Volcano Minute — Fifty lava fountains: Hawaii Five-O

Aloha, it's your weekly Volcano Minute, brought to you by the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.

Last Saturday, June 27^th, marked a golden milestone—Hawaii’s 50th lava fountaining episode in the ongoing Halemaʻumaʻu eruption at Kīlauea’s summit.

The north vent sent a lava fountain soaring to 1,030 feet into the air—its tallest display since episode 43—thrilling visitors in Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park and thousands watching the USGS Kīlauea livestreaming cameras online. Beautiful weather and helpful winds kept most of the tephra drifting into remote areas of the National Park, with just a light dusting of Pele’s hair reaching Pāhala, 18 miles away.

It took Kīlauea just 551 days to deliver these 50 fountaining episodes—averaging about one every 11 days—and ranging from just a few hours to nearly six days long. Thirty-two of these episodes featured double fountains, a rarity in Hawaiian eruptions.

The south vent has taken 19 episodes off during this eruption, but it holds this eruption’s height record at 1,770 feet. That’s shy of Kīlauea Iki’s 1,900‑foot fountain that erupted in 1959.

The north vent has erupted a lava fountain in all but one of the episodes, and it’s the early bird—kicking off 90 percent of the precursory activity that signals that onset of each new episode. 

What comes next? Will the south vent fountain again? Could Kīlauea break its fountain height record? And how long will this eruption continue? Stay tuned—because every episode brings new observations…and scientists at the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory are keeping a close eye. 

Since the end of episode 50, Kīlauea summit region has shown inflationary ground tilt and models currently indicate that episode 51 of lava fountaining could occur between July 8^th and 15^th. 

Mahalo for listening, I’m Katie Mulliken and this was your weekly volcano minute brought to you by the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.