Inflation caused Kilauea’s summit lava lake to again spill briefly onto the floor of Halema‘uma‘u Crater early Friday afternoon. ADVERTISING Inflation caused Kilauea’s summit lava lake to again spill briefly onto the floor of Halema‘uma‘u Crater early Friday afternoon. The
Inflation caused Kilauea’s summit lava lake to again spill briefly onto the floor of Halema‘uma‘u Crater early Friday afternoon.
The overflow of the Overlook vent rim was small, according to Janet Babb, a geologist and Hawaiian Volcano Observatory spokeswoman.
“But since then, the lake dropped again. This is very typical because the level fluctuates. It rises or falls plus or minus 1 or 2 meters,” Babb said at mid-afternoon Friday. “It has to do with whether or not the lake is spattering. If the lake is vigorously spattering, the level drops, and if the spattering decreases, then the level begins to rise.”
The spatter, Babb said, is caused by a release of gases in the lava.
There had been periodic overflows of the lava lake at the Overlook vent onto the Halema‘uma‘u Crater floor starting Tuesday evening and going through Wednesday. That changed with a deflationary episode at about 4 a.m. Thursday, according to daily updates on the HVO website. The inflation began again at about 8 p.m. Thursday, according to Friday morning’s posting.
According to HVO scientists, the rim of the Overlook crater has been built up a few meters above the floor of Halema‘uma‘u Crater by the recent overflows. Thursday’s measurement found the lava about 4 meters below the Overlook crater rim.
On Friday morning, the lava lake level was slightly higher and very close to the rim of the Overlook crater, with increased seismic activity beneath Kilauea’s summit and upper East and Southwest rift zones.
The rise of the lava lake at the summit of the world’s most active volcano has created a spectacle, especially at night, resulting in thousands of additional visitors to viewing areas in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.
Instruments on the north flank of Pu‘u ‘O‘o vent also recorded inflation during the past day on Friday morning, but no noticeable changes at Pu‘u ‘O‘o, the source of the June 27 lava flow, still active, that for months menaced the Pahoa area.
For updated information, visit hvo.wr.usgs.gov.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
