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Episode 39 of the ongoing Halemaʻumaʻu eruption at the summit of Kīlauea volcano began on December 23, 2025, at approximately 8:20 p.m. and ended abruptly at 2:13 a.m. HST on December 24, 2025, after about 6 hours of continuous fountaining. USGS photograph by Lis Gallant. 

The lava fountains that erupted during episode 39 at the summit of Kīlauea were visible through the rain and mist around 10 p.m. HST on December 23. This episode was actively erupting for just about 6 hours from December 23-24, 2025. USGS photo. 

Kīlauea began its 39th lava fountaining episode the night of December 23, one year to the day from when this eruption began. This view was taken from the publicly accessible viewing area on Crater Rim Drive near Keanakākoi Overlook within Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park.

It's been one year since a unique episodic lava fountaining eruption began at Kīlauea’s summit on December 23, 2024—a style of activity not seen in nearly 40 years! Over the past 12 months, Halemaʻumaʻu crater has hosted 38 eruptive episodes, each lasting from a few hours to more than a week, separated by quiet pauses.

This map shows thickness values for lava flows within Halema‘uma‘u crater from the Kīlauea summit eruption that began on December 23, 2024. These values were calculated by topographic differencing between a digital elevation model collected on December 9, 2025—after eruptive episode 38—and one from before the eruption began.

Photo compilation of the 38 lava fountaining episodes that occurred the first year of the ongoing eruption at the summit of Kīlauea. The eruption started on December 23, 2024, and the eruption continues: episode 39 is expected soon.