Hawaiian Volcano Update: Kīlauea Filling Quietly as Maunaloa Anniversary Upcoming, November 21, 2024

Another week passes on Kīlauea as the volcano quietly refills its magma reservoirs in the Upper and Middle East Rift without many earthquakes. Ground tilt shows another mild pulse of inflation reaching the area of the recent eruption around Nāpau crater earlier in the week, which has since stabilized even as a new pulse may be starting at the summit. GPS data indicate continued long-term uplift in the area as magma continues to feed and fill underground. Gas emissions are below detection at the eruption site, but from the summit are present at low levels, around the volcanic background at 60 tonnes of SO2 per day. Volcanic gas is currently the greatest volcanic threat to people, especially those with respiratory sensitivities. 

As Maunaloa approaches its 2-year eruption anniversary next week, the volcano is also quietly refilling, following the same general pattern since the start of 2023. In commemoration of the milestone, we dive into the pre-eruption outreach and the opening phases of the 2022 eruption, at the summit and near the uppermost Southwest Rift. We incorporate new findings since the eruption as we retrace the key events of the sequence, which better informs us what to look for ahead of Maunaloa’s next eruption on our modern-day monitoring network. In particular, the shallow tilt signal at Mokūʻaweoweo crater, combined with synchronous quakes both northwest and beneath the summit (versus alternating clusters which preceded the escalation), and with an increase in seismic velocity in the final month before the eruption. Keying on these signals may allow us to better anticipate future eruptions and keep our island communities safe.

As usual, we summarize the monitoring signals, imagery, and reports available courtesy of the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, annotating the presentation on screen as we go and discussing live viewer questions.