(BIVN) – The ongoing eruption at the summit of Kīlauea remains paused, with the forecast window for the onset of episode 48 lava fountains is now open.
Precursory lava overflows have yet to begin at summit vents. The USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory says summit inflation has slowed but continues, and lava fountaining is expected to occur sometime between today (May 29) to Sunday (May 31).
Some lava spatter was visible within the north vent overnight and into the early morning.
From the Friday morning update by the USGS HVO:
Summit Observations:
Bright glow was visible from both Halemaʻumaʻu eruptive vents overnight. Common low-level spatter was visible throughout the night from within the north vent and a single spatter burst from within the south vent was observed at 3:47 am. No precursory overflows from either vent have occurred yet.
Low-level seismic tremor continues during the current pause and did not change significantly over the past day during the deflation event. Earthquake activity beneath Kīlauea summit remains low at this time.
Kilauea summit inflation continues this morning, but at a lower rate than previous days. Since the end of lava fountaining episode 47 on May 15, the Uēkahuna tiltmeter (UWD) has tracked about 15.8 microradians of inflationary tilt (a small tilt offset was due to the M6.0 earthquake on the west side of the island on Friday evening). This instrument recorded 15.6 microradians of deflationary tilt during episode 47.
With the eruption now paused, the sulfur dioxide (SO2) emission rate from the summit is likely now varying within a typical range of 1,000 to 5,000 tonnes per day. Measurements on Friday, May 22, indicated emission rates of about 2,000 tonnes per day. Surface winds are out of the northeast at the summit this morning.
