Lava from the 61g flow continues into the ocean along KÄ«lauea’s south coast. Today’s field crew also noted active pāhoehoe breakouts a few hundred meters (yards) upslope from the coast and road. Photo taken Wednesday, July 27, 2016 courtesy of USGS/HVO

Perched on the rim of KÄ«lauea Volcano’s summit caldera, the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory and NPS Jaggar Museum (foreground) overlook the active lava lake within HalemaÊ»umaÊ»u Crater. The black lava flows to the left and right of the fuming vent spilled onto the crater floor in April-May 2015, when the lava lake briefly filled to overflowing. Photo taken Wednesday, July 27, 2016 courtesy of USGS/HVO

The summit lava lake in Halemaʻumaʻu Crater continuously circulates, with lava upwelling on one side of the lake and downwelling on the opposite side, often resulting in vigorous spattering (bright spot on left side of lake). As it circulates, sections of the dark-colored, semi-solid lake surface pull apart, revealing the incandescent molten lava beneath and creating the appearance of a jigsaw puzzle. This evening, the lava lake surface was about 26 m (85 ft) below the vent rim. The silhouette of Mauna Loa is visible in upper right. Photo taken Wednesday, July 27, 2016 courtesy of USGS/HVO

Time-lapse thermal image movie of Halemaumau Overlook Vent. July 21-28, 2016. Images courtesy of USGS/HVO

Time-lapse movie of Halemaumau Overlook Vent. July 21-28, 2016. Images courtesy of USGS/HVO

Time-lapse movie of Halemaʻumaʻu Overlook Vent from Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. July 21-28, 2016. Images courtesy of USGS/HVO

Time-lapse movie of Halemaumau Crater looking Southwest. July 21-28, 2016. Images courtesy of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park

Time-lapse movie of KÄ«lauea Caldera from Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. July 21-28, 2016. Images courtesy of USGS/HVO

(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 21.5 m and 26 m (70–85 ft) below the vent rim within Halema‘uma‘u Crater. On the East Rift Zone, the “61g” flow continued to advance to the southeast, and, at 1:15 a.m., HST, on July 26, 2016, lava reached the ocean for the first time since August 2013. The lava flow does not pose an immediate threat to nearby communities.

Mauna Loa is not erupting. In the past week, earthquakes at Mauna Loa occurred beneath the west flank of the volcano mostly in the 5–11 km (3–7 miles) depth range. In addition, earthquakes are occurring in south caldera and upper Southwest Rift Zone at depths less than 5 km (3 mi). Seismicity rates on Mauna Loa overall were lower this week compared with the previous update. Global Positioning System (GPS) measurements show deformation related to inflation of a magma reservoir beneath the summit and upper Southwest Rift Zone, with inflation occurring mainly in the southwestern part of the magma storage complex.

Two earthquakes were reported felt on the Island of Hawaiʻi this past week. On Friday, July 22, at 9:16 p.m., HST, a magnitude-4.3 earthquake occurred 5.4 km (3.3 mi) northwest of Captain Cook at a depth of 11.5 km (7.1 mi). On Tuesday, July 26, at 2:33 p.m., HST, a magnitude-2.7 earthquake occurred 2.1 km (1.3 mi) southeast of Kīlauea Summit at a depth of 0.9 km (0.6 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 multi-image movie of Pu’u ‘O’o Crater. July 21-28, 2016. Images courtesy of USGS/HVO

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. July 21-28, 2016. Images courtesy of USGS/HVO

Time-lapse image movie from a research camera positioned on Holei Pali, looking east towards Lava Flow 61G and Kalapana. July 21-28, 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 July 19 is shown in pink, while widening and advancement of the active flow as mapped on July 26 is shown in red. Lava reached the ocean on the morning of July 26. 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).