Episode 53 lava fountaining at Kīlauea summit ends after nearly 10 hours

Hawaiian Volcano Observatory reports that Episode 53 lava fountaining in the ongoing episodic summit eruption of Kīlauea volcano on the Big Island ended abruptly at 1:23 a.m. Aug. 13 after 9.6 hours of erupting within Halemaʻumaʻu Crater.

Maximum fountain height again reached up to its highest of 500 feet above ground level by 5 p.m. Aug. 12 from the north vent, with the south vent not fountaining at all and flames periodically emitting from the new west vent, formerly called the collapse pit, that were visible after 7 p.m. Wednesday.

Plume height reached a maximum of about 18,000 feet above mean sea level. Tephra fall was restricted completely to the closed area of Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park to the southwest and west of the active Halemaʻumaʻu vents.

Episode 53 began at 3:45 p.m. Wednesday.

Kīlauea’s volcano alert level was lowered to advisory and its aviation color code to yellow after fountaining ended.

An abrupt switch from deflation to inflation at the summit coincided with the end of Episode 53 fountaining, indicating another lava fountaining episode is likely.

The instantaneous effusion rate peaked at about 300 cubic yards of lava per second at about 5:15 p.m., with an average effusion rate of 180 cubic yards per second throughout the entire fountaining episode.

An estimated 6 million cubic yards of lava erupted and covered about 40% to 50% of the Halemaʻumaʻu Crater floor.

Seismicity followed the normal change in tremor patterns seen after most fountain episodes, and Uēkahuna tiltmeter recorded about 14.0 microradians of deflationary tilt during Episode 53.

The fountain had decreased slightly to 300 feet high by midnight Thursday, with little change in the altitude of the plume cloud. The final fountains varied from about 100 to 200 feet high during the last half-hour of Episode 53.

Visit the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory website for additional information about the most recent lava fountaining episode.