Volcanic eruption in the middle East Rift Zone at Kilauea volcano, Hawaii
A new volcanic eruption is taking place in a remote and closed area of Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park, west of Kilauea’s Nāpau Crater in the middle East Rift Zone.
Image credit: USGS/HVO
A new eruption started just west of Kilauea’s Nāpau Crater in the middle East Rift Zone between 19:00 and 20:00 UTC on Monday, September 16, 2024, following increased seismicity and ground uplift. This is in a remote and closed area of Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park. Chain of Craters Road, which is closed, is located downslope and downwind of the new fissures.
Increased seismicity and uplift signals continued following the initial brief eruption and the eruption resumed around 04:00 UTC on September 17. The Volcano Alert Level for ground-based hazards remains at Watch and the Aviation Color Code remains at Orange, as of 05:46 UTC, September 17.
According to the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO), the eruption does not currently pose an immediate threat to human life or infrastructure.
Residents of nearby subdivisions may experience volcanic gas emissions related to this activity, which may wax and wane over the coming days.
A helicopter overflight on Monday morning (LT) revealed that small lava pads erupted from two fissure segments extending 480 m (525 yards). The lava reached about 90 m (100 yards) away from the fissure vents, covering approximately 2 ha (4 acres) in total.
The total volume erupted is estimated to be about 20 000 m3 (25 000 yards3), which is roughly equivalent to 8 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
Vegetation in the immediate eruption area was burned and sulfur dioxide continues to degas from the vents.
“The eruption did not pose a threat to human life or infrastructure, however, it occurred in close proximity to the Nāpau Trail and cultural resources nearby,” HVO volcanologists said.
Degassing of sulfur dioxide from the fissure system has continued since the eruption, with a rate of 300 +/- 50 tonnes/day measured by field crews between 21:30 and 23:30 UTC on September 16.
It is likely that rates were higher during the eruption and immediately after, but it is not possible at this time to estimate by how much. At higher levels, gas emissions can pose a hazard to humans downwind of the eruption site.
Rates of deformation have been steady through the day with about the same modest amount of tilt measured today as yesterday. However, daily position solutions from GPS instruments have shown displacements of over 20 cm (8 inches) for several stations in the middle East Rift Zone (MERZ).
The largest displacement is for station MKAI, just downslope of Makaopuhi, which experienced 54 cm (1.8 feet) of south-southwest motion since September 14.
The combination of large GPS displacements and modest tilt rates suggests that much of the deformation is the result of magma entering a storage region several kilometers (1 – 2 miles) below the surface.
References:
1 Kilauea activity and status updates – USGS/AVO – September 15 – 17, 2024
Teo Blašković founded The Watchers in 2011 and edited it until 2026, covering seismic and volcanic activity, extreme weather, space weather and near-Earth objects. Articles on this page are his archive.
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