USGS Volcano Notice - DOI-USGS-HVO-2024-12-24T18:16:23+00:00

Activity Summary:  The eruption at Kīlauea volcano that began yesterday, December 23, slowed starting around 3 p.m. HST yesterday. The eruption paused through the night and reactivated at several of the vents along the southwest of Halema‘uma‘u crater floor. Eruptive activity remains confined to Halemaʻumaʻu and the downdropped block within the caldera and may fluctuate in vigor over the coming days. No unusual activity has been noted along Kīlauea’s East Rift Zone or Southwest Rift Zone.  

Summit Instrumental Observations: Seismicity at the summit over the last 24 hours has been low with approximately 8 earthquakes, all below magnitude-2.0. At the onset of the eruption yesterday morning, seismic tremor was high. However, around 3 p.m. yesterday, seismic tremor began to decrease, and currently there is low to moderate tremor related to vent activity. Immediately after the summit eruption commenced, summit tilt meters recorded rapid to moderate deflation until late afternoon. Around 3 p.m. yesterday, Kīlauea’s summit began slowly inflating. Based on ground instruments, the SO2 emissions were estimated to be over 100,000 tonnes per day during the initial stages of the eruption and dropped to about half of that by mid-day yesterday before the pause. The infrasound array picked up a clear signal from the summit around 10 a.m. this morning corresponding to low-level fountaining. A data problem last night resulted in images from Halemaʻumaʻu crater being displayed on a Nāpau Crater camera site. There is no eruptive activity in Nāpau Crater, and the camera has been temporarily taken offline for maintenance. 

Summit Eruption Observations:  Webcam images indicate that the new eruption started within Kaluapele (the summit caldera) in Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park at 2:20 a.m. HST on December 23. The main eruptive vent is located on the southwest side of Halemaʻumaʻu crater. By mid-day yesterday, lava flows had erupted across Halema‘uma‘u crater floor and overflowed onto the down-dropped block area to the east. Lava flows covered 650 acres (1 square mile or 2.6 square kilometers), which is about one quarter of the entire caldera floor of Kaluapele. Large glowing bombs, pumice, and Peleʻs hair were deposited downwind of Halemaʻumaʻu during the peak of the eruption. Fountaining decreased abruptly at 3:30 p.m. yesterday and had ceased by 4:00 p.m. Drainback of lava into the original vents began soon after fountaining stopped and continued through the night. Drainback reversed around 8 a.m. this morning, December 24, and low-level eruption of sluggish lava occurred from several of yesterday’s vents. Fountains began increasing in vigor around 11:00 a.m., signaling the onset of a second episode of this eruption. Breakouts of red lava are also visible on the surface of the lava lake as it continues to circulate. 

View the Kīlauea summit eruption livestream: https://www.youtube.com/usgs/live 

December 23, 2024, Kīlauea summit eruption reference map: December 23, 2024—Kīlauea summit eruption reference map | U.S. Geological Survey 

Rift Zone Observations:  Shallow earthquake counts in the upper and middle East Rift Zone (ERZ) remain at low levels. Over the last 24 hours, there was 1 recorded earthquake in the middle ERZ, 1 in the upper ERZ, and 7 in the Southwest Rift Zone (SWRZ); all were below magnitude-2.0. The ESC tiltmeter on the upper part of the ERZ shows deformation associated with the active eruption. Deformation rates remain low in the middle and lower ERZ and SWRZ as recorded by GPS instruments and tiltmeters.  A problem with camera data resulted in the S2 Nāpau Crater camera to display alternating images of Nāpau Crater and Halemaʻumaʻu Crater on the S2 Nāpau Crater camera page. There is no eruptive activity at Napua Crater and the camera has been taken offline until the problem is corrected. 

Analysis: The current eruption at the summit of Kīlauea is the sixth eruption within the caldera since 2020. These eruptions in the summit region have lasted for about a week to more than a year in duration. This eruption, like most others, started with vigorous lava and volcanic gas effusion, which continued to decrease throughout yesterday, December 23, until the eruption paused around 4:00 p.m. Renewed, low-level eruption of sluggish lava that began around 8 a.m. this morning, and around 11:00 a.m. today more gas-rich lava began reaching the surface causing fountaining to become more vigorous. Increased fountaining accompanied by increasing tremor and the resumption of summit deflation mark the onset of a second eruptive episode. Repressurization of the summit appears to be forcing, degassed lava that drained back into the vents last night back to the surface. 

HVO continues to closely monitor Kīlauea and is in contact with Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park and the Hawai‘i County Civil Defense Agency.  

Please see the Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park website for visitor information: https://www.nps.gov/havo/index.htm. 

Hazards: The eruption is occurring within a closed area of Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park. High levels of volcanic gas—primarily water vapor (H2O), carbon dioxide (CO2), and sulfur dioxide (SO2)—are the primary hazard of concern, as this hazard can have far-reaching effects down-wind. As SO2 is continuously released from the summit during the eruption, it will react in the atmosphere to create the visible haze known as vog (volcanic smog) downwind of Kīlauea. Vog information can be found at https://vog.ivhhn.org/.  

Hawaiian lava flows generally advance slowly downslope and are currently confined to Halemaʻumaʻu and the eastern part of Kīlauea caldera. Additional hazards include Pele's hair and other volcanic fragments from the lava fountains that will fall downwind of the fissure vents and land on the ground within a few hundred meters (yards) of the vent (s), or on the rim of the caldera west of the erupting vents. Strong winds may waft lighter particles to greater distances downwind. Residents and visitors should minimize exposure to these volcanic particles, which can cause skin and eye irritation.  

Other significant hazards also remain around Kīlauea caldera from Halemaʻumaʻu crater wall instability, ground cracking, and rockfalls that can be enhanced by earthquakes within the area closed to the public. This underscores the extremely hazardous nature of Kīlauea caldera rim surrounding Halemaʻumaʻu crater, an area that has been closed to the public since late 2007.  
 
For discussion of Kīlauea hazards, please see: https://www.usgs.gov/observatories/hawaiian-volcano-observatory/hazards.