(BIVN) – The ongoing eruption at the summit of Kīlauea remains paused, although there was some minor lava activity at the north vent in Halemaʻumaʻu overnight. 

The USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory reported “moderate tremor spikes and glow with hydrogen flames” were seen at the north vent at 5:30 p.m. HST on Friday. The sequence ended with a small lava overflow and vigorous drainback from 9:25 p.m. to 9:28 p.m. 

Tremor and glow have became constant since then, the USGS HVO noted. 

USGS webcam view of the small lava flow at the Kīlauea summit vent on Friday night.

This week, scientists reported their models indicated the next eruptive episode (Episode 36) is likely to occur between Wednesday, November 5 and Monday, November 10.

The Uēkahuna tiltmeter (UWD) has recorded 21.3 microradians of inflationary tilt since the end of Episode 35, as of Friday morning. Inflation appears to have slowed Saturday morning.

UPDATE – (11:30 a.m.) – From the Saturday, November 1 update by the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory:

The north vent had moderate to strong glow overnight with one gas piston overflow from 9:25-9:28 p.m. on October 31. The south vent had weak to moderate intermittent glow. (Note: All of the cameras were zoomed in on the vents last night and the infrared filters were turned off on the V2 and V3 making them appear much brighter and white in color.)

The summit continues to inflate. The Uēkahuna tiltmeter (UWD) has recorded just under 1 microradian of inflationary tilt over the past 24 hours and 22.3 microradians of inflationary tilt since the end of episode 35. Tremor patterns consisted of continuous tremor yesterday until about 5:30 p.m. when moderate spikes signaled the return of gas pistoning activity, which lasted until the short overflow event. A sharp spike in tremor accompanied drainback from this event and tremor became more constant for the rest of the night and early morning.

Plumes of gas continue from both vents this morning and sulfur dioxide (SO2) gas emissions remain at background levels, typically between 1,200 and 1,500 tonnes per day.

Episode 35 lava fountains began at approximately 8:05 p.m. HST on October 17 and ended at 3:32 a.m. HST on October 18. South vent fountains reached heights of nearly 1,500 feet (460 meters) and north vent fountains reached heights of about 1,100 feet (330 meters). These were the highest single fountain and highest pair of fountains seen during this eruption so far. Episode 35 fountains produced an estimated 13 million cubic yards (10 million cubic meters) of lava. The combined average eruption rate was over 500 cubic yards per second (400 cubic meters per second) from the dual fountains. Lava flows from the fountains covered about two thirds of the floor of Halemaʻumaʻu crater.