USGS: “Lava lake activity continues in Halema‘uma‘u, at the summit of Kīlauea. In recent days islands of solidified lava have migrated across the lake surface.” (USGS photo by M. Patrick)

(BIVN) – The eruption of Kīlauea continues at the summit, with all activity confined to the crater. The Volcano Alert Level remains at WATCH.

There were some minor changes to the active lava lake in Halemaʻumaʻu over the last few days. From the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory:

Activity in the large eastern lava lake began to crust over yesterday morning and formed an isthmus of crust through the center of the lake with two smaller patches of lava on the north and south sides by yesterday afternoon. Combined, the two active areas in the eastern lake were roughly half of the 25 acre size measured on Jan 17, and each showed independent and opposite surface convection directions from the levees towards the isthmus/former center of lake. The lava fountain in the eastern lake (southern part) disappeared for roughly 45 minutes at 11:15 pm HST last night, but returned at midnight. By 1 am HST, the lava surface from the southern part of the eastern lake was flooding across the total eastern lake area bounded by levees, covering the lava crust isthmus and returning to most of the original 25 acre size by 4 am HST this morning. The eastern lake remains stable and has returned to a single lake surface at the time of this post. The smaller western lake in the basin of the 2021–2022 lava lake as well as the two smaller lava ponds remained unchanged through all of this activity yesterday, however one of the smaller ponds (closest to the eastern lake) produced an overflow during the 30 minutes prior to this post.

Scientists say a sulfur dioxide (SO2) emission rate of approximately 3,000 tonnes per day (t/d) was measured on January 20, 2023. The USGS says no unusual activity has been noted along the East Rift Zone or Southwest Rift Zone.