(BIVN) – Another episode of high lava fountaining is expected to start soon at the summit of Kīlauea volcano within Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park. 

The USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory reported on Tuesday morning that both vents within Halemaʻumaʻu continue to glow overnight, “with minor spattering and frequent lava overflows”. 

“Kīlauea summit inflation continued over the last 24 hours,” the USGS HVO said, “however, repeated overflows from the north and south vents indicate the start of episode 36 is close.” 

Models show the high lava fountains could begin between now and November 8th, “with November 5-7 most probable”, scientists say. 

USGS webcam

From the Tuesday summit observations reported by the USGS HVO:

The north and south vents had strong glow and minor periods of spattering overnight and into the early morning related to filling of the vent and drainback. The north and south vents have also had frequent lava overflow periods in the last 24 hours that have continued into the morning. A total of 14 overflows at south vent and 10 overflows at north event have occurred in the last 24 hours. Many of these overflow events were large enough that lava reach the base of the vents. Fountaining did not accompany the rise of magma and overflows

The summit continues to inflate. The Uēkahuna tiltmeter (UWD) has recorded approximately 1.4 microradian of inflationary tilt over the past 24 hours and 25.6 microradians of inflationary tilt since the end of episode 35. Tremor patterns changed from rough spikes to nearly continuous tremor just prior to noon. The continuous tremor correlated well with nearly continuous overflows from the north vent from noon to 6 p.m. HST yesterday. Around 10 p.m. the rough tremor spikes returned and are continuing. Periods of low tremor correlate with magma rising in the vent and overflowing. As soon as drainback begins, tremor peaks and continues to decrease gradually over 10-20 minutes.

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.