Kilauea Volcano’s summit lake level rose between Thursday and Friday morning amid a period of modest inflation, the U.S. Geological Survey Hawaiian Volcano Observatory said Friday morning.
Tiltmeters positioned at Kilauea’s summit Thursday continued to record the modest amount of inflation — about 1 microradian per day. Kilauea’s summit began inflating Wednesday night after appearing to have entered a deflation-inflation cycle that commenced March 30. During inflation, magma rises into the summit reservoir, according to the observatory. The summit reservoir enters the deflation portion of the cycle when the magma moves laterally into a rift zone and either erupts or is stored there.
The summit lava lake level rose about 16 feet between Thursday and Friday, scientists said. It had remained fairly stable on Wednesday.
Summit tremor continued at relatively steady levels suggesting that spattering is more-or-less continuous, scientists said.
The tiltmeter on the north flank of Puu Oo recorded minor variations around very weak inflationary tilt. Tiltmeters are used to measure tiny changes in the slope angle or “tilt” of the ground.
Scientists, who used webcams overnight to assess the flow, said three areas of breakouts remained active northeast of Kilauea Volcano’s Puu Oo vent. The Feb. 21 breakout remains active on the northern flank of Puu Oo while a lava flow that broke out March 9 near Puu Kahaualea has traveled about 1.2 mile toward the north. The third area of breakouts remain active about 3 to 4 miles northeast of Puu Oo, HVO said. All of the breakouts are limited to within 4 miles of the vent.
The U.S. Geological Survey Hawaiian Volcano Observatory on March 25 downgraded its alert level for Kilauea Volcano from a warning to a watch.
The observatory said the decision to lower the alert level from “warning” to “watch” was made because the lava flow nearest to the town of Pahoa has remained inactive. Hawaii County Civil Defense on March 28 suspended its daily eruption and lava flow updates.