USGS webcam image of the west vent in Halemaʻumaʻu and the crater lava lake from January 16 at 9:46 a.m.

(BIVN) – The summit eruption of Kīlauea Volcano has paused, once again.

“Lava has ceased erupting from the western vent within Halemaʻumaʻu crater,” wrote scientists with the USGS Hawaiian Volcano observatory in a Sunday update. “The lava lake surface level has dropped about 10 meters (33 feet) since the pause began yesterday afternoon.”

From the Sunday update:

Summit tiltmeters began recording a strong deflationary trend at about 2:15 p.m. yesterday, January 15, accompanied by drops in tremor and lava lake surface level. Similar pauses in recent weeks have ranged in duration from 1 to 3 days. A flurry of small-magnitude earthquakes recorded at the summit during recent days, at depths ranging from about 10–14 km (6–9 miles) below sea level, continues.

No unusual activity has been noted in the Kīlauea East Rift Zone, HVO says. Low rates of ground deformation and seismicity continue along the East Rift Zone, and along the Southwest Rift Zone. All recent lava activity has been confined to the crater within Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park.