USGS view of Halemaʻumaʻu from a temporary webcam showing the crater lava lake from the down-dropped block, captured on Tuesday morning.

(BIVN) – The ongoing summit eruption of Kīlauea volcano paused as of yesterday evening.

The USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory says the all recent lava activity has been confined to Halemaʻumaʻu crater within Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park, and there are no indications of the eruption migrating elsewhere on Kīlauea.

From the USGS HVO update posted Tuesday morning:

Halemaʻumaʻu Lava Lake Observations: Effusion of lava from the western vent within Halemaʻumaʻu crater declined through the day yesterday in association with deflation of the summit region. The active lava lake in the western portion of the crater was fully crusted over by 8:00 p.m. HST, although there were several brief periods of crustal foundering and surface circulation overnight. Limited but more consistent circulation of active lava continues in the small lava pond just north of the western vent that has persisted through recent eruptive pauses. Multiple ooze-outs of lava have been weakly active along the northern, eastern, and southern margins of the crater at various times during the past 24 hours.

Before the onset of summit deflation yesterday morning, the surface of the active lava lake was 833 meters (2733 feet) above sea level, with a depth of approximately 92 meters (302 feet) relative to when lava emerged on September 29, 2021. Since yesterday morning, the active lake surface has dropped approximately 12 meters (39 feet) while stagnating and crusting over. Measurements on January 28 indicated that the total lava volume effused since the beginning of the eruption was approximately 45 million cubic meters (12.0 billion gallons) at that time.

Summit Observations: Summit tiltmeters began tracking sharp deflationary tilt around 6:30 a.m. HST yesterday. Deflation was interrupted by a brief period of relatively flat tilt between approximately 9:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. HST, after which there was a continuation of sharp deflationary tilt. The rate of deflation slowed through the afternoon and tilt was essentially flat by midnight, with no changes this morning. Seismic data shows that volcanic tremor remained at eruption levels until the second deflation onset around 11:00 a.m. HST, when tremor began dropping off substantially. Earthquake activity in the summit region remains below background level. A sulfur dioxide (SO2) emission rate of approximately 475 tonnes per day (t/d) was measured on February 2, during the previous eruptive pause.

The current USGS Volcano Alert Level for Kīlauea remains at WATCH.