGS/HVO

Time-lapse thermal image movie of Halemaumau Overlook Vent. March 24-31, 2016. Images courtesy of USGS/HVO

Time-lapse movie of Halemaumau Overlook Vent. March 24-31, 2016. Images courtesy of USGS/HVO

Time-lapse movie of Halemaumau Crater looking Southwest. March 24-31, 2016. Images courtesy of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park

Time-lapse movie of Halemaʻumaʻu Overlook Vent from Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. March 24-31, 2016. Images courtesy of USGS/HVO

Time-lapse movie of KÄ«lauea Caldera from Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. March 24-31, 2016. Images courtesy of USGS/HVO

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

KÄ«lauea continues to erupt at its summit and East Rift Zone. During the past week, the summit lava lake was relatively stable, with the lake level around 30 – 35 m (98 – 115 ft) below the vent rim within HalemaÊ»umaÊ»u Crater. On the East Rift Zone, scattered lava flow activity continues within about 8 km (5 mi) of PuÊ»u ʻŌʻō. These flows were not threatening nearby communities.

Mauna Loa is not erupting. No significant changes in seismicity were recorded over the past week. GPS measurements show continued deformation related to inflation of a magma reservoir beneath the summit and upper Southwest Rift Zone of Mauna Loa, with inflation recently occurring mainly in the southwestern part of the magma storage complex.

Two earthquakes were reported felt in Hawaii this past week. On Wednesday, March 30, 2016 at 3:10 a.m., HST a magnitude 3.8 earthquake occurred 35.5 km (22.1 mi) southeast of Na`alehu, Hawai’i at a depth of 43.3 km (26.9 mi). On Monday, March, 28, 2016 at 4:03 a.m., HST a magnitude 3.7 earthquake occurred 0.5 km (0.3 mi) northwest of Kahului, Maui at a depth of 25.9 km (16.1 mi).

Visit the HVO website (http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov) for past Volcano Watch articles, KÄ«lauea daily eruption updates and other volcano status reports, current volcano photos, recent earthquakes, and more; call (808) 967-8862 for a KÄ«lauea summary update; 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. March 24-31, 2016. Images courtesy of USGS/HVO

Time-lapse multi-image movie of Pu’u ‘O’o Crater. March 24-31, 2016. Images courtesy of USGS/HVO

Time-lapse movie of Pu’u ‘O’o Crater North Flank from the North Rim. March 24-31, 2016. Images courtesy of USGS/HVO

This small-scale map shows KÄ«lauea’s active East Rift Zone lava flow field in relation to the eastern part of the Island of HawaiÊ»i. The area of the flow field on February 20 is shown in pink, while widening and advancement of the flow field as mapped on March 25 is shown in red. PuÊ»u ʻŌʻō lava flows erupted prior to June 27, 2014, are shown in gray. The black box shows the extent of the accompanying large scale maps. 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 potential 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 KÄ«lauea’s active East Rift Zone lava flow field. The area of the flow field on February 20 is shown in pink, while widening and advancement of the flow field as mapped on March 25 is shown in red. The yellow lines show the active lava tube system. PuÊ»u ʻŌʻō lava flows erupted prior to June 27, 2014, are shown in gray. PuÊ»u 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 potential 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).

This map overlays a georeferenced thermal image mosaic onto the current map of the flow field near Puʻu ʻŌʻō to show the distribution of active and recently active breakouts. The thermal images were collected during a helicopter overflight on March 25. The June 27th flow field as of March 25 is outlined in green for comparison. The yellow lines show the active lava tube system, as currently mapped. Puʻu ʻŌʻō is at lower left.