Kīlauea Weekly Report: June 1, 2021

A full week of quiescence elapses on Kīlauea volcano, with the last lava visible on May 23, 2021, 155 days after the onset of the eruption on December 20, 2020. The hardened surface of the lava lake continues to cool, with a few persistent hotter areas still visible on the USGS-HVO webcams, “although at temperatures well below those associated with molten lava” according to their latest update. Pressure continues to build within the volcano as evidenced by the slowly rising tilt and slight increase in earthquakes and ground tremor, with “slight, oscillating deflation-inflation cycles over the past week,” but no signs of escalating volcanic activity are evident. A possibility of reactivation still exists in the few months ahead, but if so, there are no indications of it yet. Instead, sulfur dioxide gas measurements of 50 tonnes per day (t/d) set new 2021 lows on May 26th and 28th. While emissions from 2018-2020 were slightly lower (30-35 t/d), the presence of inflowing groundwater is believed to have absorbed some of the volcano’s gas emissions during that era. All in all, it is a quiet start to the next chapter of Kīlauea’s story. The image, a USGS map of Halema‘uma‘u at Kīlauea’s summit, “shows that the lava lake filled 229 m (752 ft) of the crater, to an elevation of 747 m (2450 ft) asl, from the beginning of the eruption on December 20, 2020, through May 13, 2021. Over this period, a total of 41 million cubic meters (11 billion gallons) of lava was erupted into the crater, filling approximately 5 percent of the volume that collapsed within the caldera during the 2018 eruption.” “The graphic at the bottom shows topographic profiles from west to east across the caldera before 2018, shortly after 2018, and as of May 13, 2021, along with the 2019-2020 Halema‘uma‘u water lake.” #Kilauea2021 Join our weekly live video review of Kīlauea and Maunaloa volcanoes! As of June 2021, broadcast at 5pm HST Thursdays and archived, along with short video updates, on this channel - including monitoring signals, photos & videos, time-lapses, geologic context and annotation, and discussion of live viewer questions.