(BIVN) – Episode 50 in the ongoing eruption at the summit of Kīlauea is expected to begin at any time.
The USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory says lava fountaining is likely to begin between today, June 25th, and Saturday, June 27th. The most likely start time is Friday, June 26th.
Summit inflation, strong vent glow, flaming, periodic spattering, and degassing have been observed at the summit over the last 24 hours.
The USGS Volcano Alert Level for Kīlauea is at ADVISORY.
From the USGS HVO on Thursday morning:
Continuous strong glow was visible on webcams from both vents in Halemaʻumaʻu overnight. The south vent continued to produce large flames and intermittent sprays of fine spatter caused by gas jetting. The first spatter burst from the south vent was observed at 7:22 p.m. HST last night, which is notable since precursory spatter bursts have typically initiated from the north vent during this eruption. North vent spatter bursts began to occur early this morning. Cyclic strong gas pistoning events with jetting, intermittent spatter, and flames associated with spikes in tremor started around 4:00 a.m. this morning from the south vent, with less pronounced cycles earlier. Magma is close to the surface. HVO scientists observed magma roiling and spattering within the north vent during a helicopter overflight yesterday morning; views of the south vent were blocked by gas emissions.
Pulses of seismic tremor continued (every 10-40 minutes) for most of the past day. However, around 4:00 a.m., tremor became cyclic with closely spaced tremor drops followed by short tremor spikes every 10 minutes that were associated with flaming and occasional spatter from the south vent. Three small earthquakes (less than M2), two shallow and one deep, were located beneath Kīlauea volcano’s summit in the past 24 hours.
Kīlauea summit deflation totaled 15.5 microradians during episode 49. Once the episode ended, inflation resumed and has since recovered 14.9 microradians of tilt at the summit tiltmeter at Uēkahuna (UWD).
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.
