Kīlauea Eruption Update: West Vent Breakout

Activity within Kīlauea's summit crater appears to have normalized, with its eruption rate returning to the long-term trend, complete with fluctuations in lava level within the active lake. This remains a great time for public viewing, continuing a long period of no increased volcanic threat to people. Most of the magma coming from depth continues to be injected beneath the hardened crust making up the majority of the crater floor, uplifting it, and this past week built enough pressure to drive a large new breakout on the southern side of the West Vent complex. The resulting massive lava flow filled much of the southwest perimeter of the crater floor, and was partly visible to visitors within Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park, along with other vents spattering and producing lava flows that streamed down into the main lake. We share video and a series of time-lapse animations illustrating these views and changes, along with USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory webcams, monitoring data and reports, annotating the graphics with an on-screen pen. As usual, we also discuss live viewer questions This program is brought to you in part by a grant from the Hawaiʻi Island Strong Fund of the Hawaiʻi Community Foundation in partnership with the County of Hawaiʻi, and from donations from viewers like you. https://youtu.be/aaNz7NFdcx4