Kīlauea Weekly Report, July 13, 2021: Summit Filling Continues Underground

Small earthquakes flurried this past week under Kīlauea’s summit and nearby upper east rift connector, but the volcano remains within the range of slightly elevated background despite registering over 400 events within the past 4 days. In other signals, the ground continues to swell with increasing tilt and cross-caldera spreading more easily visible on monitoring data. This week’s USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory update is largely unchanged from last week’s, but notes a new SO2 gas measurement of 70 tonnes per day on July 6th (unalarming, a slight drop of minor significance) and continues to report “that the inflation center may have shifted slightly to the southern part of the caldera.” While “seismicity has slowly increased in recent weeks in the summit region,” USGS-HVO offers the context that “it has not yet reached levels seen immediately prior to the December 2020 eruption.” Rather, our analysis suggests that current earthquake rates and patterns compare more closely to the build-up to that most recent eruption, resembling the elevated seismic background between September and November 2020. Once again, the weekly signs point to continued filling of the summit and near-summit magma reservoirs, with no sign of imminent change in activity or hazard. The next volcanic chapter at Kīlauea continues to slowly develop, as island residents are thankful for the fresher air. #Kilauea2021 Join our weekly live video review of Kīlauea and Maunaloa volcanoes, at 5pm Hawaiʻi time Thursdays! To support our productions please like, share and subscribe! Mahalo! Images: 1. USGS-HVO scientists continue to survey Kīlauea for changes using a laser rangefinder. Photo: M. Patrick, USGS-HVO, on July 9, 2021. 2. USGS map of earthquakes on Kīlauea over the past week. 3. USGS plot of GPS cross-caldera distance at Kīlauea summit over the past year.