(BIVN) – Scientists are monitoring Kīlauea volcano for changes, as the Hawaiʻi island volcano continues to slowly inflate towards peak pressurization.
For the last 24 hours, the established vents within Halemaʻumaʻu crater were glowing and emitting flames, with minor intermittent spatter from the north and south vents.
Minor summit inflation continued overnight, the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory reported Tuesday. Scientists saw no anomalous activity outside of the summit. Strong, continuous tremor remains the dominant seismic signal across the summit.
“The system is within about a day, at the current slow rate of inflation, of reaching the maximum inflation of 16 microradians of tilt recovered since episode 54 fountaining ended,” the Observatory stated. “When this peak pressurization is reached, it is possible that activity will resume at the north-south-west vent complex, or reactivate the vent 1-6 system, or intrude another weak area in the summit region.”
“None of these events are likely to produce a strong seismic precursor,” the Observatory added, “so the alert levels remain at ORANGE/WATCH as the volcano continues to ‘exhibit heightened unrest with an increased potential for eruption’.”
“The current total inflation since the end of episode 54 is currently about 15.8 microradians, slightly less than the maximum of 16 microradians reached on September 16 and more than two microradians greater than was lost during episode 54 fountaining,” the Observatory says.
Scientists say “the three most likely possibilities are that activity resumes at the north-south-west vent complex, or reactivates the vent 1-6 system, or intrudes another existing weak crack system in the summit region.”
The Observatory also warned visitors to its website that an outage is planned for September 23-24, as the USGS website content management system gets an upgrade. “During this timeframe, parts or all of the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory website may be temporarily inaccessible or may not appear/function the way it should,” the Observatory stated.
The scientists say they will be able to access internal volcano monitoring datasets, and will continue to issue notifications about volcanic activity using the Volcano Notification Service. Video livestreams of the Kīlauea summit from USGS webcams will also remain operational during this time.
