#Volcano Activity Updates

Hawaiian Volcano Observatory remains steadfast and vigilant as lava fountaining episodes continue at the summit of the Big Island’s Kīlauea volcano, maintaining its monitoring and livestreaming of the volcano to document the eruption’s evolution, inform hazard assessments and apprise the public of ongoing volcanic activity.

Kīlauea summit has shown little net change in pressurization since the eruption began Dec. 23, 2024, indicating the summit has been in some level of equilibrium. As long as that equilibrium is maintained, the episodic eruption at the summit is likely to continue.

When magma moves into the rift zone of a Hawaiian volcano, there is understandably a lot of excitement and apprehension. How far will the magma go? Will it erupt? But even long after the activity stops — regardless of whether it erupts — the subsurface magma continues to have a noticeable impact on the landscape.

There seems to be enough evidence of some sort of collapse happening, which remains the only such event in the volcano’s documented history, simultaneously with a dramatic eruption that caused Hawai’i’s largest ever recorded earthquake, a magnitude-7.9 temblor that resulted in a tsunami and landslide in Ka’u that killed more than 100 people and lava flows that inundated 9 square miles.

While there were several summit eruptions at Kīlauea during the decade, including one that lasted more than 8 months, eruptions along the East Rift Zone — mainly in the upper and middle portions — were much more frequent.

Data from 115 seismic nodes deployed in late June across the East Rift Zone of the Big Island’s Kīlauea volcano, fortuitously before significant unrest began, will be used to image the location and volume of magma within the region at a level of detail not previously possible.

The most recent Mauna Loa eruptions in 1975, 1984, and 2022 each offer unique insights into this volcano’s eruptive behavior.