(BIVN) – The eruption at the summit of Kīlauea volcano is paused. After several days of deflation, the summit tiltmeter switched to inflation just before noon on Tuesday, August 11.
After recording 2.5 microradians of deflationary tilt since early Friday morning, the Uēkahuna (UWD) tiltmeter leveled out around midnight last night. Today’s switch to inflation occurred after the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory posted its daily update at 9:03 a.m. HST. At that time, the Observatory reported current inflation models indicate that the forecast window for episode 53 has shifted to August 13th to 17th.
The Observatory also reported seismicity has returned to normal in the Southwest Rift Zone, after a swarm of 18 small earthquakes occurred in the area on Monday. The earthquakes were recorded between 4 a.m. and 6:20 a.m. “in a relatively small area spanning approximately 3 square miles (8 square km) of the lower SWRZ past the Koʻae fault zone,” scientists wrote.
At the summit, there was only one “very small (less than M1.0) earthquake was detected near the center of Halemaʻumaʻu crater over the past 24 hours,” the Observatory reported. “Summit seismometers detected a series of offshore earthquakes around 3:30 a.m. HST near Kamaʻehuakanaloa, all smaller than M3.2.”
“A weather system that is approaching the islands from the southeast may impact tephra dispersal with wind and rain if it overlaps with episode 53 fountains,” the Observatory commented on Tuesday.
For now, the USGS Volcano Alert Level for Kīlauea remains at ADVISORY and the Aviation Color Code is YELLOW.
