The eruption at Kilauea started again on Tuesday at 7:30 a.m. — six days after it paused, according to the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. But on Wednesday at 10:37 a.m., the eruption stopped.
This marks the 12th episode in the eruption that began on Dec. 23, 2024. Before this, there have been 11 episodes of lava fountaining separated by pauses in activity.
Episode 12 started on Tuesday morning with intermittent, sluggish lava flows from the south vent within Halemaumau Caldera, which lasted for about 20 minutes. About two hours later, similarly sluggish flows started to erupt from the north vent and lasted for about 12 minutes. HVO said small fountains within the south vent fed a third small flow beginning at about 12:45 p.m., which lasted until 2 p.m., when continuous fountaining began at the north vent. Fountains from the north vent were about 30 feet high at the start. By 3 p.m., fountains reached heights of 600 feet. These heights were sustained until the north vent stopped erupting at 8:26 p.m. Fountains from the south vent continued with heights of 200-400 feet until the next morning at 5 a.m. Fountaining from the south vent increased again around 8 a.m., and the north vent briefly resumed fountaining and erupting lava flows from 8:42 to 9:11 a.m. On Wednesday, fountaining from the south vent stopped at 10:35 a.m. at the same time summit deflation changed to inflation and tremor decreased, marking the end of episode 12, according to HVO. Lava flows from episode 12 covered over two thirds of the floor of Halemaumau.
The current eruption is marked by episodic fountaining from two vents within Halemaumau, which has not been seen in any of the other Halemaumau eruptions since 2020. The duration of each of the 11 previous fountaining episodes varied from a few hours to over a week. Each fountaining episode has been accompanied by a deflation of the summit region. Pauses between the fountaining episodes have been marked by an immediate change from deflation to inflation as the magma chamber recharges and repressurizes.
Hazards include volcanic gas emissions (vog) and windblown volcanic glass (Pele’s hair). The Hawaii Department of Health advised residents to check air quality levels on the Clean Air Branch website and the Hawai‘i Interagency Vog Information Dashboard.
Michelle Broder Van Dyke covers the Hawaiian Islands for Spectrum News Hawaii. Email her at michelle.brodervandyke@charter.com.
Editor's note: This story has been updated with additional information from HVO. (March 5, 2025)
