Kīlauea Eruption Update: Rising Lake, Changing Dynamics, October 21, 2021

Kīlauea's eruption continues to put on a show for visitors to Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park, while monitoring data, observations and reports suggest a new phase of summit inflation. We first share recent in-house video filmed from public overlooks while answering common lava viewing questions, referencing images, monitoring data and reports courtesy of the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. We consider whether the changing deformation data may result from vents submerging below the half-crusted, but still-rising lava lake within Halemaʻumaʻu crater, or from magma shifting underground, including island seismicity, gas output, and public impact, including our own production and analysis of longer time-lapse animations compiled from USGS-HVO webcams. As usual, we discuss live viewer questions as we go and between segments, and review new USGS video and photos, as well as this week's Volcano Watch article focused on giant landslides and mega-tsunami on La Palma in the Canary Islands. We follow up briefly with previous USGS articles about catastrophic parallels in Hawaiʻi, before wrapping with a final discussion. The eruption still poses no direct threat to people apart from its gas and particulates, shifting our focus to the observed processes and their context in volcano science. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cydoUgZnr1E