#Hawaii Volcanoes National Park

Conditions in and around the closed area at the summit of Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park can evolve quickly, and elevate the risk of rockfalls, ground cracking and other potentially life‑threatening hazards.

Episode 45 of the ongoing Halemaʻumaʻu eruption ended abruptly at 10:01 a.m. HST on April 23, 2026, after 8.5 hours of continuous lava fountaining. The eruption is currently paused.

Comparing different eruptions can be a bit like comparing apples to oranges. But no matter how you compare, the ongoing eruption made an impression in terms of its longevity, with two active vents and impacts to areas downwind, including the changing topography of the summit.

There were no overflows from either of the Halemaʻumaʻu eruptive vents in the past 24 hours, according to the daily update from the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.

Episode 42 of the ongoing Halemaʻumaʻu eruption ended at  11:38 p.m. on Feb. 15, 2026, and the ongoing Halemaʻumaʻu eruption is currently paused.

Like the “Did You Feel It?” earthquake reporting tool helps make maps of areas affected by shaking, the new tool helps scientists map areas affected by tephra fallout; observations will be used to assess the character and size of the eruption plumes from Kīlauea volcano on the Big Island, along with the dispersal pattern of tephra fall.

The ongoing Halemaʻumaʻu eruption at Kīlauea is paused, per an announcement from the US Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory at 9:06 a.m.

Often spotted by onlookers in Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park, or even by YouTube livestream viewers, the long, ashy gray or brown, ropy cloud-like structures tend to appear near or downwind of active lava fountains. But what is it that we’re actually seeing? Twisters? Tornadoes? Whirlwinds? Lava-nadoes? Vol-nadoes? Tephra-nadoes?

Join Hawaiian Volcano Observatory staff and its partners Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park, University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo and Hawaiʻi County Civil Defense in January 2026 for a series of programs around the island that will discuss eruptions and earthquakes, how Hawaiian Volcano Observatory scientists monitor them and the hazards associated with them.

The latest episode in the series that began nearly a year ago on Dec. 23, 2024, ended abruptly at 8:52 p.m. Saturday (Dec. 6), after a little more than 12 hours, when the south vent — which exploded earlier during the day and featured sustained fountaining as high as 1,200 feet at one point — ceased activity.

Episode 37 of the ongoing Halemaʻumaʻu eruption began at 2:30 p.m. HST on Nov. 25, according to the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. Sustained lava fountains approximately 400 feet (120 meters) in height are currently erupting from the north vent. Fountain heights are increasing rapidly.

The largest Hawaiʻi earthquake of the 20th century and so far in the 21st century happened 50 years ago this month; shaking as well as ground subsidence and a local tsunami contributed to a catastrophic sequence of events Nov. 29, 1975.

Kīlauea summit inflation immediately resumed following the end of episode 35 and continues along with tremor and vent glow. These observations indicate that another fountaining episode is probable, but likely at least two weeks away. 

Episode 31 of the ongoing Halemaʻumaʻu eruption ended abruptly at 2:52 a.m. HST on Aug. 23 after 12.6 hours of continuous fountaining. Lava fountains from the north vent reached up to 325 feet and sustained this height during most of this episode.

While it is challenging that a small portion of the Kīlauea monitoring network is impacted by the ongoing summit eruption, Hawaiian Volcano Observatory says maintaining the network during eruptions comes with the job when it’s monitoring one of the most active volcanoes on Earth.

High fountains lasted nearly 11 hours and produced about 1.6 bilion gallons of lava, covering 80% of the Halemaʻumaʻu Crater floor within the Big Island volcano’s summit caldera. Lava flows from this episode could continue to exhibit slow movement or incandescence throughout the coming days.

Carl “Soot” Bredhoff, a respected leader in Hawaiʻi’s ranching and cattle industry, passed away May 31 at his home in Kula. He was 90. 

Vigorous degassing of sulfur dioxide, nighttime glow and intermittent lava spattering in the north vent indicate that magma is close to the surface of Kīlauea.

Record-setting lava fountain and plume heights were reached during Episode 23 of the Kīlauea summit caldera eruption. Given increasing airborne hazards associated with each new eruptive episode, Hawaiian Volcano Observatory is changing its episode notification types.

Lava fountains reach more than 1,000 feet, volcanic plume soars at least 5,000 feet before most recent phase of eruptive activity — that teased for several days — abruptly ends after just 6 hours and 10 minutes Sunday night.