A brief overflow of Kīlauea's summit lava lake on Oct. 16

On Saturday, October 15, Kīlauea Volcano's summit lava lake overflowed the vent rim between 1:00 and 2:00 p.m., and again around 6:30 p.m., HST. In this image, captured by HVO's K2 webcam, you can see small spill-overs (shiny black lava) on the east (far left) and west (right) sides of the vent rim.

In recent weeks, the lava lake level has been rising and falling in concert with summit inflation and deflation (DI-events), with the lake surface often in view of Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park overlooks. On September 22, the lake level rose to within 10 m (33 ft) of the vent rim, the highest level reached since the previous lake overflow in April-May 2015. Since then, the lake level has risen and fallen with multiple DI-events.

A switch to summit inflation on October 13 led to Saturday's brief overflow, which was soon followed by a return to summit deflation and a drop in the lake level. As of this morning, October 17, the summit lava lake level was 17 m (56 ft) below the vent rim.