(BIVN) – After days of precursory lava flows and pauses in activity, episode 51 in the ongoing Kīlauea summit eruption began at 8:30 a.m. HST on Wednesday, July 15.
As of 10:15 a.m. HST, the USGS Volcano Alert Level remains at WATCH and the Aviation Color Code is at ORANGE. The eruption of lava is confined to Halemaʻumaʻu crater within Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park.
The USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory said in a Volcanic Activity Noice (VAN) that “communities may be impacted by wind-blown tephra”, explaining that “low level winds are out of the northeast and higher level winds are from the south.”
In a 10:06 a.m. update, the Observatory reported the plume cloud from the episode had reached up to about 17,000 feet (5000 meters) above sea level. The plume cloud was mostly centered over the area just southwest of the vents.
From the VAN issued just after 9 a.m. HST:
Episode 51 of lava fountaining in Halemaʻumaʻu at the summit of Kīlauea began at 8:30 a.m. HST on July 15. Lava fountains are currently erupting from the north vent and reaching heights of about 160 ft (50 m) above ground level. Peak fountaining typically occurs 1-2 hours after onset. North vent fountains are feeding large lava flows onto the floor of Halema’uma’u crater. No fountains or flows are erupting from the south vent at this time.
Ground-level sensors near the eruptive vents indicate that winds are blowing 5-10 mph (2-5 m/s ) from the east-northeast direction, which suggests that volcanic gas emissions and volcanic material may be distributed to the west-southwest direction from Halemaʻumaʻu. Tephra including ash may be carried by the wind in the direction of communities in the Ka’u District including Pāhala and Nāʻālehu, and on Highway 11 southwest of Volcano. Higher level winds are from the south with the possibility of tephra being dispersed into communities adjacent to and north of Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park.
