(BIVN) – The federal government has reopened following the longest shutdown in United States history, and the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory is once again posting photos to its website, including some featuring the high lava fountain episodes that occurred during the closure.
The federal government shutdown began on October 1, 2025, and lasted for 43 days. During that time, the USGS HVO continued to monitor Kīlauea volcano, and document the eruptive episodes that were occurring at the summit within Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park. Although USGS webcams continued to stream live video from the summit, and daily updates were provided, the Observatory was unable to share photos taken by scientists on the official website.
On November 13, after U.S. Congress agreed on a measure that would reopen the government, some of those Observatory photos began to appear online.
The current eruption, which began in December 2024, has now lasted over 10 months. “Recent episodes featured the highest lava fountains, the most volume of lava erupted, and the highest rate of lava effusion for this event,” the Observatory recently noted.
“These recent episodes added tephra to the growing cone on the rim of Halemaʻumaʻu crater, with about 30 feet (9 meters) added during episode 36 alone,” the USGS HVO wrote. “In total, the new cone has grown to about 138 feet (42 meters) above the pre-eruption ground surface on the crater rim.”
The preliminary forecast for the next high lava fountains (Episode 37) is as early as November 22. The USGS Volcano Alert Level remains at WATCH.
