Today at 10:28 a.m. HST, a partial collapse of the southern Overlook crater wall triggered an explosive event at KÄ«lauea Volcano’s summit lava lake. A large plume of gas, ash, and lava fragments was seen rising from the lava lake at the Jaggar overlook. The explosion threw debris onto the Halema‘uma‘u crater rim at the old visitor overlook, which has been closed due to ongoing volcanic hazards such as this explosive event. Photo taken Friday, April 6, 2018 courtesy of U.S. Geological Survey

Geologists arrived at Halema‘uma‘u about 40 minutes after the explosive event to document the deposit and check on the webcams and other monitoring equipment. Upon arrival, the surface of the lava lake was still disturbed from the rock falls impact. Photo taken Friday, April 6, 2018 courtesy of U.S. Geological Survey

The fresh spatter erupted from the Halema‘uma‘u lava lake today during the explosive event, ranged from small lapilli to bombs. The spatter shown here stretched approximately 82 cm (2.7 ft) long. Photo taken Friday, April 6, 2018 courtesy of U.S. Geological Survey

Lithic material (white), older crater wall rock which collapsed to trigger the explosive event, was also found in the deposit on the rim of Halema‘uma‘u crater. Photo taken Friday, April 6, 2018 courtesy of U.S. Geological Survey

Ballistics from the explosion impacted a few of the solar panels which power the monitoring equipment on the rim of Halema‘uma‘u. Photo taken Friday, April 6, 2018 courtesy of U.S. Geological Survey

An HVO geologist gathers samples from a network of collection buckets to evaluate the explosive deposit. Photo taken Friday, April 6, 2018 courtesy of U.S. Geological Survey

Viewing the Halema‘uma‘u parking lot (in background) from within the area of the explosive deposit. There is a clear boundary where the new deposit (which is gray in color) ends, and the blanket of Pele’s hair (golden brown) continues. Photo taken Friday, April 6, 2018 courtesy of U.S. Geological Survey

At 10:28 a.m. HST this morning (April 6), rock falls from the Overlook crater wall into KÄ«lauea Volcano’s summit lava lake triggered an explosive event. This video, taken by the K2cam, shows a dark pulsing plume of ash and debris. The explosion hurled spatter (molten lava fragments) and lithic blocks (older crater wall) onto the rim at the old visitor overlook and to the southwest. This area is closed to the public due to volcanic hazards such as today’s event. Video taken Friday, April 6, 2018 courtesy of U.S. Geological Survey

Time-lapse thermal image movie of Halemaumau Overlook Vent. April 5-12, 2018. Images courtesy of USGS/HVO

Time-lapse movie of Halemaumau Overlook Vent. April 5-12, 2018. Images courtesy of USGS/HVO

Time-lapse movie of Halemaʻumaʻu Overlook Vent from Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. April 5-12, 2018. Images courtesy of USGS/HVO

Time-lapse movie of KÄ«lauea Caldera from Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. April 5-12, 2018. Images courtesy of USGS/HVO

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

This past week, KÄ«lauea Volcano’s summit lava lake level fluctuated with summit inflation and deflation, ranging about 19–32 m (62–105 ft) below the vent rim. On the East Rift Zone, the 61g lava flow remained active with breakouts on the upper part of the flow field, closer to Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō. There were no active lava flows on the pali, coastal plain, or entering the ocean. The 61g flows do not pose an immediate threat to nearby communities.

Mauna Loa is not erupting. Rates of deformation and seismicity have not changed significantly over the past week, but persist above long-term background levels. Only a few small-magnitude earthquakes occurred beneath the volcano, primarily at depths shallower than 5 km (3 mi). GPS and InSAR measurements continue to show slow deformation related to inflation of a magma reservoir beneath the summit and upper Southwest Rift Zone.

One earthquake with three or more felt reports occurred on the Island of Hawaiʻi this past week: a magnitude-2.5 earthquake 1 km (0.6 mi) southeast of Captain Cook at 10 km (6 mi) depth on April 09, at 10:02 p.m. HST.

Please visit HVO’s website (https://volcanoes.usgs.gov/hvo) for past Volcano Watch articles, Kīlauea daily eruption updates, Mauna Loa weekly updates, volcano photos, maps, recent earthquake info, and more. Call for summary updates at 808-967-8862 (Kīlauea) or 808-967-8866 (Mauna Loa). Email questions to askHVO@usgs.gov.

Time-lapse movie of Pu’u ‘O’o Crater. April 5-12, 2018. Images courtesy of USGS/HVO

Time-lapse movie from a camera positioned on the southeast flank of Puʻu ʻŌʻō, looking toward the active flow advancing to the southeast. The breakout point is at the left edge of the image, and the mid-field skyline at the right is roughly coincident with the top of the pali. April 5-12, 2018. 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. April 5-12, 2018. Images courtesy of USGS/HVO

This satellite image was captured on Thursday, April 12, by the Landsat 8 satellite. Although this is a false-color image, the color map has been chosen to mimic what the human eye would expect to see. Bright red pixels depict areas of high temperatures and show active lava. White areas are clouds.
The image shows that breakouts continue in several areas on the flow field. The largest breakout is in the upper flow field, about 1 km (0.6 miles) east of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō. The closest breakouts to the coast include a few small areas that are active near the top of the pali.