The surface of the lava lake atop Kilauea has once again dropped out of sight.
On Tuesday, 19 days after first showing its face, the lake reached a level far enough below Overlook Crater’s now-perched rim that it could not be seen from Hawaii Volcanoes National Park’s Jaggar Museum.
“There is no lava visible from Jaggar,” Jessica Ferracane, park spokeswoman, said Tuesday afternoon. “I was just out there to double check and see with my own eyeballs.”
Still, Ferracane said the lake is a sight worth seeing.
“It looks pretty cool. The vent itself is super steep and it looks larger than it was, and lots of people still up there. And I bet the glow up there tonight is going to be amazing,” she said.
Since Saturday, geologists have reported continued deflation of the volcano’s summit.
Janet Babb, a geologist and Hawaiian Volcano Observatory spokeswoman, said the deflation has resulted in the lake dropping approximately 42.6 feet since Monday morning. By Tuesday morning, it was 50 feet below the pre-overflow rim of the summit vent — the original floor of Halemaumau Crater.
After coming into view April 23, the lake continued to rise, eventually reaching the vent rim and overflowing onto the floor of Halemaumau; the first time molten rock had oozed onto the crater floor since 1982. Over the past three weeks, the spectacle has drawn thousands of visitors to the park.
Geologists said Tuesday that the dropping lava level has allowed lava veneer on the walls of the Overlook Crater to fall away, exposing the contact between the original rim of the Overlook Crater and the stack of recent lava overflows. These overflows are roughly 26 feet thick. And not counting the 8-acre lava lake itself, the overflows total about 28 acres of Halemaumau Crater’s 138-acre floor, according to HVO.
Seismicity remains elevated beneath Kilauea’s summit and upper East and Southwest Rift Zones.
Email Chris D’Angelo at cdangelo@hawaiitribune-herald.com.