USGS Volcano Notice - DOI-USGS-HVO-2024-12-26T18:46:06+00:00

Activity Summary:  The eruption at Kīlauea volcano that began on Monday, December 23, paused for a second time yesterday morning.  Vigorous lava fountains diminished around 11 a.m., with only weak bubbling and drainback present afterwards. Inflation of the summit following the shutdown indicates that a resumption in activity is possible in the coming days, but not certain.  Eruptive activity has been confined to Halemaʻumaʻu and the downdropped block within the caldera. 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 just 3 small earthquakes. Seismic tremor diminished yesterday morning around 11 a.m. as fountaining shut down. Summit tiltmeters have recorded inflationary tilt since the shutdown of eruptive activity. SO2 emissions remain elevated, with a gas plume rising above the caldera this morning, but outgassing vigor decreased greatly with the shutdown of fountaining yesterday morning. 

Summit Eruption Observations:  Webcam images indicate that the eruption within Kaluapele (the summit caldera) paused yesterday morning around 11 a.m., with an abrupt decrease in lava fountaining from vents on the southwest side of Halemaʻumaʻu crater. HVO geologists in the field yesterday morning observed residual, low level spattering and lava draining back into the vent following the shutdown. Yesterday morning, lava flows were spreading across the Halema‘uma‘u crater floor, but these flows stagnated once vent activity shut down. Drainback into the vent followed the shutdown in activity but ceased around 5 p.m. yesterday. This morning, webcam images show that major effusion is still paused, with only very tiny spattering at one vent that produced a very small lava flow around the vent.    

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 were three small earthquakes recorded in the upper ERZ, one in the middle ERZ, and two in the lower ERZ. The ESC tiltmeter on the upper part of the ERZ shows deformation associated with the recent eruption. Deformation rates remain low in the middle and lower ERZ and SWRZ as recorded by GPS instruments and tiltmeters.   

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 emission, but has paused twice. Inflation at the summit, which began at the time of the vent shutdown, indicates that a resumption in eruptive activity is possible in the coming days, but not certain. Previous summit eruptions have exhibited vigorous activity in the opening days which then either terminates or decreases significantly to a stable, lower level of eruptive activity.   

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.