(BIVN) – The ongoing eruption at the summit of Kīlauea volcano remains paused, but the next episode of high lava fountaining could occur as early as next week. 

Over the last few days, intense flames have been observed at the south vent in the caldera. Scientists say this is likely caused by the ignition of escaping volcanic gases. 

The USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory expects episode 45 to occur sometime between Monday, April 20th, and Saturday, April 25th. This would be a shorter period of repose than usual. Tiltmeters show there was less deflation during the episode 44 on April 9th compared to previous episodes, only 17.6 microradians. 

Monitoring of the Hawaiʻi island volcano continues, even with challenges in data-gathering. 

The recent storms that hit Hawaiʻi damaged some radio equipment, causing a monitoring network outage that lasted several days. Field engineers recently fixed the problem.

One of the primary hazard concerns in recent episodes has been tephra fallout. Glassy, volcanic material has showered down across public areas in Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park, and into the surrounding communities. 

A temporary information center was opened at the Cooper Center in Volcano Village in order to help residents learn how to clean tephra from their homes, protect water catchment tanks, keep themselves safe during cleanup. 

The tephra information center at the Cooper Center (photo courtesy the County of Hawaiʻi)

The wind direction will be the primary factor in determining tephra impacts during episode 45, if any. 

For now, the USGS Volcano Alert Level is at ADVISORY, with no indication of eruptive activity occurring elsewhere on the volcano.