Kilauea Volcano in Temporary Lull

Photo credit: USGS/Zuma Wire

Kilauea is quiet...for now

Hawaii's Kilauea Volcano, which erupted explosively on May 17, 2018, has gone quiet. The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory reports that no summit collapse events have occurred since August 2. Such collapse events often generate seismic activity around the summit and the surrounding region and can signify large scale magma movement. Even more importantly, officials said, "with the exception of a small, crusted-over pond of lava deep inside the fissure 8 cone and a few scattered ocean entries, lava stopped flowing in the lower East Rift Zone (LERZ) on August 6."

The initial explosion and subsequent lava flow caused the closure of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, damaged Hawaii's largest freshwater lake, and resulted in the evacuation and destruction of housing subdivisions Leilani Estates, Lanipuna Gardens, Vacationland Hawaii and the vast majority of houses in the Kapoho Beach Lots. Lava also poured into Kapoho Bay and generated new land nearly a mile into the sea. All told, Kilauea has destroyed over 700 homes.

Scientists from the Volcano Observatory say that the earthquake and deformation data show no net accumulation, withdrawal, or significant movement of subsurface magma or pressurization as would be expected if the system was building toward a resumption of activity. It is too soon to tell if this change represents a temporary lull or the end of the eruption and summit collapse activity as similar pauses occurred in the 1955 eruption, and even longer pauses were seen during the 1969-1974 eruption.

Recommendations for Contact Centers

ContactRelief has maintained an alert and a recommendation to suspend contact for the area impacted by the Kilauea lava flow since May 17. Now that the extent of the lava flow and resulting damage is stable and known, we are recommending resumption of contact. Although all residents in the areas destroyed by the lava flow have had time to seek new housing and make direct contact with their financial institutions, we caution that these consumers where severely impacted and will not fully recover for some time. We will maintain our alert on Kilauea through Sunday, August 19th and expire the alert if no new significant activity is detected.

The ContactRelief Disaster Decision Team will continue to monitor the volcanic activity and issue additional advisories as warranted.

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