The lava lake within the Overlook vent is now more than 200 feet below the floor of Halemaumau Crater, U.S. Geological Survey Hawaiian Volcano Observatory scientists say.
The lava lake within the Overlook vent is now more than 200 feet below the floor of Halemaumau Crater, U.S. Geological Survey Hawaiian Volcano Observatory scientists say.
As of Tuesday morning, the lava lake was about 239 feet below the floor of Halemaumau, scientists said, adding that seismic episodic bursts associated with spattering within the vent continued. On Friday, the lake was about 144 feet below the crater floor.
The lava lake has dropped substantially in recent weeks. Lava had 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.
The summit tiltmeter recorded an inflationary tilt beginning at noon Monday. 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.
Seismicity rates beneath upper East Rift Zone and Southwest Rift Zone have also been at normal, background levels for the past day.
The tiltmeter on the north flank of Puu Oo continued to show no significant change in tilt as of Tuesday morning.
Breakouts along the June 27 lava flow remained active within about 4.9 miles of Puu Oo, scientists said Tuesday.
The U.S. Geological Survey Hawaiian Volcano Observatory on March 25 downgraded its alert level for Kilauea Volcano from a “warning” to a “watch.”