Kīlauea volcano briefly erupted Sunday evening, September 15, 2024, in the middle East Rift Zone in Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park, according to a new update from the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory at 11:33 a.m. The Volcano Alert Level for ground-based hazards currently remains at WATCH and the Aviation Color Code remains at ORANGE. Seismicity and ground deformation rates beneath the summit, lower East Rift Zone, and Southwest Rift Zone remain low. Current activity is confined to Kīlauea’s upper to middle East Rift Zone.
The brief eruption occurred just west of Nāpau Crater in the mid-eastern rift zone. “This eruption, which is now over, likely occurred between approximately 9 and 10 p.m. HST on Sunday, April 15, 2024, in a remote and closed area of Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park. The closed Chain of Craters Road is downslope and downwind of the new fissures. Continued degassing of the fissure system may pose a hazard to people downwind of the eruption site. The eruption does not currently pose an immediate threat to human life or infrastructure,” the HVO said in an updated activity report.
The HVO reports: The eruption occurred near the Nāpau campground in the national park (east of Kānenuiohamo and Makaopuhi craters and west of Nāpau crater). Small lava cushions erupted from two fissure segments a few hundred meters apart. The lava extended about 50 meters from the fissure openings, with the upward-facing fissure segment larger than the downward-facing fissure segment. The eruption does not appear to have affected the Nāpau campground, but may have partially covered the nearby Pulu (Hawaiian tree fern) station. Vegetation in the eruption area was burned, and sulfur dioxide continues to vent from the vents. Residents of nearby settlements reported smelling volcanic gases and other odors associated with the event on the evening of September 15.
According to HVO, numerous eruptions occurred in the 1960s and 1970s in the Kīlauea rift zone in the Middle East. Most of these eruptions occurred between Hiʻiaka crater and Puʻuʻōʻō and lasted from less than a day to about two weeks, although there were also long-lasting eruptions at Maunaulu (1969–1971 and 1972–1974) and Puʻuʻōʻō (1983–2018), scientists said.
Hazards also remain around Kīlauea Caldera from instability of the Halemaʻumaʻu crater walls, ground cracks, and rockfalls, which can be amplified by earthquakes in the area closed to the public. According to HVO, this underscores the extremely dangerous nature of the rim around Halemaʻumaʻu crater, an area that has been closed to the public since early 2008.
