The lava lake within Halemaumau Crater continues to rise amid a period of inflation at the Kilauea Volcano summit, however, it remains well out of view of visitors at the Jaggar Museum, U.S. Geological Survey Hawaiian Volcano Observatory scientists say.
As of Wednesday morning, the lava lake was about 190 feet below the floor of Halemaumau, scientists said, adding that seismic episodic bursts associated with spattering within the Overlook vent continued. On Tuesday, the lava lake was 203 feet below the rim and on Monday it was 240 feet below the rim.
The rise in the lava lake level, though it remains well below the Overlook vent rim, comes amid a period of inflation that began early Tuesday at the summit. 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. Seismicity rates beneath the summit were at background levels during the past day.
The lava lake has fluctuated since lava overflowed the crater rim periodically between April 21 and May 10 amid a period of increased activity at the summit of Kilauea Volcano that drew thousands to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park to view.
Meanwhile, the June 27 lava flow remained active within about 5 miles of the Puu Oo vent, scientists said Wednesday. The June 27 lava flow began June 27, 2014, and sent flows toward Pahoa that destroyed a home, prompted evacuations and inundated roads, land and a new transfer station. The flow’s forward progress came to a halt mauka of the town in March.
At Puu Oo, the tiltmeter on the vent’s north flank continued to show no significant tilt. Tiltmeters are used to measure tiny changes in the “tilt” or angle of the ground. Seismicity rates there were at normal background levels.