Hawaiian Volcano Update: Kīlauea Eruption Pauses, June 22, 2023

We’re less than a week into the current pause in Kīlauea's eruption following a quick decline in vent and lava lake activity on Monday. All recent eruptive activity has been contained to the Halema’uma’u crater, with the East Rift Zone and Southwest Rift Zone showing no unusual activity. The lava, once cascading from the eruptive vent on the western wall of the caldera, has ceased, leaving only a cooling layer of previously erupted lava on the crater floor.

Gas emissions have notably dropped to 175 tonnes of SO2 per day, a significant decrease from the beginning of the eruption, coinciding with the pause in lava output as well. Earthquakes and ground tilt have also reduced to levels typically observed after the pause of an eruption. Notably, there are no discernable changes in the volcano's rift zones, which continue to show steady but low rates of ground deformation and seismicity, suggesting no increased threat to nearby populations.

Despite the pause in eruptive activity, Kīlauea continues to pose hazards. 175 tonnes of SO2 per day continue to be released, posing risks of poor air quality to nearby and downwind communities.

In the meantime, Maunaloa remains calm as the usual process of magma refilling its summit reservoir continues without significant changes.

As usual, our live presentation reviews the recent changes using monitoring data, imagery and reports courtesy of the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, today supplemented by media from viewers and other contributors. We annotate the presentation on-screen, and discuss live viewer questions.


#Kilauea #Kilauea2023 #Maunaloa

[donstringer]

Awesome pics! Thanks to all! Yvonne especially!

[marenpurves]

Mahalo for the update and all the pictures! Sorry I missed it live - I hope the people in the chat behaved.

[MrBothandNether]

So awesome that they got the seismics with those big trucks right before this latest activity!
Can’t wait to see what all the data reveals

[amcginnis]

I'd be surprised if that was the actual end of the eruption. It was erupting super vigorously right up until it shut off (which happened basically in just a few minutes). To me that suggests that the conduit was blocked. If it had actually lost enough pressure to stop, it would declined slowly in output and then ramped up the output as the tilt was increasing, but it didn't. It shut off and then immediately started inflating. I feel like we'll see lava within a week or two but who knows.

[madhakur]

Hopefully the eruption will resume maybe tomorrow or the day after, if the tilt keeps going up. Perhaps we are going for a sort of episodic lava geyser like happened in Kilauea Iki, or Pu'u O'o. But then the cone on the southwest end doesnt appear to have any degassing that would suggest a hole still exists :(

[HG-osdy]

Both of your audio volumes are very low. I have my computer at full volume and it sounds low to medium.

[jerryeubanks]

Guys great video 6- 22- 2023 it's the first day I never seen that I'd love to work my way back and find it The rest of them just to see how this proceeded.

[kennycarter]

I'm guessing it will be a multi month break. The vent shut off the moment inflation started. Or maybe it had a Rockwall clog it and inflation then started

[LilliRaven]

Maybe it takes a while for new deeper source gaseous magma to build up enough pressure to burst out through the degassed, more dense lava in the lake. The new lava then flows back into the lake, degassing as it goes, and is recycled into the eruptive column somehow as it is still gaseous. Once the lava flowing out is degassed enough, the eruption stops, until something disrupts the new equilibrium. Any one else have another theory?