(BIVN) – Lava overflows resumed at the summit of Kīlauea volcano on Friday morning, after an entire day without active lava.

The Hawaiʻi island volcano is building to what is expected to be another episode of high lava fountaining at the summit caldera within Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park. The USGS Volcano Alert Level remains at WATCH. 

“Slow inflation of Kīlauea’s summit resumed yesterday, lengthening the forecast window,” the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory reported this morning. “However, periods of strong glow overnight from the north and south vents and resumption of overflows from the north vent early this morning indicate the start of episode 36 may be close.” 

Models still suggest the likely forecast window for the anticipated high lava fountains is between now and Tuesday, November 11th.

USGS webcam shows another break in the lava activity on Friday.

From the USGS HVO update issued on Friday morning:

Summit Observations:

Since 3:30 a.m. HST this morning there has been a resumption in overflow activity at the north vent. Preceding this period, there was a 24 hour pause in overflows. Overflows at the north vent show limited spattering until drainback, indicating that mostly degassed magma is being erupted at this time.

Resumption of inflation at the summit began yesterday at 12 p.m. HST. The Uēkahuna tiltmeter (UWD) has recorded approximately 0.9 microradian of inflationary tilt over the past 24 hours yielding 26.1 microradians of inflationary tilt since the end of episode 35. During the pause in overflow activity, tremor was low. However, since overflow activity resumed at north vent, periods of low tremor correlating with pond filling and/or overflows is followed by 1-2 minute long tremor spikes related to drainback.

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. Current wind conditions at the summit are light and variable from the northeast and could pose a problem for communities adjacent to Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park if high fountains began under these conditions. Yesterday wind conditions were favorable and the SO2 array southwest of the vent detected “puffs” of gas related to drainback events as is expected during gas pistoning events.

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.