During 24-31 March, HVO reported that lava flowed SE from underneath Kilauea’s Thanksgiving Eve Breakout (TEB) and rootless shield complex through a lava tube system, reaching the Waikupanaha and Kupapa’u ocean entries. Daily thermal anomalies seen on satellite imagery suggested surface flows on the coastal plain.
The vent in Halema’uma’u crater continued to produce a predominantly white plume that drifted mainly SW. Incandescence was intermittently seen from the vent, and sounds resembling rushing gas were sometimes heard in the vicinity of the crater. Variable amounts of tephra and some Pele’s hair were retrieved almost daily from collection bins placed near the plume. On 24 March, a dusty brown plume rose from the vent. Geologists utilizing an infrared camera saw at least two spattering openings deep below the vent rim. On 25 March, two more brown plumes were emitted. A larger collapse was followed by a large, dense, brown plume, and several more brown plumes over the next two hours. The rockfalls within the vent covered the previously seen hot vents. During 26-28 March, infrared camera views revealed a rising and falling lava surface deep below the crater floor. The lava surface was static, but circulating on 29 March. The sulfur dioxide emission rate at the summit was 500, 900, and 1,000 tonnes per day on 25, 26, and 30 March, respectively; the 2003-2007 average rate was 140 tonnes per day.
Source: US Geological Survey Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) – “Reports provided courtesy of the Smithsonian’s Global Volcanism Program and the US Geological Survey’s Volcano Hazards Program.”
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